The Church - Solutions?

The other day, I retweeted a post from Simple Church that said, "The Church, as a whole, is doing more and more. And the church, as a whole, is making less and less of a difference."

I've received several comments and emails about what I think might be the solution to the issue of the church making more of a difference.

While I don't claim to have "the" answers or be any sort of an expert on the issue of solving the problems of the church's relevance in a post-modern, post-denominational, post-Christian world, I do think there are some things for us to consider.

• If it ain't working, stop!!! We're wasting people's time, talents, and finances. If whatever it is we're currently doing that's not producing the results we want to experience - STOP!!! 
• Get strategic. Know what it is that we are trying to produce, and if it's not producing the results, then don't do those things anymore.
• Make the vision crystal clear. What is it that your church has been called to be and do?
• Ask. Ask the people in our communities how we might partner with them to find solutions to the issues that ails our communities - homelessness, poverty, hunger, single parents, isolated and alienated aging and ailing senior citizens, etc.
• Pray. God really does answer prayer. Seriously. Pray. Get the church to pray.

Before we do things for the sake of doing things, I think a time to pray, evaluate, listen, and plan would be highly beneficial for all of us.

God's placed our churches for a reason - and that reason can't be become a totally irrelevant relic in the community. So I believe that God has a plan and purpose for us being here. I believe that God wants us to be effective. That means that God has a solution to the issues we've been dealing with. 

It's time for us to pray, listen, evaluate, and plan.

As Forrest Gump once said, "That's all I want to say about that."