We Know Our Mission- But How Should We Carry it Out?

Recently a few of us from church met to talk about church-related things, and I’ve been thinking ever since about something that came up briefly. I’m going to try to articulate some thoughts that I have been having for quite some time now but have never really sat down and put them all together. Please know that I am not directing my thoughts at anyone specifically; these are general thoughts to everyone involved in church- any church, not just LifePoint- as well as things that I have to remind myself of from time to time.

The specific topic that we were discussing is not important here, so I won’t go into detail about that. However, the underlying issue that came up is one that, no doubt, many if not all churches have faced or will face at some point—and that is, put simply, how to best reach the people we are trying to reach.

In the Christian church in general, we know that our mission is to reach people in our communities, our countries, and our world, to tell them about God and to show them his love. At LifePoint specifically, the mission we are trying to fulfill is to reach people who are far from God. We refer to our church as a “church for people who don’t like church.” Why? Because we know there are a lot of people out there who don’t like church for various, and very understandable reasons. And at LifePoint, we feel strongly led to reach people who have been hurt, and who are at all kinds of different points in their relationship with God. We want to break down the barriers that are often encountered in churches and help people take their next step, whatever that may be. That is our mission.

The struggle comes when we realize that we each may have a very different idea of how to carry out that mission. We may have an idea that some think will be very effective in reaching people, while others think it will have a negative effect and turn people off. Sometimes we want to try new things but we do not know whether we will take another step toward breaking down the barriers or whether we may end up creating new barriers for some people. It is a tricky thing, that’s for sure. We know our mission, and we are so committed to carrying it out, but sometimes figuring out how to best carry it out is a challenge. And I believe it’s a challenge that needs to be acknowledged and talked about.

Here are my thoughts. No matter what we do—the structure of our service, where we meet, the style of music, community outreach, relationship building, small groups—there is always going to be the possibility that it will be both a success and a failure. What? I mean that just about anything at all, done with the sincere desire to carry out our mission, may really reach some people and help them take that next step, while that very same thing may just not work for other people. There is not a surefire, foolproof way for one church to reach everyone who doesn’t like church or who is trying to take their next step toward God. Why? Because people are so very different. No one is exactly alike. On any given Sunday, we will have people from all kinds of church and non-church backgrounds, who have had all kinds of different experiences (both positive and negative), and who have different desires, fears, expectations, needs, worries, and preferences. A certain style of music or service structure may be exactly what helps one person and may be extremely uncomfortable for another.

So what do we do? We sincerely want to reach people, but then we see that no matter what we do, we will reach some people and not others. And that is a hard reality to face, because really, even though we know it’s not possible, we would love to be able to make a difference in the lives of everyone we meet. How, then, do we choose the ways in which to carry out our mission? It becomes even more tricky because, just as everyone who walks in the door is going to be different, we are also all very different; we, too, all have different backgrounds, experiences, desires, fears, expectations, needs, worries, and preferences. And we all have different, very strong, feelings about what will effectively reach people and what will not- and sometimes it is hard to remember to look at things from each other's perspective and see that we all have valid reasons for our feelings that should be taken into account.

So here is what I think, and it's something I've had to learn over the past year and something I still have to remind myself of at times: I don’t think we should get too caught up on what we each individually would like, and we can’t get too focused on figuring out the best way to reach every single person out there. If we get stuck on either of those issues, we will have a hard time getting anywhere and a hard time effectively reaching anyone. This is going to sound like a pat answer, but I truly believe it: we have to prayerfully figure out where we think God is leading us as a church. There may be some unique things that he wants us to do in order to reach the people he wants us to reach; there may be things he wants us to do that would never work for another church, and there may be things he wants another church to do that would never work for us. And undoubtedly, no matter where he leads us, some of us may be very excited about the "how" while others may be less than thrilled. I may think something sounds great while someone else may think it’s a terrible idea, or vice versa. In the end, though, I hope we always remember to go where God leads us, whatever route that may be. Because underneath all our struggles to figure out the best method, we all agree that the most important part is following God to fulfill the mission he has given us. And if all churches are following God wherever he leads them, the Christian church as a whole will be able to effectively reach all kinds of different people.