“If I were to use business terms I’d say that our church is in the ‘disciple-development’ business, and that our product is changed lives” (The Purpose Driven Church, p. 109)
As religiosity goes down, we are seeing an unbundling of the church. Church used to bundle ideology, weekly events, therapy (e.g. confession, talking to your pastor, bible study groups)1, welfare programs, naturally regulating activities like singing, and more.
When we leave church, we intend to reject a particular ideology, not its built-in community infrastructure — but we lose both.
I'm currently reading The Purpose Driven Church, on the recommendation of my friend Casey. The author, Rick Warren, built a 20,000 person mega-church in Southern California. Although I'm not, nor have I ever been, religious, many of Warren’s lessons on growing a church are applicable to growing a secular community.
Starting Saddleback Church
In his mid-20s, Warren studied the 100 largest churches in the United States. Among other things, he found that:
“Healthy, large churches are led by pastors who have been there a long time. I found dozens of examples. A long pastorate does not guarantee a church will grow, but changing pastors every few years guarantees a church won’t grow”
Warren wanted to start a church, and he wanted to pastor there long-term. He thought carefully about where to locate the church.
He discovered that the three most unchurched states in America were Washington, Oregon, and California. Thus, he narrowed his search to the West Coast. Then,
“One afternoon I discovered that the Saddleback Valley, in Orange County, southern California, was the fastest-growing area in the fastest-growing county in the United States during the decade of the 1970s. This fact grabbed me by the throat and made my heart start racing. I knew that wherever new communities were being started at such a fast pace there would also be a need for new churches.”
When Warren graduated from seminary, he and his wife moved to Saddleback Valley to start a church. They had a four-month-old baby and no money.
“I would have preferred to have had the new church financially underwritten before we moved to California, but it didn’t work out that way. Instead, we moved on faith…If you insist on solving all the problems before you make a decision, you’ll never know the thrill of living by faith.”
The Neighborhood has also felt like continual leaps of faith…and sometimes I do worry that I’m spending so much time on a project that’s not income-generating. Occasionally I start to feel financially scarce; as my savings wane, I start to wonder whether I should return to a W-2. But I do have faith in my work, not a religious faith, but the faith that comes from so many sweet words of gratitude, handwritten letters, and stories of lives changed. A faith that the universe will take care of me as long as I take care of others. From some frames, I’m being naive. But when I read The Purpose Driven Church, I feel reassured. I’m inspired by the underlying sense of security that comes from devoutness.
The Purpose-Driven Church
Warren believes that healthy churches have a clear purpose, whereas unhealthy churches operate unintentionally. For example, some churches become too focused on throwing events. Events then become a proxy measure for faithfulness.2
For Warren, a purpose-driven church is one that:
Has a clearly defined purpose.3
Has a process for fulfilling that purpose.
Why define your purpose?
A clear purpose builds morale and camaraderie:
“People working together for a great purpose don’t have time to argue over trivial issues” (PDC, p. 86)
A clear purpose reduces frustration because it takes work off our plate:
“A clear purpose not only defines what we do, it defines what we do not do” (PDC, p. 87)
A clear purpose magnifies our power:
“Focused light has tremendous power. Diffused light has no power at all. For instance, by focusing the power of the sun through a magnifying glass, you can set a leaf on fire. But you can’t set a leaf on fire if the same sunlight is unfocused” (PDC, pg. 89)
A clear purpose attracts cooperation:
“If you want your members to get excited about the church, actively support it, and generously give to it, you must vividly explain up front exactly where the church is headed” (PDC, p. 91)
Similarly, a clear purpose reduces misalignment by letting people self-select out of your church if they disagree with your purpose:
“If you allow people to become members of your church without their understanding your purposes you’re asking for trouble. New members, especially those transferring from other churches, often have personal agendas and preconceptions about the church. Unless you deal with them up front in a forthright manner, these issues will eventually cause problems and conflict” (PDC, p. 92)
Finally, a clear purpose assists evaluation. Rather than comparing your church with other churches, you measure yourself against your own standard, your own purpose-driven mission statement.
How to define your purpose
Warren has a four-step process to defining your purpose.
Do research.4
Put your findings in writing. This can be a data dump. His church’s first attempt at this was “a ten-page document containing our random insights on the church.” (p.99)
Summarize your conclusions into a single sentence. That’s your purpose statement. Although 3 is just a sentence, it can be a dense sentence. Warren’s church’s purpose statement:
“To bring people to Jesus and membership in his family, develop them to Christlike maturity, and equip them for their ministry in the church and life mission in the world, in order to magnify God’s name.”
Since I began reading this book, I have had many more conversations about The Neighborhoods’s purpose. We don’t have a purpose statement yet, but we’re metaphorically in step 2. We’re pouring our collective ideas and dreams for The Neighborhood into each others’ heads, and stirring them around.
To be continued…
I was surprised to learn, from Mormon friends, that Mormon missionaries offer the equivalent of marriage counseling. If a couple in the Mormon community is struggling, missionaries will be sent to chat with them.
Other examples: Traditional churches do things because “we’ve always done it this way.” Personality-driven churches are subject to the whims of the church leader. Finance driven churches are always worried “How much will it cost?” In churches focused on programs, the “goal subtly shifts from developing people to just filling positions” — i.e. they become bureaucratic. Building-driven churches care too much about nice buildings, and spend more than they can afford on them; they then spend all their effort on fundraising. In seeker-driven churches, the church asks ‘what do people want?’ and gives them that — this is fine for businesses, but churches have a higher calling, and values to heed to (or, in Warren’s words, churches must avoid “adopting the sinful elements” of popular culture).
For Warren, a church’s purpose should be based on the five New Testament purposes.
In a religious context, this means to study what the bible says.