A Bad Motive For Starting a Church Ministry
Churches are starting new ministries and programs all the time. But how does a church choose whether or not to start a particular ministry? One of the bad motives for starting a ministry is also one of the tempting ways.
People in the congregation have fond memories of a past ministry.
People can look back and can remember when so-and-so started x ministry and it was successful and people were excited and things were great. Maybe we just need to restart that old ministry again.
The problem is that there was a reason why that ministry eventually stopped. Not only that, if it was more than a couple of years ago, community and culture have changed. Just because something was wildly successful in 1979 doesn’t mean it will be wildly successful in 2019.
That is not to say that we ignore the successes of the past. There is much that we can learn from them. The congregation should ask why that ministry was successful. How did the passions of the congregation, the needs of the community and the available resources come together to create a successful ministry.
Then the congregation should look at their current passions, their current community and their current resources and ask what that intersection would look like today. Instead of duplicating the past, attempt to apply the relevant principles.
It is tempting to use fond memories of the past when developing a “new” ministry. But don’t do it!
