Let me share a recap of a workshop session I led this spring.

I was in Louisiana and teaching a session on engaging new visitors to the church. A good friend was bringing several people from his church and warned me to be ready.

About halfway through the table conversation, one of his leaders said:

“It’s all good and fun to talk about reaching new people, but what about the seniors who have been at our church for decades?”

Honestly, it wasn’t the first time I'd heard this comment, but this time it did make me think about it. That’s what I want to share with you today.

About the question.

When folks in church ask this sort of question, it cues me into a couple of different things. You might be reading this and thinking the very same thing!

If a person is willing to say this out loud, there might be a bit of a problem.

In my book, Is My Church Healthy?, I share two different core categories of vitality that might be involved.

The first is Member Care and Relationships. The next is the very last core category, Congregational Engagement. Both of these categories might help define the larger issue at hand. I’ll leave you with two images describing the two categories.

If you hear this comment at your church, it isn’t someone arguing against new or younger people. Let it be an indicator that you might be unstable in one or both of these core categories. Existing members of the church might be falling through the cracks. There is enough concern for someone to speak out and mention it, in fear that in the pursuit of new or younger people, the cracks will widen even more.

If this is going on, you need to work on it. You need to build trust. Trust, in any sort of season of change, is the best attribute you can have. The congregation needs to know that these basic parts of Christian community are happening.

So that is the first part, but if you are wondering if I am advocating for ignoring new or other demographics, I’m not. The comment may have some truth. You can fix the earlier issue with technical solutions in a few months.

The next part of this will take longer. But it is critical not only for struggling churches but for the entire Western church.

We need to take a hard look at the reasons the church exists.

Earlier this week, I shared a screenshot of a tweet where people defined the purpose of a local church.

You can read the report that this came from here.

What is the mission of the church?

The way this survey speaks about it is to meet a specific need in a personal way. If you don’t like a restaurant, you don’t go. If your gym doesn’t have the machines you need, you change gyms. If you want a certain brand of product, you go to a store that sells that brand.

We can treat the church in the same way.

If all church means is a place you attend and get a service, there is some truth to the statement “What about our seniors?”.

We let the church operate as a fully internal service organization. Clergy act as concierges for religious services.

I don’t think anyone would agree with that statement.

BUT - our church world has taken on many of those behaviors.

What if the church is seen as a place to grow?

The church has a primary role of its unique vision of mission and evangelism as its primary action. In their book Becoming a Missionary Church, the authors mention throughout Lesslie Newbigin’s idea that the 20th-century church operates in late-stage Christendom, and its primary function is the internal care of members.

Let me give you this mic drop quote.

Is the question of “What about our seniors (or any other specific group)?" faulty?

Yes.

But it should also serve as a warning of a lack of congregational care.

The big question we should ask is, “What is the function of our church?”

The better you can answer that, the better you can understand all sorts of ministry questions and struggles. I'll be back in the next email to talk about this tension between external mission and internal care.

Chad

4 Stages of Vitality How do you start revitalizing your congregation? Understanding the 4 stages of church vitality is a great step to take. Watch Video