When visitors show up at a church gathering, I often hear a version of this question: “What do you have for ______?” Children? Youth? Singles? Men? Women? Seniors? They assume that a good church has a lot of programs for specific subsets of people. Programs are how people get plugged in and grow. Surely, underneath the musculature of a healthy church, we find the skeletal system of a full ministry calendar, right?
In fact, a busy ministry calendar can distract and exhaust the saints more than it establishes them in the faith and furthers the church’s mission.
The aim of this article is not to discourage any and all programs or extra activities in a church. Instead, the goal is to emphasize the primary things revealed to us in Scripture that have also withstood the test of time.
I want to consider two theological problems that mislead us into thinking that a busy ministry calendar produces maturity in Christ, and then offer three encouragements for how to structure your church’s ministries.
Theological Problem #1: Deriving Our Identity from What We Do
Being a pastor, I often ask people about how they are doing. It is remarkable how many immediately respond
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