This past week, I was having a conversation with someone who goes to our church and she was asking me questions that are related to the vision, mission, and/or philosophy of ministry of Good News Church. After we were done, she encouraged me to share what I had told her with more people at our church. So, in case you have had similar questions, here you go:
1. Why does Good News conduct worship services the way it does?
I understand that for some of you, our style might be unusual. I mean, the preacher wears flip-flops but then preaches straight out of the Bible... is this church old-school or progressive?
We believe in the unchanging truth of God's Word, and that, as culture changes, we must be ever changing the methods we use to communicate and live it out. Additionally, we try to make sure all the stuff we do would be comfortable, understandable, and/or helpful to someone who typically doesn't attend a church.
2. Why don't we pass an offering plate?
Mostly because we desire to be sensitive to visitors. There is already a vibe out there that says, "The only thing those religious people are after is your money!" And handing someone - who has never been to our church before - a receptacle for the collecting of their money kinda' helps to confirm their suspicions. If anyone wants to financially support our church (and we sure hope you do) we have receptacles to the right and left side of the stage.
3. Why don't we have a Youth Pastor (or an Assistant Pastor, Children's Pastor, etc.)?
This is a good question that is hard to answer briefly. In short, the answer is: we will hire those types of people if and when we need to. We just aren't doing it yet.
4. Ok, but why? Why hasn't Good News done it by now?
Well, that's the part that is hard to answer briefly. Here are six reasons. For the sake of brevity, I will try to keep each of these sub-answers to just a few sentences in length.
A. One of the values of our church is called, "Every member is a minister." We try to get volunteers to do the ministry of our church whenever possible.
B. Another value of our church is "Simplicity." And because we are a "simple church" we are trying not to start anything complex (like hiring a bunch of staff members to administrate a bunch of new programs). Lord willing, we will hire more employees one day, but hopefully it will be for them to administrate a few focused programs that have grown to the point that volunteers can no longer handle them.
C. Mission Creep. This is a term - originally used in a military context - that refers to a gradual shift in objectives often resulting in an unplanned long-term commitment. Right now, I wouldn't want to hire a youth pastor because I'm not ready for our 300-person church to get involved in having a formal middle school ministry, high school ministry, college ministry, band nights, ski trips, youth buildings, 15-passenger vans, the high school mission trip to Guatemala, the middle school mission trip to Alabama, and all the yard sales, car washes and cake auctions that it will take to fund all of that. See point "B" about simplicity. We might change our mind on this one day... but we don't feel we are ready for all that kind of stuff at this time.
D. Money. All the stuff described above costs lots of money. Especially when you factor in salaries, insurance, and all the other things that you have to purchase to maintain the buildings, vans, and staff members. Right now, since we've almost outgrown our current building on Sunday mornings, we are trying to set aside our extra money to take care of that issue.
E. Some people might think that we should have done this by now, simply because most churches of our size do it. But we do not feel pressured to do what other churches do. It's like when people say stuff like: "We need a Mother's Morning Out Program because the Methodist's have one!" Nope. We try to make our decisions based on what WE are trying to accomplish, and not based on what everyone else does.
F. Right now, Dawn Randle is hosting a Youth Bible Study at her house on Tuesday nights, and she's doing a great job. Charis Bickhart is the coordinator for KidZone and it's going well, too. Kennon Bickhart, Bruce Hawk, Gary Haverdink, Janice Kemp, Linda Lynch, Curt West, Tina West, Will Young, Ron Lynch, and many others are doing a fine job keeping our church running smoothly.
5. Why don't we have a directory? In the 1990's I attended a church that gave every member a list of all the other member's phone numbers and addresses? How are we supposed to pray for each other without a directory?
Our culture has changed a lot since 1990. People are more mobile now and a directory would go out of date very quickly. People change their addresses, phone numbers, email addresses (and even the church they attend) much more often than they used to.
Also, people are far more private with their information now. If we gave out everyone's information, it probably wouldn't take long before someone would contact everyone in the congregation asking them to be a client for their new life insurance business, or asking everyone in the congregation (even people they don't know) for a donation to the walk-a-thon that they will be participating in. And that kind of solicitation is not appreciated by everyone. Nowadays, many people give out their information expecting/hoping that the organization will not give out the information to other people.
As far as praying for each other goes, there are two ways to do it. #1) The old-fashioned way. Keep up with your own group of friends and ask them to pray for you. And #2) you can always post your prayer requests on the Good News Facebook page. It's like an internet bulletin board that can be read by lots of people from church. (If you don't have a Facebook, you can even call the church and leave your request on the answering machine... and I will post it onto Facebook for you.)
6. Why does Good News have community groups?
Because we believe that the Christian life is basically a team sport. There are too many commands in the Bible such as "love each other" "encourage each other" and "forgive each other" that simply cannot be obeyed by individuals who are disconnected from each other. Community groups are supposed to foster Christian friendships in a way that couldn't happen in a large gathering on Sunday morning.
7. Why does Good News Church sponsor Royal Family Kids Camp?
Well, the camp pre-existed Good News. It was started by another church that is no longer operating. When the director, Tiffany Bagasan, asked us to consider taking on this camp, we decided that it would be one of the few things that we do. That is, we don't do a lot of things, but we try to do a few things well. This is one of the few things we've agreed to. I like that it serves as a "mission trip" for our whole church to get involved in every summer. And it is a way to do something like "look after orphans and widows in their distress." I know that none of these kids are widows and most aren't orphans, but the point of that verse - care about people who are helpless and vulnerable - fits well with what Royal Family Kids Camp does. There are lots of great ministries like this one that help us apply certain Bible verses and concepts to our lives. And I encourage you to get involved with as many of them as you want. But this is the one that our church has chosen to focus on at this time.
