Happy New Year! I hope that your holiday season was a joyful one.
Before I launch into the third part of our series on Mission Alive’s core convictions, I want to quickly review the first two convictions under which Mission Alive operates .
1. God is still radically transforming human lives through Jesus.
2. North American culture has all but entirely rejected organized religion–especially Christianity.
As this series continues, I want to be clear that our desire is not to tear down the church but to look honestly at it so that we can boldly and courageously build her up in ways that will be helpful. For us to move fearlessly into the future, we must look honestly at the present. To that end, I want to share our third conviction.
Conviction #3
North American churches are extremely inwardly focused.
Studies have shown that the average American church spends 90% of its financial and human resources in support of the church itself. The remaining 10% gets divided between mission work overseas, mission work throughout the U.S., and local efforts. All of this is to say, that the average American church spends only a small fraction of its time and funds for the benefit of the community in which it lives.
It is no wonder Americans have little idea of the purpose of the church. Other than gathering for a couple of hours on Sundays for worship, there is little evidence that the church is there at all. In some cases, churches get on a community’s radar in the summer by giving away school backpacks or in the fall by supporting Angel Tree ministries. However, this might suggest that if the church has a purpose within its community, it is limited to an occasional well intentioned transaction. It’s the lack of an ongoing investment of time and funds in the church’s local community, in efforts that tangibly demonstrate the love of Jesus, that is the problem.
This is why Mission Alive has developed training to help churches missionally engage their communities.
Next week we examine our fourth and final core conviction.