Am I off base when I contrast the “maintenance” of the church with the “mission” of the church?
In a recent column about the post-COVID malaise in many churches, I warned about two dangers: (1) prioritizing the maintenance of the church over the mission (losing a focus on outreach in our attempt to hold on to what we have) and (2) prioritizing the mission of the church over our relationship with Jesus (getting so focused on activity that we forget the centrality of worship).
Some Friendly Pushback
A pastor who subscribes to my email newsletter and who has served local churches for several decades reacted strongly to the way I pitted “maintenance” against “mission.” For years, he has seen denominational leaders contrast the church as a mission outpost and the church as an institution focused on its own maintenance—a “holy huddle” that leads people to “sit, soak, and sour.” He’s convinced this framing is problematic.
Yes, it’s possible for the church to turn inward and lose a sense of mission. But what happens when the church, in the name of outreach, becomes so broad that all depth gets lost, weakening the church’s witness in challenging times? Don’t mission-focused churches face the danger of turning the sermon into little more than a commercial for the “next big thing” the church leaders dream up for their congregation? What happens when shepherding the sheep takes a back seat to promoting church expansion and multiplication, when marketing the church supplants maintaining church health?
Throughout the week, church members are catechized by the world, he reminded me. Maintenance is not our big problem. According to Acts 20, Ephesians 4, and the pastoral epistles, maintaining the health of the church is one of the pastor’s primary jobs. Christians face pressures in the workplace, in school, and in the neighborhood; the temptation to compromise our convictions gets stronger all the time. Many believers gather for worship feeling beaten down by what they’ve encountered all week. They need sustenance, or “maintenance,” not a scolding for how they’ve failed at being “on mission.”
Defining Our Terms
I’m always glad to get feedback and, yes, even pushback on my columns. I never intend what I write to be considered “the last word” on something. It’s a joy to engage in good conversations with thoughtful readers, whether they compliment or critique my stances.
In this case, I wonder if this pastor and I have defined “maintenance” and “mission” in different ways. In our email correspondence, he distinguished between a view of mission that focuses on “how we can build our church” and a view of maintenance that focuses on “how we can build our people.” Church people do not exist to carry out the strategic initiatives of church leaders, he said. In contrast, shepherds are there to serve the sheep.
I’m grateful for this pushback, because it offers me the chance to be clearer in what I am and am not saying about maintenance and mission.
Mission
When I speak of the mission of the church, I refer to the outward impulse that derives from the upward gaze; that is, we encounter the God of the gospel and in response we seek to spread his name and fame. Worship results in evangelism and mission. I don’t see mission as a particular church’s “vision statement” and certainly not as a pastor’s intent to “see how much we can expand and grow our church numerically.” Growth might be a by-product of this outward impulse, but it’s not the primary focus.
Maintenance
When I talk about the danger of “maintenance” replacing “mission,” I’m not referring to spiritual disciplines, strong biblical preaching, or any other activity designed to strengthen and deepen the faith of the flock. Over the years—from my work on The Gospel Project, various Bible studies and tools, the Psalms in 30 Days prayer journey, and a forthcoming book that emphasizes the beauty and necessity of Christian doctrine—I’ve consistently sought to marry depth and breadth. We cannot, must not, choose one over the other.
No, my concern about “maintenance” is when we adopt a posture that loses the adventure of the Great Commission. It’s when we redefine the success of the church as “merely holding on to what we have,” rather than seeing the church on offense, ramming the gates of hell in order to plunder its captives. It’s the inward turn that imagines our safety in the barracks matters more than our activity on the battlefield.
Upward Gaze
My pastor friend is right to critique church leaders who, in the name of evangelism and outreach, make everything about church growth and ignore the real and substantive needs of the sheep in remaining faithful when out in the workplace or the world. But the solution to twisting “mission” in this way doesn’t require an inward turn that focuses primarily or solely on church health.
The solution is, again, to prioritize our Maker over the mission. It’s the upward gaze. It’s learning to love and adore God, and thus be renewed and refreshed in him, the One who saves us and sends us.
Strong trees can spread their branches because they have deep roots. Depth and breadth go together. The right kind of “maintenance” isn’t the fearful posture that recasts faithfulness as the ability to not lose any more ground. The right kind of maintenance is the daily and weekly reception of God’s Word as our food so we have the energy and strength to remain active in love and good deeds. The right kind of maintenance is the checkup for our car, not so we can keep it pristine in the garage, but so that it holds up on a journey to a destination.
In short, a strong no to “mission” that becomes just another attempt by church leaders to build large churches to extend their own influence. And no to “maintenance” that imagines we can be faithful if we’re never fruitful. Yes to a view of mission that derives from our encounter with a sending God. And yes to a view of maintenance that builds us up so we can overflow with love for God and neighbor.
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