Years ago I was a bartender. My job was to mix drinks, and mix them the right way so that the proper taste and texture of the drink satisfied the customer. Too much sour or too much alcohol could ruin the taste of a drink. Too much ice or too little carbonation in a drink could ruin the texture of a drink. Mixing properly was a key to being a good bartender.
Groups of people are the same way, you have to have the right mix of people in order for the group to “taste” right, to function and work the right way. In a business this might be the right mix of management to employees and the right balance of experienced employees to new employees. It might be the right mix of personalities. However, dysfunction seems to be the norm in most groups of people. We all have probably seen what happens to a group when there is a clash of personalities, too many dominant personalities and there is constant conflict, too many passive personalities and nothing gets done, too many detailed oriented people and it gets bogged down in small issues, too many visionaries and everyone daydreams without getting the work done.
The church is no different. It may be a spiritual group, focused around the person of Jesus Christ, but it is still a group of humans growing and developing into the people God desires them to be. It too needs the right “mix” to function properly. If the church is dysfunctional, the wrong mix of people, then its’ effectiveness will come up short of what God could do with it. People are the instrument that God chooses to work through, and groups of people (that is the church) are the funnel through which God pours His Spirit, His power and His love. Just like with a musical instrument, if it is out of tune, the note that it plays will not sound quite right, so too the church can be out of tune if we don’t pay attention to the right mix in the church.
There have been numerous articles and books written on church health, church growth, church renewal and church revitalization that talk about how the church can become better through programs or emphases, and all of these can be greatly beneficial. I want to take a step back from those and ask a question, Does your church have the right mix of people to experience church growth or renewal?
I want to take a look at this from several perspectives…
God’s complete mix
1 Cor 12 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased…. 20 But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.
Each person in the church is part of God’s complete mix for the church. Today in your church, there is a complete mix of people to do what God has called your particular body to do. Often churches are concerned that “we don’t have enough people to do what {insert name of larger church down the street} does”. No you don’t, but God, at this time, has provided you everyone you need to do what He has called your church to do.
Let me ask a question, how many people do you need to reach people in your community for Christ? Do you need a church of 200 to reach one person for Christ, no you just need one Christian who will do what God has called them to do. Remember the parable of the talents, what the master was concerned with was what each servant did with what was given to them. Did they multiply the gift given to them or did they, as the one did, whine and complain about what they had? Is your church happy with who and how many God has given or are we complaining and waiting for the day God will give us more before we begin to do what God has called us to do? We can’t wait for something or someone else- God has placed the people in church as He pleased… in order to please Him by doing what He has called you to do. That is true in a church of 10 or 1,000 or 10,000.
This Sunday take a look around your church. Take a look at the people sitting in the rows around you. First, thank God for all of them, He has placed them there as He pleased. Second, realize that this is the group, right now, that is expected to carry out God’s design for your church. You can’t wait for more people, nicer people, smarter people, better looking people, older people, younger people… these are the people, however imperfect, however many there are, that God has given to accomplish His purposes at this time.
This is also why you need to be keenly aware of who God adds, or takes away, from your group. He doesn’ t bring people to you unless there is a reason or strategic purpose for who they are and what they can do.
God’s functional mix
1 Cor 12 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all… 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
God has chosen a mix for the church to make it function correctly. Each person within the body has a spiritual gift, an enablement from God to do something in the church that will benefit the rest of the church body. You can notice the dysfunction begin to arise when the people in the church begin to focus on benefiting themselves instead of benefiting others. You hear , “I didn’t get much out of that”, “the church doesn’t visit me enough”, “I don’t like the (fill in the blank), so I an not going to (give, serve, come, attend, etc)”. That is a dysfunctional mix. The people are not just out of place, but their function is not being performed.
Like an engine with many moving parts that needs to work together in symmetry and synergy in order to produce the full power potential of the engine, the church needs all of its’ parts to work to achieve its’ full effectiveness. If you have ever watched a NASCAR race, the engines are extremely powerful, producing a great deal of horsepower and speed, at the same time they are also very fragile, just a small part or small problem and the car cannot compete in the race. One small hose, one piston, one tire, one spring, equals a big problem, the car becomes dysfunctional. The parts have to work together and they have to work together for the length of the race. The reason the church is not making as large an impact in the community as it could and as it should, is that we have a lot of parts that are not performing their function. We have to challenge the church, as a whole and each person individually, to accept their role, perform their function, so God can work the maximum through us. The world needs no less and God expects no less.
