Church Programs

We like programs. I'm talking about things like "12-step programs" and "business plans" and the like. We'll break things down into parts and offer "5 easy steps to a thinner you" or something like it. Even churches like programs. We have programs for the children and for the teens and for the young adults. We have programs for married people and programs for older adults. We have recovery programs and visitation programs and … well, all sorts of programs to do what church is supposed to do.

I don't like programs. Wait … am I allowed to say that? Maybe not, but it's true.

You see, programs are systems and church is people. Christian living is about the "one anothers" and not the mechanisms. As an example, a church I know started a program during this COVID crisis called "member care groups" where the leadership assigned names of members to a large array of leadership -- deacons, life group leaders, committees, that sort of thing. Good program, you see? Now everyone in the church had someone who would check on them weekly (so the program said) to see if they're doing okay in these hard times. Good program. But, of course, it didn't work. Why? Well, as a program it was fine, but as people it had a serious defect. You can't assign a "care group" to someone who didn't care. Programs, you see, are mechanisms and not people.

There are, in fact, lots of good programs out there. The problem is that programs don't take into account people. I'd like to see, perhaps, a sort of hybrid. I'm not opposed to structure ("programs"), but church has to be about people. So, let's say that someone thinks, "We should really make sure everyone in the church is cared for, looked in on, checked." That's some structure. A good purpose. "But the task is too big for me. There are too many people and there is too much need. I'll get others to help me." Okay, now we're moving to action. We're taking a good, "one another" idea that is inside the church's wheelhouse, so to speak, and trying to give it legs. That's good. The critical question at this juncture is how? How are we going to get others to help? In the example of that church I mentioned, they assigned people. What if, instead, we asked? What if, instead, we encouraged? What if, instead, we maybe modeled it and, oh, I don't know, taught it to others? You know, like discipleship or something. What if people with a passion for ministry sought to pass on that passion rather than invest in a program? What if we built a "pyramid scheme" kind of thing where a person who was moved by God to do this thing got three or four others that were willing to take part and learn and mentored them on it -- put them to work, gave them guidance, did it themselves while doing it with others, that sort of thing? And those three or four, as they became more comfortable and even excited about it would get three or four others to help and teach and work and guide and mentor them into the same thing. Now we'd have people moved by desire than command. We'd have a "care program" built by people whose hearts motivated them to, you know, care.

Just an example. It would work in all sorts of ways. But it would be motivated at its roots by "love one another" rather than "the pastor said so." It would be aimed not only at "do unto others," but to a large part "make disciples, teaching to obey all that I have commanded" (Matt 28:19-20). Imagine children's programs built on discipleship rather than curriculum. Imagine the effect on a high school group where each member was being mentored rather than herded by a program. Programs are fine, but church isn't about programs; it's about building believers to minister. I would guess that a lot of these types of ministries done for discipleship rather than program purposes would look similar to programs, but it's not about activities. It's about changed hearts and changed lives. Leaders can't check the book and see if you hit all the salient points. They have to check their hearts to insure they're actually ministering. Instead of a program structure, church should fundamentally operate around "love one another" with the critical "as I have loved you." Programs alone miss that connection.