Church Remodeling
Mon, March 3, 2008 at 2:48PM 
I’ve been doing some serious and dangerous thinking on the health of the local church in North America recently, and I’ve been doing some listening also (both are important to draw any practical conclusions). Broad swaths of opinions clog the highways of podcasts and blogs on the issue. Depending on the article or sermon you may hear either God has abandoned the North American church or the primacy of the North American church rests in newer forms such as emergent church communities.
While the latter seems radical, the former proves fatalistic. So with few options there is something appeal, yet dangerous to every young pastor in this reformission. Where is a fresh Bible College or Seminary Graduate to go? Current forms, structure and facilities of churches still exist, but the breath of God’s mission seems to have grown stale with time.
Can young leaders breath new life into old institutions? Can the North American church refocus itself on a Christ-centered mission? How do we juxtapose biblical faithfulness with cultural relevance? For my own reflection I’ve see two prominent models and dream of one biblical model. The choice will be made by shunning the norm, and embracing the orthodox.
The Consumer Model
Question: Which customers will we serve?
Description: In the consumer model a church subdivides into cells/groups. Each group battles for supremacy over the other to accomplish its agenda. Fundamentalist churches are known for this because of their congregational style of government in which majority rules.
Problem: Churches are segmented into categories based on style, music, social-political agendas or other culturally based preferences. This prevents the church from unifying diverse people around the Gospel.
The Orphan Model
Question: Which choices bring peace?
Description: In the orphan model a church settles into a consistent set of norms (traditions you can expect and depend on). These standards slowly become equated with righteousness. Those who challenge the norms slowly become orphaned from the church itself.
Problem: Churches are limited to one generation. Traditions are fiercely defended at the expense of the Gospel. The 2nd and 3rd generations scatter from the ill-focused church ending up in other churches or worse, no church at all.
The Mission Model
Question: What can we do to maximize the impact of the Gospel on our community?
Description: In mission model a church exists as a missionary to its community. Its primary goal is to present the Gospel in a culturally relevant form without compromise biblical faithfulness. When culture shifts our applications shift to insure that Gospel is not lost in cultural translation.
Impact: Not only does the mission model faithfully apply the Ephesians 4 approach to local church ministry, it is the only model that is trans-generational.
Conclusion:
In the consumer model one generation dominates another generation, yet in the orphan model one generation abandons the other. Only the mission model calls upon one generation to reach the next generation and allow for the future generation build upon the faithfulness and accomplishments of the previous one.
Reader Comments (1)
I think that when you are remodeling you want to be around the project as much as possible!
If you can do a lot of it yourself that helps on quality and money.
Usually the best job done is the one you do because you know how you want it done and you
want it done nicely because you�ll be seeing it everyday - the contracter wont!
Thanks for this blog it had a lot of great information!