The other day I was talking with a pastor about me possibly coaching him. In the course of the conversation I mentioned the need for churches to be more Kingdom minded than church minded and it went totally over his head. You could see in his eyes that he had no concept about what it meant to be Kingdom minded as opposed to church minded.
So what is the difference between Kingdom- and church-minded? The best way to explain the difference is to use a couple of examples that I’ve experienced along the way.
Church-Minded
I was working in New Jersey with a denomination that wanted me to identify some areas where new churches were needed. I identified four or five areas that did not have one growing church from their denomination. So the denominational officials set out to plant a church in each of the areas. And then all of you know what broke out. The dying churches in the area rose up and sent all kinds of hate mail to the officials saying they were trying to kill their church. Now mind you, none of these churches were growing while the population around them was exploding and they had the audacity to complain about the denomination trying to kill them. That’s an example of being church-minded.
Kingdom-Minded
In the middle years of my tenure at the church I restarted in 1969, it become clear that we needed to switch to contemporary worship. But I had no idea how to do it. I did know there was a Pentecostal church down the road that was growing like a weed. We were growing too, but only nearly as fast. So I approached them for help on how to start a contemporary service. Not only did they tell me how; they also loaned our church a band and singers to get it started. And they stayed until we found our own worship leader and band. Now that’s Kingdom minded.
Is Your Church Kingdom-Minded or Church-Minded?
The other day I was talking with a pastor about me possibly coaching him. In the course of the conversation I mentioned the need for churches to be more Kingdom minded than church minded and it went totally over his head. You could see in his eyes that he had no concept about what it meant to be Kingdom minded as opposed to church minded.
So what is the difference between Kingdom- and church-minded? The best way to explain the difference is to use a couple of examples that I’ve experienced along the way.
Church-Minded
I was working in New Jersey with a denomination that wanted me to identify some areas where new churches were needed. I identified four or five areas that did not have one growing church from their denomination. So the denominational officials set out to plant a church in each of the areas. And then all of you know what broke out. The dying churches in the area rose up and sent all kinds of hate mail to the officials saying they were trying to kill their church. Now mind you, none of these churches were growing while the population around them was exploding and they had the audacity to complain about the denomination trying to kill them. That’s an example of being church-minded.
Kingdom-Minded
In the middle years of my tenure at the church I restarted in 1969, it become clear that we needed to switch to contemporary worship. But I had no idea how to do it. I did know there was a Pentecostal church down the road that was growing like a weed. We were growing too, but only nearly as fast. So I approached them for help on how to start a contemporary service. Not only did they tell me how; they also loaned our church a band and singers to get it started. And they stayed until we found our own worship leader and band. Now that’s Kingdom minded.
Question: How can a church shift from being church-minded to being Kingdom-minded? Share your advice in the Comments section below.
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