Yesterday
I heard that a leader in a church (not Mountaintop) referred to another church
as “the competition.” I found that a little disheartening and a little disappointing because I'm convinced that other churches
aren’t the competition, although we are definitely
competing.
We just aren’t competing against other churches. We are competing against sin and injustice and lies. The moment we start to think of other churches as the competition we are in trouble.
Here’s the problem. Too often churches determine their health based on
whether they are “beating” other churches especially in categories of things
that are measurable (attendance, giving). But we also compete in things such as “popularity” or whether
or not your church made it on the evening news or the cover of the local paper. Sometimes we compete for staff or resources or positions of influence in the community.
Now before I write another
word, I should quickly confess that I LOVE it when our church does something
newsworthy. A few years ago in Houston
the church I was leading made the front page of the newspaper on Christmas Day
– that was a nice Christmas present and a great memory. But what I remember most is a couple of
wonderful notes I received from pastors of other churches in the following
weeks congratulating us for making the news.
They celebrated with us a Kingdom
victory.
I’m convinced that every
church leader needs to ask themselves this question: When
you hear of another church’s success (especially that “cool church across
town where all your young families are going) do you celebrate their success or are you critical? Can you genuinely rejoice when another church
is advancing the kingdom, especially if you are in a season of struggling? Do you see the other churches in town (or
across the nation) as co-laborers or the competition?
Jim Jackson leads a large Methodist church in Houston. Each week in their worship services they take
time to intentionally pray for other churches in the community. Craig
Groeschel leads a mega-multisite church in Oklahoma City. They’ve created a web site - open.lifechurch.tv - for the sole purpose
of giving away curriculum and materials for other churches to use. They
describe “why” this way:
The local church is the hope of the world, and we know we can
accomplish infinitely more together than apart. When we create tools and
resources to bring people closer to Christ, we have churches around the globe
in mind. At
LifeChurch.tv, our passion is to see lives changed – across as many miles and
in as many places as possible. Our desire is to maximize the effectiveness of
the resources which God has entrusted to us. Therefore, the LifeChurch.tv Open
website is available to pastors, churches, and ministries worldwide to give
access to and usage of an entire library of LifeChurch.tv creative materials –
at absolutely no charge. If you find something
here that's helpful, we hope you use it and share it with other ministry
friends.
Sadly there are churches that do not share that belief.
Some churches are reluctant to share what they are producing with
others. They resist partnerships with other
churches in the community.
It's never good for the Kingdom or for the church.
When churches begin competing church
growth becomes more about transfer growth (sheep
swapping) than about reaching people outside of the church.
Competition driven churches
feel that any new church that opens in their area is a threat to their “mission
field.”
Churches that compete with
other churches have difficultly learning from other churches – especially those
in their city.
And sadly, churches that find themselves in
competition with other churches often find themselves losing the real contest
against our real enemy.
Here's the reality: Our
competition is a darkened world and the blindness of sin-stained lives and
every church is meant to be a co-laborer in the effort to show people that only
Jesus offers a way to live forever and a better way to live today. Our
enemy loves nothing more than distracting us from that competition.
The enemy rejoices when churches begin to see each other as the competition and to fall prey to
petty grievances and complaints, rivalry and strife, jockeying for position in
the battle for existing sheep. He knew Jesus was right: “A
kingdom divided against itself will collapse” (Mark 3:24).
So he seeks to divide and if
he can’t divide a church itself (which
he will often do over worship styles – I could write another post on the
competition between worship services within a church – but it’s too sad),
he’ll divide churches from one another.
But just imagine what if….
What if churches stopped
competing with one another and built
more partnerships with other churches?
What if every church stated praying for other churches rather than
tearing them down?
What if churches realized that
God isn’t tied to a particular formula
for doing church (ecclesiology) and celebrated our differences?
What if every church followed
the example of Life Church and shared
their resources… for free?
What if churches celebrated each other’s success?
It could happen – if we stop
competing with each other and remember who the completion really is – it could
happen, and it could change our communities and our churches.
