Growing Your Church

Clergy Competition is like a rabid disease, and threatening to become a pandemic. This rivalry among clergy members is gaining ground especially among those who follow the images of popular clergy figures in the media. It would be hilarious, this jostling for position and status, if it wasn’t having such a destructive impact on the church.

Gotta Get Me A Title
Clergy being called ‘doctor’ is big these days. Pastors are chasing titles to be ‘in’. Of course, there is the matter of ‘pedigree’ as to which brand name institution you receive your degree. Wearing letters behind your name is IT. It hardly matters that there is little evidence of even greater scholarship, and serious engagement of social and moral issues in a multi-disciplined world. Please change that church sign, and the bulletins, and the sign on my door. Don’t you people know that I am a ‘doctor’?

And A Bigger Church
Mega-churches are happening. Come on God, Super-Size my church too. Numbers is the name of the game. Small congregations and pastors of small congregations are being sucked into a web of discontent. There is envy and pride because of the measure used for ‘success’. It is not competition to reach the unchurched, but misleading people to ‘steal sheep‘ and grow church by any means necessary. So what will be my salary when the church gets bigger?

And Some More Ministries
But who gives a hoot? Really. Some churches are filled with ministries and very few genuine servants in Christ. Busy, busy, busy. They are doing it – we want to have that over here too. Who cares if it suits our context. We will not be outdone by them. So come on let’s get busy here. So who is this supposed to reach again? Why isn’t anybody interested?

And More Popularity
So you’ve got to go write a book, make some DVDs, pull out some show-stopping broadcasts. You need a website and a PR person. If he or she can be seen, you gotta get yourself a huge Billboard in your city too. No matter the absence of a coherent thought process – the prophets perform for the media and compete for air-time. And who gets the glory?

And Bling Accessories
You’re a doctor with a big church. You have lots of ministries to supervise. Your PR people need to be in touch with you. You have speaking engagements to do, book signings, webinars and podcasts. What’s the brand on that gizmo? Come on Trustees and Elders get real. You’ve got to pimp my ride, PDA, Laptop, Condo, private jet, and all my multi-media stuff. Don’t you know I gotta look good!

So Am I Winning Yet?
Caught in the cross-currents of the images and voices of success, as defined by the world, clergy gets caught in the mess of competition. We try to outdo each other to prove that we are more successful. We justify our actions by saying Jesus would approve our success. But would he?

Judging from Jesus’ response to the request of James and John when they came seeking choice positions in the Kingdom, we can well imagine that Jesus would find distasteful the levels to which ministers of the Gospel have sold out to the worldliness that breeds clergy competitiveness. [See Matthew 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45]

Want to win? Try faithful humble service. Rabid competition that seeks to build personal kingdoms and not the Kingdom of God is inconsistent with Jesus life and ministry. It is Jesus we follow, not worldly trends.

Watch out,
Marvia

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