God and His Church

I can’t compartmentalize the person I am. I can’t hang my religion on the hat rack as I leave the church on Sunday and pick it up again when I return a week later. In no part of my life can I make major decisions or take positions that are not compatible with my discipleship.

I grew into it, however. I joined a church after coming home from World War II and was fairly typical in going to worship services, paying my fair share of the church’s support, but never making my discipleship a major part of my life. My wife, Helen, and I many years ago “moved off dead center,” to use her words. It’s been an exciting experience to follow God’s lead as He has helped us to grow in Him.

It’s unfortunate when churches reach the point of no longer moving off dead center, when they lose their “first love” and abandon the task of spreading the Gospel and winning converts. It’s sad to see a church become a social club with members going through the motions for the sake of tradition or a vague sense that it’s the right thing to do. For many years my wife and I fit that description pretty closely. There’s nothing wrong with social involvement, it’s just not the most important aspect of the church’s work, which is to tell the Gospel as effectively and to as many people as possible. A worthy goal for each of us as well.

For churches and members who’ve lost their way, I’d suggest going back to square one. Organizations go through four stages: the creative stage, the organizational stage, the defending stage, and the stage of “blame placing.” Stage one is when someone starts out with a dream, an idea, a burning motivation. It could be parents raising their first child, a business with a unique idea, or a group of new Christians. In any case, it’s an exciting venture, a challenging time of building something.

Churches in need of breathing new life into their missions should go back to stage one. It would be fantastic if every church could have that kind of single-mindedness about its role in the world. If we could turn back to that basic goal of bringing new people into the Kingdom and into the church, all the other things – raising the budget, educating the people, helping the poor – would flow naturally from the enormous surge of vitality that would be triggered by all those new, excited Christians in the church.

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Rich DeVos is vice-chairman of Gospel Communications. He is also the author of "Hope From My Heart: Ten Lessons for Life," co-founder of Amway Corp., and owner and chairman of the NBA's Orlando Magic.