Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1994

The Driving Church
Jack Van Dyk

Remember the television commercial that received so much air time just a few years ago? The makers of the Datsun automobile would highlight some of the wonderful features of their cars with this spectacular musical climax. Who can forget the company's staccato singing of their slogan "We are driven!"?

Datsun laid claim to possessing a sense of urgency, a sense of mission, a sense of purpose and direction as they pressed in hard upon a specific goal or objective. "We are driven!!" Is it really any different for us? Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen people of God ... we are driven!

Now, it's entirely possible that you might just be saying to yourself- "Whoa! Not us. Not our church. We're a low-key, stable, and steady group of people movin' through time and space without any sense of commitment to an overarching purpose or controlling principle that would drive us on. Our church's ministry certainly isn't 'driven'."

Perhaps we have never consciously recognized it before. Perhaps we are simply unwilling to admit it. But certainly no one can deny the fact that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a 'propelled' or 'driven' people. Every Christian congregation can truly say of itself. 'We are driven!'. The only question remaining to be answered is: 'By what are we driven?' As you think about the church that you belong to, ask yourself. 'What propels our congregation?'

Over the past 34 years of involvement in the visible Christian church, I have observed a number of forces that frequently 'drive' local churches and make them the kind of congregations that they are. You yourself have probably already noted how there are: Tradition driven churches, Crisis-driven churches, Culture-driven churches, Dollar-driven churches, Pastor-driven churches, and Vision-driven churches. From a biblical stand point, I would like to suggest that only this last kind of church - a Vision driven church - is the kind of church that honours the Lord Jesus Christ. Which kind of church is yours?

You'll know immediately if you're a part of a Traditional-driven church, for the goal (and one that is typically strictly enforced) is to maintain the 'status quo'. Decision making in these kinds of churches is conducted by using the criteria of sameness, repetition, and sticking with the familiar and comfortable practices of a previous generation, rather than pioneering with God through trial and error experimentation in meeting contemporary needs, crossing new horizons, etc. Typically, in a Tradition-driven church, the prospect of any growth or progress (i.e., change) in any department of church life will evoke the watchtower cry of"But, we've never done it that way before!" Consequently, ruts become common; rituals, standard fare.

Unfortunately, this tradition-driven mindset can creep in upon us oh so subtly. Some time ago, I heard about a congregation that had historically put on a Vacation Bible School in the summer. Part of their advertising strategy had always been to spend $25 for the insertion of I 000 full page flyers into a special edition of the Penny Saver that went directly to the neighbourhood immediately surrounding the church building.

When the point was raised at a VBS planning committee meeting that the church ought not to spend the $25 on PennySaver advertising because of the recent discovery (through home visitation in the neighbourhoods) that the once young, growing family, community of 20 years prior was now a greying, more senior-aged, community with very few children, the point was dismissed because "We've always advertised for VBS in the Penny Saver before." (Noting also that it was the cheapest advertising means available!) Does your church leadership make decisions like this - on the basis of 'tradition'? Do you?

The second kind of church previously mentioned was the Crisis-driven church. As the name betrays, it is 'crises' that make this church what it is. Generally speaking, life in the Crisis-driven church is quite peaceful. Most of its members and its leadership are rather content to be floating along, taking their rest, living at ease in Zion, 'doing business as usual', until ... until they hit a bump in the road of church life. It might be a 'church budget' crisis, it might be a 'pastoral relations' crisis, it might be a 'distasteful consistory decision' crisis, but sooner or later a crisis arises in the life of the church that finally succeeds in getting the church off of dead center.

In terms of its future, the Crisis-driven church has no intentional plane of going anywhere in particular. Its posture is basically passive as it simply awaits the next crisis to stir it to some type of spiritual or ecclesiastical activity. Driven on by these crises, it is always the 'squeaky wheel' that 'gets the grease'.

A more common phenomena these days is the Culture-driven church. Since I culture' is the driving force behind many significant decisions in these kinds of churches, they are typically 'all eyes' with regard to what others in the religious world are doing.

For instance, if the church down the street, or if the church across town, or if the church in some other Classis, is doing I seeker services', then the Culture-driven church gets into the 'seeker service' scene. If Sunday School bus ministry happens to be the going thing, then the culture driven church purchases an used school bus to "go thou and do likewise." If a certain diaconal programme increases the annual congregational giving for a couple of sister churches within the denomination, then the programme is quickly snatched up by the leadership of a culture-driven church and implemented by the deacons of that particular church.

Being driven by the force of religious culture, or trying to imitate what God is doing in some other fellowship, is at best simply spiritually ineffective. A more serious danger arises when the Culturedriven church looks beyond the bounds of the church to what the world finds popular and appealing. The result is that key ministry decisions (such as 'who serves in church office') are formulated with more of a concern for being 'politically correct' than for being 'biblically correct'.

Also unhealthy is a fourth kind of church, the kind that is almost exclusively driven by the highly pragmatic criteria of finances when it comes to following God's leading into the future. In the Dollar-driven church, finances dictate the church's agenda in such a way that the #I question asked is: "Do we have the money?". Or, in a more negative form, it is simply stated: "But we don't have the money."

Clearly, the Christian church is 'driven'. And if your congregation is not tradition-driven, not crisis-driven, not culture-driven, nor dollar-driven, then perhaps it is a Pastor-driven church that you find yourself belonging to today. Mark it well: In this kind of church, it is the pastor who is seen as being responsible for 'whipping up' the troops. It is the pastor as 'professional' who keeps the machinery of 'the programme' controlled and functioning smoothly with his dazzling administrative skills (and possibly with a pastoral staff). It is the pastor who must (it is thought) marry, bury, lead worship, find new programmes and ideas for the church's ministry, counsel all who need counselling, lead Bible studies, do the work of evangelism and visitation, etc. What results is a P.D.P. church -a 'Pastor Dependent People' church - one that is essentially a group of 'ministry cripples' because of their pastoral dependency. In this kind of church, one will notice that as soon as the pastor leaves, church activity and religious enthusiasm grind to a screeching halt (O.K., O.K.! Maybe it is only a 'snarled crawl') until the next Domine can come along and revive the saints.

If we confess Jesus Christ as the only true King and Head of the Church, then neither tradition, crises, culture, dollars, nor pastors should be what drives and propels our individual congregations into the future. Indeed, they are factors to be reckoned with, but ultimately all pace-setting direction for Christ's church needs to come from the Head Himself (as mediated by His Word and Spirit). If anything less than a vision for ministry - being built upon this foundation - drives our churches, then we will have failed our Master by settling for a substitute source of guidance. For, in the end, it will only be a clearly-articulated, corporately-embraced, and consistently-applied, vision for ministry that will enable our individual churches to advance Christ's kingdom with confidence against the many uncertainties of our world in the days ahead.

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