Bill Easums Observations

 Friends,

In a subsequent consultation, we encountered a classic mistake made by so many established churches. They mistake “property rental” for “Christian Mission”. (see my book “Moving Off the Map“) Churches assume that by renting or giving away space for community use, they are actually doing evangelism. They do not realize that authentic evangelism is about relationships, not property use.

It is an obvious dodge to avoid personal investment in hands-on mission. This mistake is usually compounded by an obsession with “depot” ministries (clothing depots, food banks, and other forms of “collecting things”). Church people think they are doing mission by warehousing goods, but they never actually come into contact or build relationships with the needy people they say they want to help.

Another manifestation of this mistake is the belief that hosting Boy or Girl Scouts, or housing non-profit organizations, is also Christian mission. It is as if the Cancer Society should decide the best way to use their facility would be to rent it out for pot luck suppers. The Cancer Society volunteers would have no place to meet and train, but, gosh, what a lot of fun and fellowship they could have!

Ironically, the mistake can be easily remedied. Leaders are trained to use space only in ways that 100% align to the mission of the church and nothing else. And they have a church policy that states “No property will be rented or used by outside groups unless a team of church members is actively involved in the planning and implementation of the program. Never rent property without sending a team. Relationships are the key. Now the team can shape the planning and implementation around specifically Christian mission. If the outside organization doesn’t want that (which is almost universally true for Boy and Girl Scouts), then the church does not offer property.

Tom Bandy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 at 11:25 am and is filed under Church Growth, Small Church Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.