Structures

Structures are essential for building.  Without structures a house, an apartment complex, or a factory will simply implode.  Without structures automobiles, motorcycles, and  spacecraft will not survive any thrust or movement.   Without structures your computer, mobile phone, or tablet could not function.  One of my latest projects is rebuilding a small motorcycle.  This is a project I took on with a young boy I am mentoring.  A month ago we stripped the entire bike right down to the frame.   This frame provides the structure to the entire bike.   Without it we simply would have a pile of nuts, bolts, tyres, and pieces of metal.  That frame is what holds all the bits together enabling one to enjoy a ride on two wheels.

 Structures are essential for houses, motorcycles, and computers.   Structures are also essential for the local church.   Without structures you cannot build a healthy, thriving congregation.   Over the past number of articles I am exploring the eight quality characteristics of healthy churches identified by NCD (Natural Church Development).   I have already looked at empowering leadership, gift-based ministry, and passionate spirituality.   Today I like to explore 'Effective Structures'.   NCD has discovered through their research of thousands of churches all across the globe that healthy and growing churches have effective structures.

In my work with churches, when I begin to speak about issues around church structures, the kind of reaction I receive ranges from quiet disinterest to voiced objections.  The objections I hear from church leaders are such that people have the idea that while structures might be okay to speak about in the business world, in the church we need to focus on spiritual matters.  In response to such objections I remind churches that God is the author of order.  Nothing happens in our world without some purpose or design.  If you look through a telescope into the vast universe or through a microscope into the complexities of the smallests bits of our human bodies -- you soon discover that how everything is held together in such a way that they reveal God's incredible design.  (see Psalm 19:1-6)   Throughout the Bible we see how God has instructed how people are to be governed in a system of order, from the early Israelite community in the Old Testament, to the church in the New Testament.  (see Exodus 26-30; Leviticus 23-24; Ephesians 4:11-16; Romans 12; I Corinthians 14:26-39).   As Reformed Christians we take Paul's instruction in 1 Corinthians 14:40 as applying to every aspect of church life and ministry.   This verse reads:  "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way."   This instruction found in Scripture is why we as churches have a prescribed church order.   As our church order reads:  "Our God is an orderly God, and his people are to mirror him in this respect also.  Thus there are constant reminders that the Christian must live in an orderly manner, worthy of his calling to represent God before the world." (Article 1)

Although God is an orderly God, he is also a God of creativity.   There is not one structure that will work for all churches.   There are simply too many differences of geography, ethnicity, and demographics among congregations.   Yes, also in our CRCA denomination.   But even if you just take a quick glance at the churches in the book of Acts you will soon see the differences among them.  The church in Antioch did not duplicate the structure of the church in Jerusalem.   The church in Ephesus was not identical to the church in Philippi.   And we know that the church in Corinth certainly did things which were unique to their own situation.   As writes Michael Anthony, "What is important about a church's structure is not whether it looks like another church down the road, but whether the structure helps to facilitate ministy in their local community." (Management Essentials for Christian Ministries, p. 159)   Or to echo the CRCA church order, are your church's structures helping you or hindering you to live out your calling to represent God before the world?

This question gets at the very heart of what NCD discovered among healthy and growing churches.   They not only had structures, but they had effective structures.  Their structures enabled them to live out their mission and vision as a church in their surrounds.   These churches supported church development.  Their leaders would meet regularly for planning.  They would keep trying new things, new approaches to ministry.   They would set goals that the church was working toward.  They would make sure that people would be well-trained for their various ministries and understand clearly how all the different parts of the church worked together toward common objectives.   Ministries were not just thrown together at the last minute.  Rather, each and every ministry was well planned and organized.  Everything was done in a way to help, not hinder, a heathly, growing church life and witness.

So let me ask you:  do you know the goals that your church is working toward in 2021, for the next 2-3 years?  Do you understand how your involvement in your church contributes to the achievement of these goals?  As a pastor or a church leader, when was the last time you met together to do some strategic planning?   What is the one new thing that you have tried to do this past year to help you live out your calling as a church?   How you answer these questions will give you an indication whether or not you have effective structures in your church.   Having effective structures will help you become a good steward of all that God has given you.   May God give you the courage to remain both flexible and creative how you structure your church so that we may all join in our mission to be a church reforming to reach the lost for Christ.  The extent to which we as churches will be engaged in that mission will depend largely upon the effectiveness of our churches' structures.