River of Life Blog
  • Pastor Todd Weston's Blog

RLA Pastor's blog

Enduring Fruit

4/11/2016

 
Picture
​While praying for River of Life last week, the Lord reminded me of a passage from the Gospel of John, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain…” (John 15:16a).

The word “remain” comes from the Greek word meno meaning: to stay, continue, endure, be present.  Earlier in John 15, Jesus called His disciples to bear fruit, more fruit, and much fruit (John 15:2,5).  God calls us to be productive in the kingdom.  But what’s the use of bearing fruit if it does not remain?

A few years ago, having learned about a troubling nationwide trend, we stepped out in faith and made some ministry methodology changes.  The trend that continues to this day is that the American church is losing more young people than it is keeping.  The church is bearing fruit, but has a retention problem.

With much prayer and research, we moved forward and sacrificed the “sacred cow” of old methodology in our pursuit of a better method.  Actually, the old methodology isn’t that old.  It’s rather new, dating back to the mid-twentieth century.  The new methodology isn’t that new.  It dates back some two-thousand years to the birth of the Church.

Was it an easy transition?  No.  Did we encounter some loss?  Yes.  Are we seeing good signs?  Yes, again!

In the mid-twentieth century, church growth experts began offering advice on how to build bigger churches (Intergenerational Christian Formation, p41).  The advice centered around a few key thoughts.  First, build exciting children’s and youth ministries.  This growth strategy reasoned that if children have fun in children’s church and if teenagers have their own “church within a church,” then parents are free to focus on their personal needs and more families will come as a result.  Families will go their separate ways the moment they walk through the door, but at least they will be in the same building or on the same property.  

This strategy is less than one-hundred years old and is already showing signs of trouble.  In spite of the age-segregated/specialized ministries, we are losing the overwhelming majority of our young people upon High School graduation.  Interestingly, this method of ministry is still viewed as the desired model.  It was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Another growth strategy is based on the American idea of individualism (“I did it my way!”).    This strategy encourages the development of multiple services and ministries based on individual interests and preferences.  So the youth group can worship to loud music and flashing lights.  Another age group can enjoy their contemplative and yet technologically savvy style.  Another group can worship to old-time rock-n-roll.  And yet another age group can sing traditional hymns and Bill Gaither songs.  All this while the children are far removed in a sound-proof room singing “Father Abraham” for the 100th time (Intergenerational Christian Formation, p42).  

The unintended consequence of these strategies is the separation of the generations and a fragmented church.  Rather than being concerned with what is best for the community of believers, the focus is centered on what is best for the individual or particular age group.

While these strategies enjoyed a measure of immediate success, the nagging question of retention and long-term results is looming.  Are we keeping our young people?  Is the church a community of believers, or has it become a cloister of special interest and age-segregated groups?

We do not claim to have all the answers.  Neither do we project our convictions on other churches who chose different methodologies of ministry.  God bless them!  We are also aware of the fact that methods of ministry can change to a degree over time, while the message remains timeless.  However, we cannot get away from the words of Jesus, “that your fruit should remain.”  Apparently, we are not alone.  More and more churches are waking up to the need, and more authors are doing research and writing on the subject of multigenerational ministry.

What it comes down to is this.  At River of Life, we want to bear much fruit and we want that fruit to remain.  If a certain method worked for the majority of Church history, and a relatively new method appears to be at least partially responsible (if not completely) for the situation we are in today….you do the math.

Pastor Todd Weston  

Comments are closed.

    Pastor Todd

    Lead Pastor
    River of Life
    Assembly of God

    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    1 Timothy 4:12
    9/11
    Accountability
    Bible
    Bitterness
    Blessing
    Blessings
    Cheerful Heart
    Choices
    Christmas
    Church
    Church Ministry Center
    Comfort
    Commitment
    Compromise
    Confidence
    Connection
    Courage
    Courageous
    Creativity
    Criticism
    Daniel
    David
    Deceitfulness
    Direction
    Discernment
    Drifting
    Economy
    Elections
    Endurance
    Esther
    Faith
    Father
    Fear
    Fellowship
    Finances
    Forgiveness
    Generosity
    Gifts
    Gospel
    Grace
    Great Commission
    Greatness
    Haiti
    Heaven
    Hebrews 12:14
    Heroes
    Holiness
    Home
    Hope
    Israel
    Joseph
    Light
    Mary
    Media
    Mercy
    Miracles
    Missions
    Moms
    Mothers Day
    Motivation
    Natural Gifts
    New Year
    Obstacles
    Options
    Outreach
    Overcome
    Peace
    Perspective
    Planning
    Power
    Priorities
    Race
    Rapture
    Read
    Renew
    Rla Connect
    Running
    Servant
    Sin
    Sing
    Spiritual Gifts
    Success
    Time
    Tithe
    Trials
    Truth
    Unity
    Variety
    Vision
    Voting
    Wedding
    Willing Heart
    Word
    Youth