Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Your Church's Personality and Purpose

Each congregation has its own personality.  Sometimes the differences are obvious: small family congregation or megachurch, traditional or contemporary worship style, Presbyterian or Roman Catholic or nondenominational.  But even among churches of the same size, worship style and denomination, the differences can be staggering.  You may have experienced this when worshiping at a relative’s church or while traveling.  Even if it’s another family-style Presbyterian church with traditional worship, the church may have seemed nothing like Old Union.

God loves variety.  Why else would he have created more than 350,000 species of beetles?  Each person you meet has a unique personality, background, interests, and abilities.  God loves the same variety when it comes to his churches.  He takes pleasure in the distinctiveness of each gathering of his people.  There is a quality about Old Union Church that no other congregation on the planet has.  It is the identity and personality that God has given to us.

When we realize this fact, we can draw two conclusions to guide us as we seek to address the challenges that our church is facing.  First, the solutions for our difficulties will not be approaches that work well at other churches.  Ben Roethlisberger throws the pigskin and Sidney Crosby handles the puck.  If Sidney took passing tips from Ben, it wouldn’t work out very well.  We may notice a concept that works wonderfully at another church, but it would make as much sense at Old Union as hitting a golf ball with a baseball bat.  Certainly, we can learn from other churches and get wonderful inspirations from them about how we can serve God and his people in powerful and exciting ways.  But not every idea survives the transplant.  And when it does, it needs to be adapted to thrive in our congregation’s environment.

Second, we serve God best when we are the kind of church he created us to be.  Michael Jordan did a decent job when he tried to be a baseball player, but he excelled at basketball.  His gifts suited the boards better than the diamond.  Old Union might be able to do a passable job of serving God in many different ways, but our gifts are best suited for the particular game that God created us to play.  To bring honor to God and to be a healthy church, we need to recognize our church’s own unique style, and use it to do the unique work that God has prepared for us.

This month, please spend some time in prayer reflecting on what makes Old Union the church that it is.  To guide you in this endeavor, here are some suggestions:
  • What memories or stories best capture for you what Old Union is all about?
  • Which hymns best describe the relationship with God that Old Union demonstrates?
  • What passage from the Bible exemplifies the life of our church?
  • Is there a picture, image, or symbol that portrays Old Union’s character?
Please tell me or a session member what God teaches you about our church.