Are Church Programs the Best Way?

I have for a number of years now consciously resisted the idea of Church “programs,” particularly when thought of as either a measure of success, or a mechanism for growth. Saved as a young adult, my introduction to the world of Fundamentalism was also the world of the Church program. Virtually every aspect of ministry was placed under—or attempted to be placed under—a program. This is perhaps not comprehensive, but this is what I mean in using the word: it meets at specific times, is under some form of leadership, it maintains some form of recordkeeping, has some stated spiritual goal in mind, and people in the congregation are strongly encouraged to participate in one.

Certainly, Churches are to operate in an orderly fashion. We have, in our local assembly, the very things I have mentioned: we operate a day school, we have a choir, a youth group, graded Sunday School classes, and children’s music ministries. But I retain a number of apprehensions about ministry programs, and their potential to become dominant and distracting things in the life of an assembly.

For instance, it becomes easy to evaluate Churches based upon the ministry programs they offer. People often choose the church they will attend based upon the programs available, and I’ve sometimes been surprised at the candidness with which people speak of such things. Pastors feel tremendous pressure to start and maintain programs (in my early days as a pastor we tried to start a youth department comprised of 5th graders in response to this pressure. Fortunately, it failed). This is so contrary to Scripture as to border on the absurd. There is not one commendation in any of the epistles about the programs offered. There is not one word in the letters to the Churches in Revelation about the ministries they were operating or failing to operate. Doctrine and devotion were the measuring sticks for every one of the 7 Churches.

Another concern is that programs become viewed as vehicles for Church success or growth. More programs equal more people, and more people are better than fewer people. This is not necessarily true, and certainly didn’t seem to be the philosophy Jesus employed, but we pastors are almost at times addicted to the mentality that if we’re not growing numerically, we’re failing ministerially. I know that the Biblical expectation is that “every man” may be presented to Jesus Christ in maturity ((Colossians 1.28), but it’s easy to lose sight of that when attendance is low, or dwindling.

I wonder if programs are the best—or only—way for God’s people to utilize their gifts. Churches that are heavy on programs are perhaps prone to think of the faithfulness of the members in terms of faithfulness to programs.

The largest concern I have about programs is that, if we are not careful, end up in “competition” with the program the Lord already has in place. The Lord didn’t just establish the Church, He gave us explicit instructions about what the Church is to do (make disciples), and how to do it (prayer and the ministry of the Word). It’s evident in every letter in the New Testament that Churches are to assemble weekly, pray together, sing together, and hear the Word. When the people weren’t assembled, they were to live out what they had been taught at work and home and evangelize all they encountered. The evidence of the New Testament is that those activities sufficed to spread the Gospel and build strong Christians.

So, I wonder—has the abundance of programs, and parachurch organizations been an asset to the Church? Is it possible that we cannot envision the success of the Church without the “help” of such things? How often do we pastors find ourselves struggling to fulfil our main task (feeding), because so much time is consumed administrating programs?

Paul admonished us who pastor to be incredibly careful in how we build a Church (I Corinthians 3.9-15). God’s people are born through, and nourished to maturity, through His Word and our efforts are best spent there: Acts 6:4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.