Why Does Your Church Exist?
Most churches have a serious problem. A big one. And it’s this: they don’t know why they exist. Oh sure, they can likely express something in broad generalities or vague platitudes. But beyond those, churches don’t often know their congregation’s particular reason for existence.
Every Christian congregation ought to know its unique, God-given purpose. But in my experience, most churches have no idea. Let’s imagine a scenario that can function as a parable—about Ed, a long-time minister headed into retirement.
Ed looked back with gratitude and also regret as he stepped away from a twenty-five-year tenure as preaching minister. He loved the people to whom he had ministered through challenging and joyful times. There had been small victories. They’d moved the needle theologically and produced some necessary worship changes.
Despite this, the church was going nowhere fast. They had added a few people here and there, but never enough to counter the steady flow of deaths and departures. While church members enjoyed their warm relationships, Ed had a nagging feeling that they lacked any clear mission. Was it enough to merely survive? Did the church have a bigger purpose beyond gathering on Sundays? Did they have a future? Ed wanted to believe he’d taught and led well, but a big part of him wondered if he had failed in his ministry.
He recalled the advice from one of his elders when he first started there a quarter of a century before. This experienced farmer had loved to share anecdotes. He told Ed, “In all my long years of milking cows, cutting hay, and feeding livestock, I’ve come to realize that the most important thing is just to be faithful. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Our job is just to show up. Success. Failure. None of it matters as long as you’re faithful, Ed. Just stay the course and it will all work out.”
At the time, that advice warmed his heart, but now it felt hollow. Ed was convinced he had been faithful to this advice. He had demonstrated good ministry over his twenty-five years. But shouldn’t good ministry have resulted in a stronger sense of purpose, he wondered? Shouldn’t faithful service produce more than a shrinking band of Sunday church attendees?
Does this story sound familiar? Most churches lack a clear vision for what they are doing and why. Even if the guiding sense of direction was once strong, church leaders must occasionally reassess their people and their context to discern God’s new call for each generation.
An organization’s mission must constantly be renewed and revisited. Take, for example, the old story about a lighthouse society. It was established to warn ships of danger and rescue those wrecked at sea. Over the years, fewer and fewer ships crashed on the reefs. The society became a social club. They gathered to tell stories about the sea and to celebrate their heritage. In the process, they lost their ability to answer the mayday calls from ships in distress.
Mission creep of this kind is natural and common. Why aren’t more churches aware of this? Instead of serving the mission, meeting on Sundays and “being faithful” seem to have become the mission, thus replacing any clearer understanding of purpose.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of congregational life is its contextual existence. Every church has a unique, God-given mission. Every church has a unique setting and is made up of a unique group of people. That combination results in one-of-a-kind opportunities.
Theologian Douglas John Hall writes, “Contextualization . . . is the sine qua non of all genuine theological thought, and always has been” (Thinking the Faith: Christian Theology in a North American Context [Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1989], 21). Hall is talking about theology, but his words are equally relevant for why specific congregations exist.
Missiologist Stephen Bevans expounds on this: “Pluralism in theology, as well as on every level of Christian life, must not only be tolerated; it must be positively encouraged and cultivated” (Models of Contextual Theology, rev. ed. [Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002], 15, italics mine). He clarifies this further in the same paragraph: “Contextualization, therefore, is not something on the fringes of the theological enterprise. It is at the very center of what it means to do theology in today’s world. Contextualization, in other words, is a theological imperative.”
I would add that contextualization is at the very center of the church’s mission. Christian congregations must know their context as they live out the gospel of Jesus. In other words, church leaders should understand why their church exists and what their God-given mission really is. This is not some fringe part of a church’s existence but is central to its very purpose.
So please consider this: does your church or organization know its specific, God-given mission? And if not, what would help you and your leaders figure that out? Congregations, organizations, and people will perish if there is no clear vision for the future (Prov 29:18, my paraphrase).
