Both AND

By Cal Cook

The last few weeks have been so full and have gone by so fast I’m only now able to pause and reflect on what I’ve learned and experienced! It’s hard to believe it’s almost been two weeks now since I went to the AND Conference in Granger Indiana. The premise of the conference was blending the ‘Attractional Church’ model with the ‘Missional Church’ one. Probably our closest examples are Grace Community Church in Fremont and then Cedar Creek Church in Perrysburg. Both churches provide excellence in the Attractional Model. Where worshipers experience an environment with everything geared towards providing an inviting, welcoming uplifting service. The praise bands are excellent the preaching is excellent all the supporting video and teaching is excellent. Programs exist to teach and connect people with their faith. They have what has been termed a ‘seeker’ friendly environment.

The only valid criticism of this model is that if people aren’t connected into small groups, they easily get lost in the crowd. Many people pass through these types of churches and do not grow in their faith. The Disciple making process is limited, knowledge may increase, and yet putting that knowledge into practice tends to take a back seat. This is true of most churches today, not just the ones who attract a lot of people! Your typical church offers services for an hour on the weekend; whether Saturday, Sunday or multiple times on both days the average person only attends once. A percentage of those people may go to Sunday school; a smaller percentage may be involved with some other service or activity throughout the week, so even the most dedicated of Church folk are involved maybe 3-4 hours a week. This is the best this church model has to offer…yet that is not what we read of the early church in scripture!

Acts 2:42-47 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. ⁴³ A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴⁴ And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. ⁴⁵ They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. ⁴⁶ They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—⁴⁷ all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

This is ‘church’ on a different level! This is daily involvement in one another’s lives, this is miraculous and messy, and this is wondrous and wearying. We read throughout the pages of the N.T. how these people didn’t always get along. We read how they struggled to establish priorities and policies, means and modes of doing church. Yet components of Acts 2 were still present. As time went on new communities were established using the same components of Acts chapter 2…but eventually as churches became more established, and implemented their policies and means and modes, they drifted away from the wonder and awe, the joy and generosity. The ones that thrived were like our highly attractive models today, doing what they do very well, yet still missing the vitality of living life together daily.

Over the past seven years at BUM my number one priority has been to provide excellence in the worship experience. My focus has been on providing sound biblical teaching and the best possible connections between teaching, praying and praising. My second priority has been establishing ministries, means of connecting people to living out their faith through service. My thought has been, if I would provide an example for others to see and emulate, back that up with sound teaching as to why I do the things I do…people would follow. To some extent people have followed, we have seen a wondrous expansion of what BUM Church exists for; we have seen the connection between our vision “Reaching People with the Love of Christ” and what we do.

My third priority has been to be there for those sick and unable to come and be a part of our church. This has been an area of struggle for me, primarily because it is not one of my Spiritual Gifts! Secondly because when you focus on all the above, there is very little time left for this 3^rd priority. Which means there is almost no time left for what has been #4 on my list for the last seven years. I have had almost no time devoted to growing Disciples, spending personal time with leaders within the church! Consequently little has gone on in the church without me being personally involved if not leading…this is wrong, this is not what I intended…only the unintentional consequences of what I have been doing!

During this AND Conference it was made abundantly clear to me that in order for the church to thrive and grow I have to change my tactics! I have to change my priorities or the church will never grow to beyond what I can do! I have to make the priority that I knew was important but never got to my #1 priority. That doesn’t mean I stop preaching sound principles, that doesn’t mean I stop being personally involved in ministries, that doesn’t mean I stop visiting the sick and shut-ins…but it does mean I have to less of those things so I can do more of the one thing I’ve been neglecting.

I’ve run out of time and space to explain any more about how I came to this conclusion or how exactly I intend to carry it out. But let me just say it started with Granger Community Church’s founding pastor’s one line job description: “Helping God’s anointed, find God’s appointed place in the Kingdom.” By doing this Mark Beason has surrounded himself with disciples, focused on being and making disciples…all the rest is a natural result of this goal.