THE SIX PILLARS
OF THE CHURCH
In his helpful book, "The Second Coming Of The
Church," George Barna states that there are six pillars upon which
the true Church is built. Those pillars are: 1. worship; 2.
evangelism; 3. service; 4. education and training; 5. building
community; and 6. stewardship.
It seems to me that in the last few years we have had our
priorities mixed up. The annual meetings have become a time when
we spend an inordinate amount of time discussing what can or
should be done with the budget that we have. Most of the time, we
have started with the budget and then tried to fit in a program of
work. That might well be a good business model for consideration,
but it is not a good faith model to follow. To be successful as a
Church organization, we need to build the faith component so that
giving flows from faith and dedication.
It is no accident that the first commandment is
to worship God and God alone. It is in the act of worship that
one's life is related to God and the gracious gift of forgiveness
and life in Jesus Christ becomes a reality. When that is grasped,
evangelism is a natural outflow since believers will want to share
the good news. Service flows from commitment because we serve in
response to what God has made available to us. Additionally, we
educate and train and build the Church, a community of believers,
bound by a covenant to serve Christ and to work together for the
purpose of expanding the ministry.
When these steps have been undertaken, the
natural next step of God's people is to undergird the work needed
by prayer, personal service and the giving of money. Money follows
worship, evangelism, service, education and training, and building
community, but to start with money as the focus does not insure
the other steps in one's faith journey will follow.
These priorities are necessary for a Church to
be successful and, I believe, they are the steps that are
necessary for an Association of Churches to be successful. There
is a great ministry for us to do. We have the resources to do it,
but we must get our priorities in the proper order.
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