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Read Becoming a Purpose Driven Church, Part Two

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DISCIPLESHIP

Becoming a Purpose Driven Church, Part One

By Rick Warren
Pastors.com

CBN.com -- Jon Walker: Youre known for saying that pastors need to be more lost centered, that is, looking at their church from the perspective of someone who doesnt go to church. Could you elaborate on that?

Rick Warren: The most overlooked principle for church growth is we have to love people the way Jesus did. Thats it! The motive behind everything weve done at Saddleback is that we love and care about lost people. The reason Jesus attracted such large crowds is because He loved people. On the other hand, Ive heard churches justify their lack of growth by saying, Were small because we havent watered down the gospel. But maybe the real reason they dont have a crowd is because they don't want a crowd! They love their own comfort more than they love lost people.

To reach unbelievers you have to move outside your own comfort zone and do things that often feel awkward and uncomfortable to you. It takes unselfish people to grow a church. Lost people have a lot of problems and their lives are messy. Its not by accident that Jesus compared evangelism to fishing. Fishing is often messy and smelly. So many churches want the fish they catch to be prescaled, gutted, cleaned and cooked. Thats why they never reach anyone.

If your church is serious about reaching the unchurched, you must be willing to put up with people who have a lot of problems. The secret of reaching unbelievers is learning to think like an unbeliever. But the problem is the longer youre a Christian, the less you think like an unbeliever. And if youre a seminary-trained pastor, youre even more removed from unbelievers. You think like a pastor, not a pagan. So you have to intentionally learn to think like an unbeliever again.

Paul says, I become all things to all men so I may, in some way, win some. What he meant was he let his target determine his approach. When with Jews, he communicated like a Jew. When he was with Gentiles, he communicated like a Gentile. Im sure if Paul came to Southern California, hed learn to communicate in Southern Californian terms.

Some people think that communicating differently in different cultures is just being a chameleon, but actually it means you're being strategic. You dont compromise the message. That message is, the faith once delivered for the saints, and we dont have an option to change the message.

But the methods of sharing it have to change with every new generation and location. The programs and tools we used when I was a youth pastor in inner city LA were different from those used as a short termed missionary in Japan, and those methods were different from what were doing now at Saddleback.

There is no ONE WAY to grow a church! It takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. If youre getting the job done lives are being changed then I like the way youre doing it, whether or not its my style of ministry.

Walker: In other words, youre not interested in Saddleback clones.

Warren: Absolutely not! Not one of the dozens of mission churches weve planted is doing it exactly like us. We believe every church must have its own unique thumbprint. Thats what The Purpose Driven Church is all about.

If a principle is biblical, I believe it is transcultural. In other words, it will work anywhere. But you must filter those principles through the culture of the community, the makeup of the congregation, and the personality of the pastor.

Purpose driven churches are all committed to the same five New Testament purposes of the church but these congregations come in all sizes, shapes, and cultures. Gods purposes for the church never change, but the programs and methods do. Look around and its obvious that God loves variety. He loves to do things in more than one way!

Walker: What about prayer and dedication? Is the growth of a church based upon the pastors commitment?

Warren: Its a myth that all you need is prayer and dedication to grow a healthy church. Some of the most dedicated prayer warriors I know are pastors of dying churches. It really bothers me that some pastors' conferences promote that myth - leaving pastors feeling discouraged and guilty instead of encouraged. Weve all heard speakers claim, If youll just pray more, preach the word, and be dedicated, then your church will grow. Well, thats just not true. I can show you thousands of churches where pastors are doctrinally sound; they love the Lord; theyre committed and spirit-filled and yet their churches are dying on the vine.

For instance, in my own denomination about 70% of the churches are either plateaued or declining. Is that because 70% of our pastors are not dedicated? Of course not. Its a complete myth. If dedication is all that is needed to grow a church, 99% of our churches should be growing today, because most pastors are genuinely dedicated.

But growing a healthy church is not that easy or simple. It involves many different factors and requires certain leadership skills. Anytime you hear a person say, This it the one way to growth, you can be sure theyre wrong because there are many keys to growth.

Thats why I'm convinced that the key issue for our congregations in the 21st century is church health - not church growth. Focusing on church growth is the wrong focus. If well focus on developing healthy churches, they will grow automatically.

All living things grow if they are healthy! I dont have to tell my kids to grow. They do it automatically. Now, what makes a healthy church? The answer is balance, just like in the human body. Your body has a number of different systems: a circulatory system, a skeletal system, respiratory system, central nervous system, digestive system and others. When these systems are in balance we call that health. When they are out of balance, we call it, dis-ease, disease.

Likewise the Body of Christ, the church, is made up of different systems, each fulfilling a different purpose: for worship, fellowship, evangelism, discipleship, and ministry. When you have a healthy system or process for each of these purposes, and these systems are balanced, the church naturally grows!

But heres the catch: unless you set up an intentional strategy and structure to insure balance between the five purposes of the church, then your church will tend to over emphasize the purpose the pastor feels most passionate about.

If he has a heart for evangelism, the church may reach lots of people, but nobody grows up in the faith.

If he has a gift of teaching, the church will develop mature believers, but will tend to neglect winning the lost.

If he has pastoral gifts, the church will have great fellowship and care, but the churchs ministry to the community will suffer or there will be little evangelism.

You must set up a purpose driven structure that allows the church to become more than just an extension of its pastor. Every church is driven by something: tradition, programs, finances, events, seekers, and even buildings. But to be healthy, it must become purpose driven.

They need a strategy that will help them grow warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship, stronger through worship, broader through ministry and larger through evangelism.

Sadly, many churches are personality driven. This puts the congregation in a very precarious position if the leader dies, moves, or has a moral failure. At Saddleback weve built the church on purpose, not personality. If I were to die right now, wed lose maybe 10% of the fringe people who come to hear me, but that would still leave 90% of the other people to attend each week. No church is perfect but you can be healthy without being perfect.

Read Becoming a Purpose Driven Church, Part Two

If youd like to know more about this, please read my book, The Purpose Driven Church (order your copy at Shop CBN).

This article originally appeared in Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox, a free, email newsletter available from pastors.com. Used by permission.

The Ministry ToolBox is for ANYONE serving Jesus Christ. For a free subscription, you can sign up at www.pastors.com.


Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA., a congregation that now averages 16,000 in attendance each weekend. Rick is also author of "The Purpose Driven Church," and founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for those in ministry. You may reprint this article in your publication with the following attribution: From Rick Warren's Ministry ToolBox, a free weekly e-newsletter for those in ministry, www.pastors.com.

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