"Our job is not to bring more people into the church building. It is to be what the church should be in the lives of people where they are."
--Rick Bundschul
What is our job? So many times it is easy for us to think that our job is to get people to the church building. We think that maybe, just maybe they will then hear the Word of God and become Christians. This mindset is definitely present in the small community where I minister. The church still believes that it is the minister's job to get people into the church building. They want to the church to grow and place sole responsibility on the shoulders of the ministers. Evangelism is seen as the minister's job and the congregation gets off the hook, but is this really what the church's job is? Is it our job to get people in the building or is it something more?
Rick has a great point, the job of the church is not to build bigger buildings and better programs (both which are sometimes necessary), but the job of the church is go and meet people where they are with no preconceived ideas of who they are, or what their story is. Evangelism is not about church attendance, and really I could care less about who shows up on Sunday. I know everyone that comes are Christians and have a relationship with God. I care about those I see in the park who I play basketball with, or those I meet on the running trails who are seeking out God. It is these people who we are called to meet, to come to them and share with them the good news of Jesus.
This is not just my job as a minister, but the whole congregation's job, the Church's job. We who profess Jesus are all called to be priests, to be ministers. The Church must learn this, or else the church is going to continue to decline, especially in smaller communities. We must learn to make inroads to the community, and not expect them to come to us. We need to find ways to go to them, to take opportunities that God has alread given us, rather than ask for more. They are there if only we would look.
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