Sunday School at 9 am | worship at 10 am

Transformational Church

 

To those in the West, the bigger the number of
respondents, the more replicated the technique.  Westerners are enamored by size,  largest number of hands raised, and so on.  When the sun has set on these reports, we seem rather dismayed when the
statistics show the quality of the life of the believer is no different than that of the unbeliever.
Ravi Zacharias

 

Congregations have long measured success by "buildings, bodies, and bucks”—the number of square feet in the church building, the number of people who attend the services, and the number of dollars attendees put in the offering plate.   But is the number of “buildings, bodies, and bucks” generated by the church the only measurement of success?  What if the pews and offering plates are filled to overflowing every Sunday, but there is no discernible difference in the lives of those who attend church from those who do not attend church?

 

Perhaps we need a different scorecard.

 

Of course, we want to see more people attend church.  Of course, we want to generate enough revenue to fund our ministries.  And yes, we want to erect buildings that do a good job of facilitating ministry.  But if “The Three Bs” constitute the only scorecard of an effective church, we’re going to miss the primary objective of the church.  The church exists, not simply to post impressive numbers, but to transform lives.  What good does it do to have large crowds attending services in nice big buildings who contribute large amounts of money if lives are not  being transformed? 

This Sunday, we will begin a new series of sermons titled, Transformational Church What is a transformational church?  A transformational church is a church that focuses on the gospel’s ability to change people.  When people are changed, churches are changed and communities are changed.   Gospel change always leads to broader change.  When people experience the power of the transformative power of God, the world notices.  And when people of the world see God’s people beginning to act like Jesus, and live like the body of Christ, they are drawn to the source of the transforming power of Christ. 

How do we become a transformational church?  The book of Acts provides a picture of what a transformational church looks like.  So, for the next several weeks, we’ll be looking at what God did through people just like us who were transformed by the Gospel of Christ.  They became a transformational force in the world.  When the people of God  experience the power of God and begin to act like  Jesus, the world notices.  But the world doesn’t just observe.  It changes.