Winning Churches

….Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain…. Psalm 127:1

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

In the world of sports, winning is everything. Just ask Gus Malzahn, the former head football coach at Auburn. Despite the fact that he received several coach of the year awards in 2013 for the amazing turn around of the team and having the best winning record against rival Alabama, Malzahn was fired. Why? His team wasn’t winning. And in the SEC football word, winning is everything.

It’s like that in a lot of areas. We seldom remember who lost a presidential race after a few years. We don’t celebrate those who come in second in anything. It’s the winners that count, the gold medal recipients. They are the ones who matter.

So it shouldn’t surprise us much that this idea of winning has infiltrated the church along with a host of well-meaning tragic ways of achieving it. Many churches are obsessed with growth not so much because they are wanting to advance the will of God on earth as it is in heaven but to keep in the institution alive and functioning.

So pastors and church staff are expected to produce results – to lead their church to win. Winning, of course, is usually defined by nickels and noses. More money and more people. Those leaders who can produce the desired results are heralded. Those who don’t are encouraged to find some place else to go or are simply Malzahned.

With all this pressure, churches are tempted to believe that all that is needed is more creative programming, larger than life leadership, and a drivenness to produce at all costs. Those that do, become the “it” church at least for a season. But just like Auburn, it doesn’t matter what you did last year, the status of “it” can be lost to some new upstart congregation in a heartbeat.

However, let’s say that a church is thought to be winning. Does that mean that they are winning in the eyes of Lord? Not necessarily. Jesus was never infatuated with bigness nor the world’s view of greatness. He often held what I call ensmallment campaigns to winnow out those who were only along for the ride because of the miracles and not for development in holiness or the pursuit of the Kingdom of God.

The Psalmist recognized this even before the church began. Those who seek to win by building the Lord’s work through the strength of their own power and determination will ultimately fail. Jesus echoed the same thing. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. We need to hear that. We can do nothing. Nothing.

Oh, we might be able to build a great religious institution that has all the outward appearances of being a winner. But it doesn’t mean that they are winners in God’s eyes. Jesus invited His followers to a counter-cultural way of life. A way that denies the advancement of the self. A way that seeks the best for others even if they are our enemies. A way that desires that God to be glorified as He is shown to do through His people what only God can do.

I hope the new coach of Auburn, Bryan Harsin, has great success. I hope as well that Gus Malzahn has a new opportunity to serve as a head coach. But most of all I hope the church can win not by the world’s definition of winning but by the Kingdom’s. It may not get much recognition on earth. But in heaven it will be celebrated for eternity.