John Sweetman
Church life is constantly changing. In this series I am discussing some diverse trends that I have noticed in evangelical churches in Queensland over recent years.
These comments are purely personal observations. They come from my interaction with pastors, students and churches as well as my reading, but they are only personal impressions and are not necessarily supported by objective evidence. So feel free to disagree. Your experience will be different from mine. While I have opinions on many of these trends, in these articles I am attempting to observe not critique.
1. Churches and pastors are beginning to think kingdom more than church.
Two recent, influential Christian movements have been the church growth movement and the church health movement. The church growth movement researched the factors that caused churches to grow numerically and offered them as principles for growing the local church. The church health movement (that followed) argued that health, not growth, was the important issue for churches, but the thinking was that good health would almost inevitably produce growth.
Both of these movements suggested ways in which the church could more effectively minister and grow. They viewed the strength of the church as being the measure of our effectiveness for God. Everything revolved around the local church.
This fixation on the local church is beginning to diminish. Many church leaders are now thinking “kingdom” more than “church.” The kingdom is about the movement of God to assert his rule in this world. It involves loving and serving the community, standing for justice, doing what is good in the workplace, and caring for our world, as well as growing in Christ and evangelising our friends.
In other words, kingdom effectiveness goes well beyond what is helpful for the local church. A church could be heavily involved in kingdom ministry without necessarily seeing growth or even health. The ministry of Jesus could be seen as an example of effective kingdom ministry (sharing the good news, caring for the needy, bringing healing, loving and serving, standing up for right in the face of injustice) without seeing any great institutional or conversion success.
There are many signs of this emphasis on the kingdom. Some churches are becoming more involved in their communities e.g. helping in schools, meetings needs, taking stands on community issues, working with community organisations. Some churches are building stronger links with overseas missions work. They are not so much supporting missionaries as becoming personally involved in meeting the needs of actual overseas communities.
The kingdom movement is certainly gaining momentum. It has many strengths. It takes us beyond the idea that the work of God stands or falls on the growth of the local church. We have a big God who is working in the world as well as in the church. Our narrow focus on church growth and health has tended to cause us to view our community merely as potential converts who could become Christians and join our church. It has also produced unhealthy competition and comparison between churches. A kingdom emphasis puts us all on the same page with the same goal.
But will it damage the church? Here are a few things I think we will need to watch. We need to be careful not to water down the demands of the gospel for conversion. We need to hold on to our emphasis on grace above works (the kingdom tends to be about doing). We need to ensure that we are biblically discipling Christians. We need to continue to nurture a love for the local church (with all its flaws) and not see it as a limiting institution.
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