Last month, we focused on this truth: healthy disciples are everyday missionaries. If you haven’t already, read it here: Link
We were reminded that spiritual health is not measured by Sunday attendance, but by whether disciples are being formed to live sent: walking in holiness and making disciples where God is sending and/or has already placed them.
This month, we take the next logical step in understanding what it means to be a spiritually healthy, missional people as Methodists. For healthy disciples to live sent, it requires healthy churches to have the mindset and structure to send.
Spiritually healthy churches are sending churches, and a sending church values the Kingdom far more than its own castle. This means your congregation matters. Not because of tradition or family history or a place to play out religious preferences; it matters because God has placed it where it is for a purpose - for He has saved you for a purpose! “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
A sending church values Kingdom expansion over institutional preservation. It is a congregation that is spiritually discerning, missionally alert, and courageously releasing. A church of this kind celebrates sending as much as it celebrates saving, because how will one hear the Gospel if no one is sent to share it? (Rom. 10:13-15)
So, we must ask different questions.
Instead of:
● How do we grow attendance?
● How do we get more participation in our programs?
We must ask:
● Who are we sending?
● Who are we equipping to lead?
● How can we better help the congregation hear the Holy Spirit? And how might we propel them as they obey Him? (This last question can be difficult because it requires spiritual leadership who surrender preference and control to the Lord.)
If our scorecards only track attendance, participation, and budgets, we will naturally prioritize gathering (and, ultimately, control). But what if we measured obedience, disciple-making, leaders raised up, and people sent?
Friends, look at the world. God isn't intimidated or worried - He sees a harvest that is ripe! In fact, Jesus saves and sanctifies us and sends us out into the fields. However, if we continue to allow our methods to placate the passive and keep His workers comfortable and contained in the barn, the harvest will rot.
I encourage you to gather your leadership and ask: What does our scorecard look like? What is one step of obedience the Holy Spirit is prompting us to take?
As we move toward 2030, our aim should not be to simply grow the attendance of the congregations but have healthier ones - congregations where everyday missionaries are formed and where healthy churches send them boldly. Because a Conference where every disciple makes a disciple is a Conference where churches will plant churches - a Conference where Every Church Plants.