As a church we need to emphasize that when we come to Christ we are not just saved individually, but that we are placed, baptized into, the body of Christ, given a spiritual gift and expected to function as a part of the body of Christ. To not make this a part of the expectations of each Christian we create selfish Christians who believe that a relationship with Christ is all about them be blessed and all about them going to heaven…. sound familiar?
The Spiritual/Social Mix
This is the one aspect that is missing in many, if not most, of our churches. At a conference I attended, I heard Ed Young, pastor at Fellowship Church in Texas, say that for a church to be truly healthy it needed three groups of people in it.
a) The veteran Christian. The experienced disciple of Christ.
b) The newly converted, the just-recently-came-to-Christ.
c) The “not yet” people, those who are on the outside of the Kingdom.
As I have explored this idea, it makes such perfect Biblical sense. Each of these groups needs the others, and when they function right, God’s great power is shown.
a) The mature Christians need the newly saved to remind them of the joy of their salvation. David even prayed for God to restore to him his God-given joy. One of the reasons many churches feel “dead” is that they have not seen or been visually reminded of new life in a long while. If your church has not baptized people recently, then you can easily begin to lose your joy. The mature also need the newly saved to pour their life into, to share their knowledge, their experiences to help disciple and grow these who have not experienced as much of the Christ-life.
Mature Christians also need the “not yet”. To some that may seem strange, but the existence of the “not yet” people give the mature Christian a purpose for being here, and Paul says (I Cor 14:23-25) that we should expect unbelievers in our midst. To accomplish the task Jesus set forth for us- to disciple the nations. Without a purpose, particularly and outward purpose like this, a group can become selfish, self-centered, focused only on its’ own good, arguing over small things… wait…. does that sound familiar. Too many churches have simply forgotten that we have a purpose greater than ourselves. The church is not our earthly reward for being a Christian, it is a mission vehicle for God to make disciples of the nations.
b) The newly saved need the mature Christians to be their examples of what the Christian life is supposed to be like. (that should be a wake up call for many who have been around the church for many years, but fail to take their lifestyle seriously) Who else do they have to look to in order to understand what Christianity is supposed to be like. When I first came to Christ in my early 20’s, it was the nurturing of a couple of Godly Sunday School teachers that helped cement me in the faith and help me to understand and answer my questions. Each Christian has a responsiblity to help other believers to grow in their walk.
The newly saved also have the closest contact with the “not yet” group. They are their first line of witness and often it is through these new Christians that some in the “not yet” group first come into contact with the church. The newly saved still have the significant portion of their relationships with those outside the church, and are full of excitement about their faith to reach these closest to them.
c) The “not yet” needs both of the other groups to share the gospel with them. They need to see it, hear it, and in some ways experience it in order to accept it. Those who are Christians need to make room for the “not yets” and give them the time, space, patience and understanding in order for them to come to Christ. Could it be that the reason some of our churches don’t have this group in them is because we don’t allow them the room to be “not yets”? Do we pressure them to act like us, think like us, have political views like us, before they even understand what a Christian life looks like? If we don’t allow room for this group in our midst, how will we ever really win them? Now don’t misunderstand, the “not yets” are not our church leaders or teachers, but certainly should be fellowshipping with us, bringing their kids to our events, be a part of projects, work days, they can serve food, many things, in our midst… so they can come to see what it is like to be a follower of Christ. Then the church gets to see God do an amazing thing, transform the life of an individual. His power and glory revealed in a life changed.
So, thinking about the mix of your church– do you have the right mix? Are you out of balance somewhere? Is your church not experiencing the full joy and power of God because your mix is dysfunctional in some way?
God has a design, a mix, for the church. It meant to be a mix that functions well, mixes well and ultimately brings him honor. Check out your church this Sunday, are you mixing like God intends?
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