Fringes are out!

Fringes are never in fashion in the church, in that churches should not have fringes and yet increasingly we find ourselves with churches with significant fringes.  I remember as a young man frustrated with the churches fringe being told that in any organisation 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people and that this naturally applied to the church too.  And I remember being horrified at the thought that 80% of church being uninvolved was the norm.  Because I just don't see it in the New Testament church.  The NT church seems to be fringe-less.  But as I've circled back to this problem again I've been wondering why our churches are so successful at growing a fringe and how we stop doing so.  Here are a few tentative suggestions:

We are conflict averse
For some reason we seem to have developed into a conflict averse church.  This shows itself in lots of ways but in this particular area it has tragically shown itself in people being quick to leave rather than resolve conflict in church.  When someone feels put out or offended rather than raise the issue and work through the painful but gospel process of reconciliation they leave. Except the problem is that if that isn't resolved they will become Evangelical Gypsies who change church every 6 months or more, every time a conflict arises.  It also betrays a shallow understanding of the gospel and of God's church - you simply don't change families when it gets hard (that applies to pastors as well as congregations - and I'm preaching to myself here as much as anyone!).

But being conflict averse is also a problem among church leaders.  We simply aren't keen to challenge people about where they are at.  We don't meet people to challenge them about drift or unwise decisions.  This may be because of bad experiences in the past when either we have done that badly or it has been taken badly, or it may be because we fear seeming judgemental, or because we haven't ever been loved like this ourselves.  Yet from personal experience I remember just such a loving confrontation when I was a teenager drifting and being unwise in the decisions I made and thank God for the godly pastor who took a deep breath and traced out my dangerous trajectory for me, even though it took me months to see he was right.  It was not enjoyable for either of us but it was loving and godly.

I wonder too if we as pastors and church leaders wouldn't rather someone was in attendance on a Sunday physically even if they aren't connected and engaging emotionally or spiritually because we hope God will speak to them and break through.  I'm not saying God can't but I've seen many situations where this lack of loving confrontation has led to a creeping terminal hardness of heart, and I wonder if they had been confronted in love with where they were heading earlier they wouldn't have turned.

Do we need to cut off the fringe?
So here's the question do we need to cut off the fringe?  If so how?  If not why not?  I'm not going to talk about membership because that doesn't automatically preclude fringe membership of the church, though I think exercised in love it is helpful.

I don't think cutting off the fringe is what we need to do.  I do think we need to educate the fringe, challenge the fringe and preach the gospel again and again to the fringe.  Not just from the pulpit but in personal visitation by the churches leaders, in our use of our homes for hospitality, in our spending time together.  But there comes a time when we need to speak to people in loving honesty about the call of the gospel to every member ministry, every member care and discipleship.

We need to raise the bar of discipleship to be in line with the bar Jesus sets rather than allow people to settle for drift.

Call people to count the cost
I wonder often if part of the problem is that we are content to call people to follow Jesus without helping them count the cost, without teaching them that following Jesus means really and actively becoming part of his people.  1 John stresses again and again that from the beginning John taught the church(es) that they were to love one another.  In other words following Jesus meant being committed to and active within the church family.  To follow Jesus without doing that is like being a fish who doesn't like and won't go in water - you won't live long.  Do we teach people that part of counting the cost?

Part of the cost and joy of following Jesus is being in a church, not on the fringe of it.

Make disciples not church goers
Tied in with that need to teach people to count the cost is the need for us to disciple people wisely.  To call people to a life of taking on Jesus joy filled rest full mission to change the world one life at a time by the power of the gospel as we make disciples.  You aren't saved to go to church for an hour and half a week we are saved to know and enjoy life with God Father Son and Spirit and to increasingly align our heart, joys and loves with his.  And part of that is fully playing your part in the church family God has blessed you with and blessed with you.