Does America need more churches?
Think about that for a second.
When you drive through the streets where you live, and survey the landscape, do you ever think to yourself, “Man, we could really use more churches around here?”
If your little corner of the country is anything like mine, the only thing competing with houses of worship for real estate are Starbucks and convenience stores. Around here, I can pretty much stand at one church, throw a rock and hit another one. (Not that I would do such a thing of course, as stone-throwing is clearly frowned upon by Jesus).
Yet there are thousands of people right now, at this very moment, developing mission statements, creating logos, scouting locations and gathering supporters, for new churches that will be springing-up right near you in the months and years to come. When they do, they will warmly invite you, and you will consider.
These are normally referred to as church plants or church startups. They are almost always launched by passionate, God-loving, mercy-driven, creative people; people who want to see others come to know Jesus, and to find lives of meaning and purpose and hope.
The question is, “Are more churches the way this will happen?”
I’m not so sure.
I say this because every day, I see and take part in the running and ministering and yes, promoting of a local church. Each week, our amazing staff strategizes, thinks about, talks about and prays over ways that we can draw people through our doors, or meet them at theirs. We do this carefully and thoughtfully and with great love.
We plan creative services, develop meaningful classes and programs, and craft memorable trips and events, all designed with one thing in mind: reaching more people for Christ
And as beautiful and Biblical as that intention is, it comes with the difficult and problematic reality, that to attract the numbers of people that we want, we often need to “out-reach” as we outreach.
In layman’s terms: We need to beat other churches.
Now, no one would come right out and say that, but the truth is, there are X number of people living near dozens of faith communities, and all of these communities desire that as many of X, call their communities home. And all this creates a kind of competition, that, while completely foreign to the teachings of Jesus, is there nonetheless.
I need look no further than my fellow youth pastors/ministers, all of whom I respect, many of whom I meet with regularly and care for and love. We all have a passion for students, a deep love for Christ, and a desire to do great work for the Kingdom. We also all have congregations, pastors, church boards and elders, all looking at us to create thriving, (translation: big and getting bigger), ministries that draw recurring students and bring in new ones each week.
With that spoken or unspoken expectation, there is an inherent competitive spirit and desire for advantage in churches. We have dozens of faith communities packed into the same neighborhoods, all vying for market share, if you will. These churches are like gym class kids waiting to be picked for kickball, or middle school girls hoping to be asked to slow dance.
Everyone wants to be chosen. Everyone wants to be picked.
Which brings us back to all these new churches, these startup and church plants, popping out like baby rabbits. Many are created when people truly hear God calling them to start churches in certain places and to reach groups of people no one currently is with the Gospel.
But more often they are birthed by two distinct groups:
1) Ministers who have left other faith communities; who have disagreed with church policy, disliked church practice, or in general, decided they could “do church” better than every other they have participated in or seen.
2) “Successful” churches who have concluded that they are meeting the needs of their current congregation adequately enough, and are now ready to franchise what they do elsewhere.
All of these share one thing in common, the lovely, yet somewhat arrogant idea that they have a version of church that has never existed, or that they have some unique take on Jesus that no one else has come up with.
I’m not saying that people in these new churches won’t do great ministry or won’t introduce or reintroduce others to Jesus, and won’t utterly bless people. I’m just saying that the greatest ministry, might not be to add to the numbers of churches, or to further dilute the communities around them.
Maybe it’s not about simply creating more churches, but about working in and with those already existing, and finding ways, not to reinvent or repackage the Gospel, but to model it, through sharing, cooperation and a spread of true community.
Maybe what all those outside the church are waiting for, is not another church with better music or cooler teaching or greater facilities to hit their neighborhood.
Maybe they’re waiting for the churches around them to spring-up with the kind of collaboration, that reeks of selflessness and mutual love.
Maybe they need ministers, to show them, not how to start over where they are not, but how to renew and rededicate to the places where they are.
Maybe in this case, less is actually more.
