Newsletter - Creekwood Christian Church

!People Over
! ! ! Programs
by Jeff Howell
A church leader commented to me recently, “That’s always been
Creekwood’s struggle. We say we want to be a program church,
but we don’t really want to give up being a family church.”
While there is a great deal of truth in that statement, I've got
good news and bad news.
The good news is that we don't have to become a program
church. The bad news is what we want to become is even more
difficult to become for a mainline church than becoming a
program church.
The transi3on we must navigate as a church is not from being a
family church to a program church. Our learning curve will be
transi3oning from
a church focused
2
Our primary goal is to
develop people of faith,
not programs of faith.
on program
development to
p e o p l e
development. It's
about people, not
programs. Our
primary goal is to
develop people of
f a i t h , n o t
programs of faith.
A program centered church is best understood as a what. It's a
place you go to par3cipate in programs. Success is defined by the
quality of the programming and the numbers that show up to
a2end at a par3cular place on a given date. A program church is
a what, a place you a2end.
But, as Reggie McNeal suggests in his book "Missional
Renaissance," the church is called to be a who, not a what. God
is calling us to be a people of faith, not a loca3on. A people-­centered
church cherishes rela3onships and seeks to be a
community of faith blessing others in the community.
Success in a people-­‐centered church is measured by the number
of changed lives. In a people centered church people are growing
spiritually closer to God, kids are growing up in the faith,
marriages are being strengthened, broken people are being
healed, and everyone is serving from their passion and
gi_edness.
This is the biggest change for mainline churches to navigate.
Learning the art of developing people, not programs. People
today are hungry for authen3c rela3onships and genuineness.
Programs cannot provide that level of spirituality. Only other
Growing Disciples of Christ
people can. This doesn’t mean we will not develop programs.
But the point of any program in the church is to nurture and
edify and grow people in faith. The great problem in many
program churches is that people grow 3red trying to support
programs. They feel like cogs in a machine. We want people to
be primary, and programs to be secondary.
We are going to learn to adjust our focus as a church. In every
age the church has had to redefine itself in order to reach people
and communicate the gospel. It is not unique to Creekwood.
Across America, there con3nues to be a resistance to real and
significant change by mainline denomina3ons in the way the
church operates. All surveys, regardless of denomina3on,
indicate the same reality…the church is declining in its influence
in our culture. In the midst of moun3ng evidence about the
ineffec3veness of the typical program church, leaders are either
denying that the conclusions are true or simply focusing on
“second things first.”
In the gospel, Jesus describes the mission of being involved in
Kingdom ac3vity as “new wine” which requires a “new
wineskin”. Too o_en, instead of embracing the newness, we
become distracted by efforts to reorganize and restructure the
“old wineskin.” It’s an interes3ng response since Jesus said the
“old wineskins” cannot contain the “new wine” of the Kingdom.
Rather than developing ways to release people into ministry and
empowering them to minister and serve according to their
passions and gi_edness, the church seems to be preoccupied
with being caretakers and gatekeepers of archaic programs.
When the church’s focus becomes establishing and protec3ng
programs, its focus becomes ins3tu3onal, and the way it
operates drains people’s mo3va3on, diminishes their joy, and
drains their passion. People want to serve God and others, not
programs.
The New Testament church was born out of a deep commitment
to one another, unity of purpose, mee3ng the needs of people,
and full obedience to God’s leadership.
The world is starving for true authen3city and life-­‐changing
rela3onships. The church should be the most authen3c place on
earth because we have
a rela3onship with
the most authen3c
person who has ever
lived on the planet!
Let’s focus on being
real and growing
people. It’s going to
b e t h e h a r d e s t
things we’ve ever
done. And the most
thrilling!!
People today are
hungry
for authentic
relationships and
genuineness.
Creekwood Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)