The Purpose Driven Church,
The Purpose Driven Life
Rick Warren
Zondervan
For months we had discussion times after the morning worship service and half the congregation remained, old and young, those new to the church and those who had attended all their lives. During the course of study of these books, the churches of Zion Willowdale and St. Andrew's, Valley Center, Alta., amalgamated, changed their name to Willow-Valley, wrote a mission statement and discussed a future building. Not bad! But it wasn't easy. With Warren's books as guides, we had to re-examine all our assumptions. Three areas were challenging to us.
Why does the church exist globally and locally? When we looked at the church in a global sense it was for the purpose of sharing the love and gospel of Jesus Christ. We all said that was of course the right answer, but when it came to Willow-Valley it was a little different. The consensus was that our church exists because of the need to gather and worship, as it did for the people 100 years ago.
It serves the community and has strong doctrinal teaching. Everyone agreed that this church was a place that made them feel good and welcome; fulfilling personal needs such as friendship and belonging. It was small and therefore people knew you on a deeper level. It also offered a service to them and our families in weddings, funerals, baptisms. The question was more difficult to answer than we had anticipated because we soon came to realize that locally it was to meet our own needs and globally it was to meet the needs of others. Some could agree in theory that was the case, but were not willing to actively go beyond the walls of the church. The discrepancy brought much discussion forward. It would require a change in attitude and that was scary.
The Five Purposes of the Church. Of the five purposes of the church — worship, ministry, evangelism, fellowship and discipleship — which do we emphasize? Once again there was unity in the answer, for all the groups agreed Willow-Valley did quite well in worship, ministry and fellowship. And when we went on to consider what kind of church we represent and why, again the group was unified in its answer: The Family Reunion Church, which is a church that focuses on fellowship and is shaped by people who are highly relational, love people and spend most time caring for the needs of one another. This church is has great music, a rural/urban mix of people, a place to include community people, Presbyterian roots. It is not staunch! A place to learn God's word and acknowledge the growth of others.
It was noticed that because most of us know each other so well, it can be a bit intimidating for new visitors. In our church, visitors do stand out and that can cause some people to be uncomfortable. Again there was discussion on the discrepancy between wanting to reach out to new people while maintaining the security of the familiar. Without intentional invitations to those in the surrounding community, things would not change. It was the commission of the church and to go and make disciples, yet we preferred that people come to us.
Styles of Evangelism. Confrontational, Intellectual, Testimonial, Interpersonal, Invitational, Serving. We had fun putting ourselves into a category and putting others into one as well! We decided that Willow-Valley's style of evangelism is a combination of interpersonal, invitational and service — all having to do with relationships, all having to do with meeting the needs of others. One neat thing was that we realized we have been evangelizing without knowing it! We are out there in the community spreading the gospel without identifying that as what we were doing! Most saw themselves in the serving category because they got to do, not talk, their faith.
This process was one of the most challenging processes the church has ever done. Feelings run deep and my very strong suggestion to any congregation who chooses to use these books is to make sure everyone is included all the time, either by participating in the discussions, or being updated in the services, by letters or phone calls.
