WILMINGTON, N.C. (ABP) — Old models of church that view it as a center for multiple programs led by a pastor who shepherds a flock just don’t work in the post-Christendom era, according to an author and pastor.
Ronny Russell, author of Can a Church Live Again? and pastor of Mission Baptist Church in Locust, N.C., led a breakout session at the Hopeful Imagination conference in Wilmington, N.C. on Oct. 22 called, “Retooling as Pastor/Staff.”
Russell said churches need to make three shifts to minister in today’s culture, which resembles the culture that surrounded the early Christian church. In this unchurched world, the pastor-as-shepherd model and what he called the “attractional” church strategy aren’t working anymore — and churches need to move to simpler and more focused understandings of their role in their communities and the world.
Russell suggested changing from the pastor/shepherd model to an apostle/prophet model. Apostles were pioneers of the faith who carried the gospel to new places. Prophets spoke truth in their situations, he said.
While pastoral care for church members is still important, he said, “if we just wait for people to come to our churches anymore, it’s not going to happen,” he said.
He also said churches should move from “attractional” to “missional” ministry models. In the 1950s and 1960s churches built buildings and developed programs to attract people. Numbers measured success, he said.
Missional churches need leaders who see the church not as a supply depot but as an outpost in the wilderness, Russell said. A missional mindset calls for serving people with no hidden agenda.
“If all we’re doing is being attractional, we’re not going to last another generation,” he said.
Russell also called for churches to shift to simplicity, relying on the Great Commission and the Great Commandment as focal points. Church leaders should study the Bible, read “paperback prophets,” and get together with other spiritual travelers, he said.
“Do what you do and do it well,” he said. “That’s the key, to do it well.”
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Steve DeVane is a freelance writer in Lillington, N.C.
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