Those words were spoken in the early 1900s by William Temple, then Archbishop of Canterbury. They pose an awesome challenge to any congregation that wants to engage in evangelization: sharing the Gospel of Christ with the world. Evangelization calls for a life devoted to others rather than to one's own well-being, comfort, and self-esteem. Jesus Christ lived and died for others, but his example is hard to follow.

Somewhere along the way, many churches forget about their call to exist for nonmembers. They begin focusing their activities, concerns, and ministries inward. Pastors begin functioning as chaplains or caretakers of self-contained congregations. Members want more of their pastors' attention focused on the pews and less on the parish. As inward-looking Christians, they want to have their own needs fulfilled. Eventually, such inward-focused congregations lose their way. They cease to bear fruit and they begin to wither on the vine.
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Members of the congregation of Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church worship on a Sunday morning. Photo by John Coleman.

Seeking a cure for this all-too-common syndrome can be difficult. But restoring an outward focus is crucial to the health of our churches if we are to carry out Christ's Great Commission to go and make disciples. The Evangelization and Church Growth program area of the General Board of Global Ministries is a resource for church transformation and renewal. It is trying to help in that search by introducing a process of congregational revitalization called "The Discovery Church Journey." This four-part process calls for discernment, discovery, design, and decision. The process helps a church become aware of and responsive to its community. It guides a church in doing ministry from the outside in. Several churches are beginning to test the program this fall.

Finding an Outward Focus

Dick Wills, Senior Minister of Christ United Methodist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, literally illustrates the way an outward focus transforms a church. He draws a picture of a person with arrows pointing toward the person's heart. This represents the way his church's members used to be—inward-looking, seeking the fulfillment of their own needs. But through a process of transformation, which took Christ Church years to accomplish, the arrows turned themselves around. They began to point outward once church members changed direction and turned their attention to ministry and mission with nonmembers and the unchurched.
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Herbierto Leon and Miguel Torres. Photo by John Coleman.

The life and health of the local church relates directly to the vitality of its ministry and mission. Ministry begins with the nurture of a church's greatest resource: its members. A vital, outward-focused church does not nurture its members merely by keeping them comfortable. Instead, it promotes their spiritual growth, directs them in discipleship, and helps advance their maturation as servants of Christ. This enables them to discover and realize their call to ministry, chiefly through a new involvement in mission.

Getting Involved in Mission

Mission is the congregation's ministry, through service and witness, to the community and the world. The church's charge is to proclaim the reign of God both within and outside the circle of the faithful, working through ministries that improve the quality of life for all.
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Members of the congregation of Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church worship on a Sunday morning. Photo by John Coleman.

A congregation in North Georgia began its process of transformation by offering to host an after-school program for children. Church growth paralleled this outward focus. First, the after-school program grew into a primary school. Then the primary school expanded, adding on a secondary school. Because the church was mission-oriented, addressing the needs of the community, it drew new people to its worship services. They came to experience the spirit and the vitality of this outward-focused church. In this way, over a span of 15 years, a small congregation was transformed into a large-membership church.

When a church fulfills its calling, it serves as an agent of change. It attends to congregation members' needs in order to enhance their promise as ministers of Christ. And it attends to the needs of the community and the world in order to fulfill the promise of its mission. In a vital church, ministry undergirds mission, and mission infuses every aspect of ministry.

Seeking Those Outside

Jesus talked about seeking and finding those who were outside the faith community. He taught us the importance of finding the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost or prodigal child at all costs (Luke 15:3-32). When questioned about the company he kept, Jesus said that he had "come to call not the righteous but sinners" (Matt. 9:13b). The Discovery Church Journey teaches a church to exist for its nonmembers—to look and learn and live beyond its doors.

This journey engages a leadership team from a local church in a week-to-week process that analyzes what it means to be a church in North America at the present time. The team follows a curriculum of Bible study, prayerful discernment, community analysis, planning, and implementation to discover the mission to which God is calling the church today.

Can you imagine what the church would look like if it existed for its nonmembers? Can you imagine being driven by the desire to serve the needs of others rather than having your needs satisfied? What would happen if not only you but the entire church believed that way, lived that way, served Christ that way? How would you act toward a visitor to the church if your whole focus of ministry were geared to nonmembers? How would you view the church's programs, property, and finances?

Passing on the Gift

As followers of Christ, we have the most precious gift ever given to human beings: the gift of fellowship with God through Jesus. It is a gift to us that we are meant to give away to others

A church in Texas became revitalized through its involvement with relief efforts in Honduras after Hurricane Mitch. A steady stream of volunteer work teams from this church traveled to Central America to rebuild homes. Through the relationships that were built with the Hondurans in this cross-cultural experience, many church members from Texas found their lives transformed. And, thanks to the church's new missional orientation, the attendance at worship quadrupled from 500 to 2000.

A church that exists for its nonmembers has a wide focus to its ministry. That focus includes the unchurched people in the community. It encompasses visitors to worship services, Sunday school classes, and community events. It embraces the parents whose children attend the church's preschool but who don't attend worship themselves. It takes in those whom members come to know through outreach to the homeless, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the lonely. Members of such a church view almost every ministry they undertake within the church as part of the church's outward mission. The musicians, the Christian educators, the ushers—all feel compelled to take their respective ministries out from the sanctuary into the community.

At a middle-sized church in the mid-Atlantic region, transformation occurred when a congregation whose members were of European descent began to welcome all who lived in the church's community. Through a series of church gatherings that celebrated the different cultures in the area, the church learned not only to embrace ethnic diversity but to celebrate it in Bible studies, worship, and youth fellowship. Worship attendance grew by 60 percent.

In the Discovery Church Journey, every aspect of ministry is an opportunity for someone to encounter Christ, to discover the abundant life Jesus promised, and to develop a deeper spirituality. Some people are already a part of the Discovery Church revitalization process. If enough others come to embrace this model, the denomination will never again have to be concerned about membership growth, for God will add to its numbers daily. Nor does such a church have to be concerned about finances, for God will provide abundantly.

In helping churches turn from an inward to an outward focus, the Discovery Church Journey can lead them to become the kind of missional congregations that God is calling them to be.

Getting to Know the Community
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