July 6, 2001 Edition

CHURCH DEVELOPMENT

A Private Or Public Faith?

By Dr. Roger K. Swanson
Director of Operation Evangelization

One of the more important issues for evangelization is whether a person’s profession of Christianity is private or public. Most Americans and many United Methodists have opted for the former. Christianity, many believe, is a matter of personal choice and taste. It is, in other words, no one’s business, but our own.

The truth is that no matter how private we want to make it, a person’s beliefs have consequences for other people. Indeed, what we believe about God matters more than anything else in the world and, many of us believe, in the world to come, as well.

It certainly matters to the mission of making disciples. If we regard a person’s faith as private then there is no compelling value to sharing faith, inviting friends and neighbors to our church, and congregational hospitality.

Many United Methodist churches give lip service to the mission of making disciples and may even “tweak” their systems to attempt a more welcoming posture. Without a congregational value, however, that believes lost people matter to God and/or personal faith in and relationship to God has consequences for other people, then such “tweaking” won’t last long. It will disappear like the morning fog.

I was recently asked how healthy congregational values are developed. Values grow over time, but a change of values can occur overnight. Have you ever heard a cancer survivor talk about the difference having cancer has made in his life? Serious illness can be a means of grace, leading to personal transformation of values.

Congregations can also get sick unto death and survive by the grace of God and be changed. Most often, however, people change when they learn something new that challenges their world view. Preaching and teaching has this potential. Sometimes a slight change in worship format can have the same effect. A pastor in southwest Texas had a burden with some of his lay persons concerning the absence of children in church. What few children there were in Sunday school did not attend worship. The pastor introduced a children’s sermon to the worship schedule. Every Sunday, whether children attended or not, he offered a children’s sermon. Parents started bringing their children to church. A new value of the preciousness and importance of children to the people of God developed in that congregation.

I have been advocating lately that worship leaders recognize people who have invited guests with them. Guests often do not want to be singled out, but recognizing those who invited them will affirm a value of invitation as critical to congregational outreach.

Critical to congregational outreach and growth is a core value that personal faith matters to others and has, indeed, eternal consequences.

Top of this page

 © 2001 Florida United Methodist Review Online