Franklin Memorial Christian Church > Mission vs. Membership Model

Mission vs. Membership Model

The following chart makes comparison between two different types of church models. Over the years the American church has had a tendency to stray from the New Testament principles that the church was founded upon. The New Testament Church was Mission minded in every sense, but over the centuries the church strayed from its basic foundation. In the mid 1800's the Restoration Movement sought to regain basic New Testament principles. Since the beginning of the Restoration Movement, many churches have again strayed from their original missions, and become an internally focused, country club type organization rather than a mission focused upon reaching outside itself to it's surrounding community and beyond. The purpose of this chart is to identify the various characteristics of each model, and then assure ourselves that FMCC is grounded upon the model the Lord really intended, which obviously, is the Mission Minded Church.

Issue	Mission Minded Church	Membership Minded Church
Driving Force	Mission, Vision, Core Beliefs & Value	Tradition, human loyalties, expectation of members
Mission	External: Reach the world	Internal: Serve the members
Structure	Simple, functional, local, rational	Organization: Complex, bureaucratic, democratic, and legislative
Relation to God	Personal, passionate, lived out in community	Impersonal, institutional, social, corporate, vague
Role of “Clergy”	Teacher, leader, equipper, overseer	Professional; chaplain to the members
Role of Members	Active, committed, engaged, being equipped “ministers” in service to Jesus	Passive, customers to be served, patrons to be pleased, stakeholders in the “democracy”
Church Paradigm	Mission-the Kingdom is launched and spreads to reach the lost	Membership-Providing benefits to members
Origin of Paradigm	Holy Spirit and Word of God	Once effective innovations that became ineffective traditions
Present status	Biblical example serves as the model	Stagnation; decline or plateau
Purpose	Make Disciples	Serve the members and maintain the institution
Character of members	Fully devoted disciples filled with the Holy Spirit, hungering for righteousness	Benefit seeking dues-paying member of the lodge
Selecting officers	Character, competence, commitment	Politics, adequate score on traditional check-list
Role of Elders	Overseeing the mission, casting vision, setting direction, policies, guarding doctrine, leadiing, teaching, prescribing, disciplining	Institution tenders, proxy for members, micro-managers
Guiding Principle	Obedience to God’s intentions	Traditions, members preferences, opinions, expectations
Focus of Strategy	Effectiveness in reaching the unreached	Avoiding members’ displeasure
Source of Authority	Christ as Lord, Word of God, Holy Spirit	“I like, I want, I think, It seems to me”
Tasks of Leaders	Study/communicate Word of God; set direction; oversee the faith, mission & life of the church; equip/mobilize people in ministry	Maintain the institution, respond to members’ wishes, serve the members