A Whole New Attitude
To change a city, we first had to change our church.
Robert Lewis
April 1, 2003
Our church was 12 years old when we noticed the listlessness. People began to complain. "It doesn't feel the same around here." "My small group is boring." "I need something more." We had a purpose—we were "The Equipping Church"—but now, that didn't seem to be enough. Since our beginning in 1977, Fellowship Bible Church had been marked by a wonderful enthusiasm. There was always a new project, a new building, a new cause. But with the addition of staff and a comfortable facility where we no longer had to show up at 5:30 Sunday mornings to set up chairs, the congregation grew restless. In 1989 we took a survey. It confirmed our suspicions. Even with more people coming, we had lost our spiritual momentum. We wondered if there was a problem with our church's vision. As an "equipping church," a term borrowed from Ephesians 4, we had been equipping people to live better lives, have better marriages, be better parents, handle better their finances, and grow deeper in God's Word. But we had never asked ourselves what was the end result of all that equipping. On a staff retreat, one leader plunged us into crisis when he asked, "Equipped for what?" We had no good answer. Equipped for what?
Our survey revealed that for the first five years after people entered the church, they were excited. They loved the worship, teaching, and ministry. But eventually they reached a dead end. There wasn't anything for them to do. We could feel it. As leaders we felt pushed to provide bigger events and better ministries. We were dancing harder and faster just to maintain enthusiasm. Our people, meanwhile, were fed, grown, equipped, and ready—for nothing. Our mission became, by default, keeping the people happy. Then we asked ourselves, "Are we just about building ...
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