Jun
21
2011

Is it a Church You Pastor or a 501c3?

An article by Matt

Last week Southern Baptists from all over the country descended upon Phoenix for the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention. Having planted a Southern Baptist Church I found myself drawn to watching the convention online in order to stay in the loop on all things SBC. In a report released just prior to the convention Ed Stetzer once again told a truth that scares many long time baptists: baptisms are down, membership is falling off, and we have moved beyond a blip into a trend.

Of course, the media jumped all over this story as the once powerful Southern Baptist Convention has begun its’ great decline as churches all over the country see falling attendance, disinterest from the younger generations, and loss of the social prominence that the institution once held. In response to that is Skye Jethani’s post at Out of Ur: The Church is Dead… Long Live the Church!

I am not going to summarize the whole post, but one line jumped out at me:

I think we get ourselves into trouble when we fail to distinguish his Church from the numerous 501c3 organizations we call “churches.”

Did you catch that?

This one sentence has been haunting me all night.

How many churches in this nation are indistinguishable from any other non-profit in their area?
How many churches in this nation have lost their passion for the gospel to the point that they are just another 501c3?

I am convinced that THE Church is thriving.
I am convinced that Christ will not allow his bride to die off.
I am convinced that God is moving in incredible ways through the churches of this country and even more so in churches all over the world.

But I am also convinced that the churches that have forsaken their first love are slowly dying off… that the wheat and the chaff are being separated. Pastor, be on guard… do not let your church become just another non-profit.

How do YOU ensure that YOUR church is not just another non-profit?