Perry Noble, pastor of NewSpring Church, was asked the following question by Ed Setzer of the Lifeway Research Team:
What advice would you give to churches in America? What elements would you say are a must in any church?
I would say two things. Number one, you must keep your focus on Jesus. Don't lose sight of the gospel. Don't lose sight of the fact that people are dying and going to go to hell unless they know Jesus. If the church loses the centrality and the urgency of that message, I think the church dies.
And I think the reason that churches all over America today are closing their doors and shutting down is because they forget the gospel. They have forgotten that Jesus Christ died on a cross not so we could have a holy huddle or a stained glass fortress or us four and no more. He died on a cross so that we could reach the world.
They have got sin in their lives. And because of that they are separated from God. They go to hell. That is not necessary. Jesus died on the cross to make forgiveness and redemption completely possible.
Number two, don't try to be anything except who God called you to be. Maybe God didn't call you to go multi-site. Maybe God called you to one location. You need to be completely content with that. Maybe God called you to go plant churches instead of doing video venues. You need to do that.
Maybe God told you to do video venues and plant churches. You need to do that. You don't ever, every need to feel pressure because another church somewhere else in America or somewhere else in the world is doing something to think, "Oh, wow, we have got do that." Our call as a church is to do exactly what God called us to do. In the book of Revelation chapter two and chapter three Jesus gives seven different messages to seven different churches.
If he wanted every church to be the same he would have just said, "All right. Here is my message to every church and it is just the same." But he addressed seven churches specifically and said, "Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you. Here is what is going on with you." I just think that each church has a unique DNA that it needs to focus on. The gospel should be central, but the strategy and the structure of the church should be completely open to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
(end of interview)
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My advice? Find out where God is working, find out who God wants you to be as a church and find out who God wants you to reach.
Don’t try to be like everybody else. God stopped creating the universe on day six but He did not stop being creative. He is very capable of giving every church a unique identity and creative ways to help fulfill their assignment in the kingdom of God.
The churches and pastors that we put on pedestals, and we try to copy, didn’t copy some other church and pastor. No, these pastors, in their intimate love relationship with God, were undoubtedly hungry and thirsty enough to seek after God and ask Him to give them His unique, creative way to reach people.
God doesn’t play favorites. But, He does have His intimates-those who sincerely seek after Him in a love relationship that is real and personal.
Don’t go seeking after what other pastors and churches are doing to try to copy them. Seek after God and lead your congregation to seek after Him with all of their “heart, soul, mind, and strength” and to “love one another”.
Be willing to be obedient to God in whatever He leads you and your church to do. Your church doesn’t have to look like every other church. Your church only has to be what God desires for it to be.
There is no one way to “do” church. What works in one church may not work in another church. That’s why we don’t need to copy one another. I am not saying that we can’t learn from each other. But, ultimately, every pastor and every church must go to God, privately and corporately, in a love relationship with Him to seek His face and find out what He wants the church to be and to do.
The “doing” part of church (i.e., the heart of the church accomplished primarily in evangelism and serving) is important but the “being” part of church (i.e., the health of the church accomplished primarily through discipleship) is equally important. The goal should be to have a balanced church:
A balanced will look like this:
Heart/Health: evangelism/discipleship, reaching/teaching, going/growing, addition/multiplication, how many/what kind, loving one another/loving God.
As a pastor and church seek to fulfill the mission God has called them to, I think the following might be helpful in discovering this unique and creative journey.
To find God’s mission for each individual church:
God pursues an intimate love relationship with every believer in every church and with every pastor.
In the love relationship with God, He reveals to a pastor and church where He is working.
In the love relationship with God, He invites a pastor and church to join Him in His work.
In the love relationship with God, He speaks to a pastor and church through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church body to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
To fulfill God’s mission for each individual church:
Every pastor and every church will be faced with a crisis of belief that will require faith and action.
Every pastor and every church must make major adjustments in order to join God in what He is doing.
Every pastor and every church will come to know God more intimately by experience as they obey Him and He accomplishes His work through them.
(Adapted from “Experiencing God’, Henry Blackaby)
