Before we can effectively promote any church or ministry, our effort must be in alignment with God's Word. What we say, how we say it, and the means and methods by which we deliver the message must conform to what the Bible says. This would seem to be a foregone conclusion, but in the North American evangelical church, there is a prevailing train of thought that focuses on a target audience, in effect making this alignment a secondary goal. This thinking normally is the result of a train of thought grown from a marketing perspective.

In a typical example, you have a church of passionate believers desiring to see their city reached for Christ. Notice I said "see their city" instead of "reach their city," because in this environment the actual "reaching" is done by professionals. They have an excellent teaching pastor that anchors a popular and growing worship service. They are surrounded by communities of lost people. So the staff and lay leaders of this church set about creating a message series and emphasis that will hit their target audience by applying biblical principles to a core issue facing the demographic. For the sake of argument let's say the core issue is family matters--marital relationships, divorce, raising children, balancing work and home.

These church leaders prayerfully plan an emphasis. The pastor works on his messages. The worship team prepares music and video content to complement the teaching. The communications team puts a theme to it and does a mass mailing or some broadcast media to the surrounding area. This approach is very common and will likely attract a crowd, some of which will be new folks brought in by the lure of relevant teaching. Why, then, might this be misaligned with Scripture?

A different picture. When we look at the early church in the book of Acts, we see a very different picture of how the body of Christ functions. They were devoted to one another, their relationships and way of living were as much the message and preaching or teaching. Acts 2:42-47 shows us they were devoted to God's Word, the breaking of bread (the Lord's Supper is the earliest form of corporate worship), the fellowship and to prayer. What we know as the church today, as an organization, did not exist.

God had given His command in Matthew 28:19-20 to make disciples of all nations. We see in the New Testament example of a disciple not so much what we would call a member or attender, but a close, personal relationship between people for the purpose of building up one another in the faith. This approach, which lacks any mass media or large gathering, seems foreign, even alien to us today, yet it is the current state of the thriving body of Christ in regions like Asia and Africa.

So let me back up. Where did the example church possibly misalign with God's Word in their emphasis? I would suggest three areas:

(1) Making the target anything other than Christ. Our end goal and desire is to be like Christ and lead others to do the same. He is our focus and vision. So from a promotional standpoint, my first question would not be, "What kind of emphasis will draw others to the church?" but rather, "What actions and attitudes in my life will make me more like Christ?" and "What teaching within our church body will make them more like Christ?"

When the church supplants the ultimate target--Christ--with a target audience, we inevitably will compromise somewhat in the message and methods to cater to that group. They will only look at what we are looking at, and if they choose to follow us, they will only become more like we are.

If our primary target is not Christ, but them, then in the end will we produce lots of relatively good people who look like us. This may sound simplistic, but consider carefully the mainstream North American evangelical church today and you'll see a group more known for alignment in their own thinking versus alignment to the image of Christ. Don't believe me? Ask yourself, who most exemplifies Christ within your own church body and why?

(2) Putting motive above God's plan. Nowhere in the Bible do we find teaching from God that says He will bless the church and its efforts solely based on our motives. And those motives may be good--even great. It's not a bad thing to desire to minister to folks in the community who need help with their family situations. But we must ask ourselves what is our ultimate motive? We must realize that God has given us His plan--to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19-20), and that He desires to truly bless the church only as she follows the plan He has designed.

That means sacrificing our goals, desires, plans, mission statements, motives and agendas to God's predetermined design. The North American evangelical church often finds itself in the position of spending a great deal of time, effort and resources to come up with a tremendous, well-thought-out and clearly defined plan. And then we ask God to bless it. The problem is that we have already been provided a plan, God's plan, and there is really no room for negotiation or alteration.

(3) Having a vision that is only a fraction of God's vision. A church that has a vision to reach the entire United States for Christ might be considered to have a grand idealism. Yet, that focus will reach only 5% of the world's population. When Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations, our own nation is included in that, but it is clear that the intent of the passage was not to relegate international outreach to a select few under the guise of "missions." Look again at the early church and see that they were well traveled in the world of their time.

A worldwide vision is inclusive of our own location as well as beyond. And it is only in reaching outside our immediate area that we begin to see the world as God sees it. We've found in our own church that people are much more in tune with the needs of their own city after they've traveled abroad. Jesus chose His words carefully, and alignment with His Word means that our vision must be worldwide in its scope.

Where to from here? How do we determine our alignment as a church to God's Word? Does this mean we must cease our sermon series, our promotional efforts in the community, our excellent children's programming? Do we need to cancel our busy church calendars? Obviously Sunday worship and teaching will continue, as will many of the programs we have within the church.  But I would submit that alignment to God's Word and God's plan for the church means asking some tough questions as we minister:

Is our worship and teaching leading individuals to make disciples? Is our success primarily measured by our weekend attendance, or by how well we are equipping believers to make disciples in their daily lives? This kind of teaching will have us diving deeply into the Word as it becomes the focal point of our gatherings. This may also mean that we cannot really gauge success by how many people are coming, but rather on how many people we are sending out that are effective in our community.

Are we depending on a lead teacher to do all the work? Closely related to the first question is one of dependence versus interdependence. Are we motivating and moving our congregations toward self-growth, teaching them to study and apply the Word in their lives and reteach it to others? If someone's sole spiritual input is coming from one hour on Sunday, we do them a disservice by allowing them to feel relative comfort in that environment for months, even years, without moving forward in their faith. Sadly, there are thousands, likely millions, of Christ-followers who have grown accustomed to sitting and listening versus standing and teaching.

Are we abdicating our role to shepherd the next generation? Children's ministry is a hot topic in the North American evangelical church. Is campus-centric children's ministry--bringing kids to a great facility and leaving them in the hands of eager volunteers for a few hours a week--the best way to shepherd them toward Christ? Does our training of children echo our training of adults? That is, are we modeling for them the life of a Christ-follower, one who is learning and reproducing faith consistently, in our homes, schools and neighborhoods in addition to our churches? If we are depending on two hours a week at church to be the primary teaching time for our children, then we are nurturing them in Christ for just 1% of the week. Where is the church's passion and focus during the other 99%?

Are we at all concerned with social issues and the world? It's an often-heard argument: what about right here? Let's fix the United States first. The problem is that any strategy for the church that isolates us from the world and larger social issues also lulls us into a self-improvement mode. What are we doing to truly impact the nations for Christ? Is missions relegated to a select few who are "called to it" even though all believers are commanded in Matthew 28:19-20 to include the nations in their disciple-making? Is our church making people aware of social needs in our own city? Do we identify with Christ-followers elsewhere on the planet, and connect with any of them in a meaningful way?

These questions are good start in the quest for alignment. Realize this: God truly desires to pour out His blessings (and these are not primarily material blessings) on the church that trusts His Word and sacrifices itself to His plan. The process of alignment is difficult, time-consuming and frustrating. Whenever we call the congregation to a higher level of sacrifice--especially on a philosophical level--we will expect resistance, even hostility, from those who must experience profound change.

  20 Ways for Communications to Support Bible Teaching

  Apply Scripture Properly to the Promotion of the Church

  

The New Inductive Study Bible (International Inductive Study Series)

The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World

Knowing God

> Click for more books and periodicals on aligning (intention).

About the Author. Eugene L. Mason has more than two decades of experience in ministry communications and technologies. More...