Some of us are just wired to want to fix and improve things. Some folks have the mindset of “If it’s not incredibly broken then why even mess with it?” But some of you are like me and just feel this burning desire to improve the world and the parts of it that we call “ours” in even the smallest ways possible. We want things to be better than they were yesterday. And there may not be a better place for things to get better than in the church.
I imagine we could all share stories of times we’ve been at a church and things didn’t go quite as they should have. If we were to sit down and share all these stories together, some would make us laugh while others would probably make us cry.
The church isn’t perfect. Anyone can see that. But it’s incredibly important to God and so it should be incredibly important to us.
If you would allow me, I’d like to speak especially to those who aren’t on staff at a church and yet you still call it “your church.” To those of you who think that your church can and should get better in some ways. I’d like to give you some ways in which you could make your church better:
1. Get in the game.
The greatest changes come from the inside – not the outside. When you’re involved you’ll see the situation better, you’ll know who can really make the changes that need made, and you’ll be personally invested in seeing things improve. No athletes are going out into the crowd to take advice on how they could do a better job. They’re looking for that to come from those already in the game with them. And I’ll be honest, church leaders tend to find the two cents from uninvolved people to be a lot cheaper than the two cents from invested people. So if you want your church to change for the better, roll up your sleeves and get in the game!
2. Take your constructive criticism to the right places.
If your greatest goal is to complain about the problems you see, then you can gossip to every “sister” and “brother” who will lend you an ear and you’ll have accomplished your task. But if your real goal is to see things actually get better, talk to those in leadership who can do something about it. We sometimes become afraid of what they might think or say if we seem to be criticizing them. But if we do it in love, whether they accept it or not, we can at least know that we took our constructive criticism to the right place.
3. Have the attitude of Jesus.
Philippians 2 tells us that we should have the attitude of Christ, which means being humble. Jesus is God and yet He chose to humble Himself to becoming a man like us. He humbled Himself to working as a carpenter. He humbled Himself to hanging out with nobodies. He humbled Himself to serving others constantly while being recognized only for what He could do for others. And He humbled Himself by dying on a cross for us. The greatest agent of change in a church is not the gifts that cause one to stand out, it is the humility that causes us to serve.
4. Be gracious.
Grace is that wonderful gift that allows us to give what has not been deserved. God gave us eternal life when we deserved eternal death. Grace is what started the church and so it’ll be what continues the church.
5. Be more gracious.
It will simply never stop. People are broken. That means people in the church are broken. From the newcomer all the way up to the pastors and leadership. Every one of us are in need of forgiveness and grace. We shouldn’t be allowed to sin or make mistakes unchecked! But we should all be willing to give each other grace upon grace because we know that we will need it to. If you want to see your church become a better, stronger, healthier church then just strive to be as gracious as you can to those in your church. Build a gracious environment and I promise you that people will be drawn to it!