CORE Ministry Redefining Church Focus Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Authorized Version of the Bible, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. Scripture quotations marked (NCV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Century Version, copyright 1987, 1988, 1991. Used by permission of Word Publishing. Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1986, 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL 60189. Scripture quotations marked (TMB) are taken from The Message: New Testament, copyright 1993 by Eugene H. Peterson. Emphasis within scripture quotations is the author s own. Printed in the United States of America. 2007 by Randall Rittenberry Ranlee Publishing and Media P.O. Box 662 Cookeville, Tn 38503 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher. 1
The purpose of this book is to introduce a philosophy of ministry that I call CORE ministry. The goal of CORE ministry is to promote church focus. As I look around the landscape of American churches it seems as though the church is busy, but not fruitful. In John 15:8 Jesus says: Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. (KJV) There is a big difference between being fruitful and being busy. When we are busy there is a lot of activity but very little result. Usually, the results do not justify the amount of activity. When we are fruitful there is activity but with better results. Usually, the results outweigh the amount of activity. The data from most research groups indicate that most of the church s efforts in reaching and keeping people are not working. The majority of American church growth is simply the result of church membership transfer. This indicates three things: 1. The church is not reaching the unchurched. 2. The church is not keeping the members they have. 3. The church is focusing on the wrong things. I understand that people will leave one church for another as God leads them to do so. In some cases, people need to leave. What is disturbing is that most people are leaving one church for another due 2
to being burned-out, worn-out, and put-out. This is the result of busyness. Most of these people are looking for ways to be more satisfied without as much activity. So they bounce from church to church and find the same thing with different people. Sometimes they never go to church again. The biggest complaint against the American church is that it is not relevant. I believe what people are really saying is I am not fulfilling my purpose in the church. The church should be the place people go to fulfill their purpose; but because of the undue activity of misplaced focus people find themselves filling a spot, not fulfilling their purpose. It is the goal of CORE ministry to help people realize their dreams through purpose-driven focus. Churches that will embrace this philosophy will be the churches where destinies are launched. I want to thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope that this will be the starting place of an exciting journey for all of us. In His Grace, Randall 3
CORE Ministry Redefining Church Focus Randall Rittenberry 4
Chapter 1 Programs vs. Purpose A Balanced Church Matt. 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen (NKJV) We see in this passage that Jesus gave the church a two-part purpose: go to the world and make disciples. Today, we call this evangelism and discipleship. Another way to word it is outreach and spiritual growth. This is the formula for a healthy church. We are to reach the world with the gospel and also facilitate our own personal, family, and church growth. This requires a balancing act. The majority of churches in America do not have that balance. It is the intent of Core ministry to balance outreach (evangelism) and spiritual growth (discipleship). To reach that balance we must first look and see the effects of being out of balance. 5
Proverbs 11:1 A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight (KJV). Being out of balance is simply the result of taking something to an extreme while dismissing or downplaying the other variables involved. In this case a church will look at the above passage and focus on only one of the two parts. The problem with being out of balance is that while one area is getting what it needs to succeed, the other areas are neglected and fall into disrepair. While that doesn t sound too bad, we have to keep in mind that there are people involved in those areas. Those people take what they do seriously. When the areas they are in are neglected, they will personally feel neglected. So now this church has two significant problems: 1. The areas being neglected are lacking and therefore cannot provide consistent or adequate service to the people. 2. The people in the neglected areas do not feel fulfilled. There are two areas of purpose the church should have: outreach and discipleship. Both of these purposes will manifest in different ways. The church will have people with the desire to do both of these areas in the ways that God has called them to do them. To neglect either area is to neglect the call of God and to neglect the gifts and passions of the people called to fulfill those areas. I saw a sign in a church in my hometown. It said The church can be 6
fishers of men, or an aquarium. Actually, it should be both. This is the balance of purpose that God has in mind. Programs Defined The natural inclination of most churches is to lean toward one part of purpose. Those churches then begin to pour all of their energies and resources toward that agenda. If what they are doing doesn t work to achieve that agenda, they will begin to look for other ways to achieve that agenda instead of assessing to see if the agenda is faulty. This is called program-oriented church. A program in and of itself is not a bad thing. It becomes bad when that church looks to the program as a means of fulfilling an agenda at the expense of people s gifts. Instead of looking at a person s gifts and finding a way for that person to express those gifts, a program-oriented church will expect that person to fill the program they have need of being filled in order to fulfill an agenda that, in reality, is out of balance. After a while people become frustrated and are not productive in the programs they are a part of. At this point the leadership of the church begins to put pressure on the person. Then the pressure becomes accusation. Finally, the person becomes entirely disillusioned with the church and leaves. 7
This is where the scenario gets really sticky. The church has this program now with no one to fill it. So they look to people already serving (and stretched thin as it is) and hand the program over to them. They dare not refuse because they would be labeled selfish, or rebellious. Besides, what a great honor it is to be handed more ministry. This means you have moved to another level of maturity. (Note the hint of sarcasm.) After a while any program that person is involved with suffers. Having too many irons in the fire causes this. The leadership accuses the person of being lazy and unspiritual. The truth is that person is probably neither lazy nor unspiritual. They are simply tired of trying to make something work that they have no passion or vision for. Eventually they will lose passion and vision even in the things they were passionate about. This is where burnout comes in. Some people say that burnout is an inside job. In other words, it is the result of being disconnected to God. While it is true that being disconnected can cause burnout, it is equally true that the more a person is required to do, the less time they have for their relationship with God. We can become so busy with the work of the ministry that we do not spend time developing our relationship with God. Acts 20:28 Take heed unto yourselves (KJV) 8
1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this you shall save both yourself, and them that hear thee. (KJV) Both of these scriptures indicate the need to take care of our spiritual lives. If we become so busy doing for the Lord, we will spend less time being with Him. A program-oriented church will never see this. We have to understand something about churches. Just as each of us tend to get our worth from other sources other than the finished work of Jesus, so do churches. It is easy to get into the trap of using programs to define who we are as a church. That is why a program-oriented church will never see the difference between doing and being: they have their worth and identity wrapped around their programs. When worth is tied up into this scenario, churches and their leaders will not let go even if people get hurt in the process. In Ephesians 2:25-30 we see the story of Epaphroditus. We see that he became sick and almost died because he was trying to do too much. This is a classic example of burnout: one person trying to do too much work. In the case of modern American churches, the leaders force that work on people so the church can continue their programs from which they draw their worth and value. 9
Purpose Not Programs CORE ministry has its foundation in purpose not programs. Instead of creating programs for people to fill, CORE identifies ministries that need to be in place in the church that will help the church fulfill its purpose: outreach and spiritual growth. The CORE approach is to focus on these ministries. Any program that takes away from the core should not be done as a branch of the church. Let s say a person wanted to do, for example, a nursing home ministry. The church should give support but it should not become a program of the church if it is not part of the core. If it becomes a program, or tradition, of the church then they are obligated to keep it going. The obligation eventually takes away from the energy and resources of the core ministries. This will also lead to the scenario described earlier. We have to remember that busyness does not equal effectiveness. Busyness will either lead to burnout or another possibility: putting someone in a position they are not ready for, which creates another set of problems. By focusing on the core ministries, the church will increase its effectiveness because they are led by purpose. This approach will also help a church to develop excellence in ministry. When people are not stretched thin their ability to focus will increase which will result in overall excellence. 10