What are we focusing on?

Times are tough for the church. That’s nothing new. It’s been tough for the church for many years now.

You know the stats – membership decline, less money and tighter budgets, Fewer people volunteering, more biblical illiteracy, fewer young people, fewer pastors, more closures, etc.

We spend a whole lot of time focused on decline, more of stuff we don’t like and less of stuff we do like.

There’s a saying – what you focus on, you get more of. This isn’t some hokey-pokey “The Secret” type of saying. There’s nothing secretive or magical about it actually. When your attention and focus is on seeing green cars, guess what your mind is tuned into – green cars. And you’ll notice there are a whole lot of green cars on the road. It’s not that there are more green cars on the road. It’s that your brain is focused on green cars and so it pays attention and is on the look out for green cars.

When we as a church focus on the stuff we don’t like, our brains pay attention to those things, being tuned in to them and noticing them all the more.

Let’s be real for a moment. I’m not arguing that these things aren’t happening. They are. But I’m not sure focusing on them is helping our cause. Yes, we should certainly acknowledge that these things are real, and they have real impact. But I think we spend far too much time on that.

How about we also pay attention to what our churches already have an abundance of. Each congregation has their own version of this. What is your congregation gifted with? What is your congregation really good at? What ministry makes a real impact in the lives of people? What about your congregation makes an impact in the surrounding community? What is something your congregation can be proud of? What spiritual practice does your congregation practice in such a way that it shows what faith is all about? How is Jesus calling the congregation to live into Christ’s mission for your context? Who do have connections with in the community that are deepening?

I imagine we could add dozens of other questions to this list. The point of any of these questions is to shift the focus away from what the congregation doesn’t have to what it does already have. Not what it needs or where it’s going, but what it currently possesses. What are the gifts present in the congregation today?

It’s easy to look around and see what is missing or what is in decline. That takes no imagination, no hope, and no Gospel transformation. But we claim to believe in the Gospel. And the Gospel is a message that is so impactful that lives will be transformed. How are we focusing on that? Where are we seeing that transformation in our congregations?

What you focus on, you get more of. What you focus on, your mind will pay attention to and start to see in your context. What you focus on, your heart will yearn for. What you focus on, Christ’s transformation will become very present – Not because it’s been waiting for you, but because you’ll actually be able to see it. When we focus on what’s missing and what is in decline, we quite literally can’t see what is already there.

Let those who have eyes see. And let those eyes focus on what Jesus is already doing in your midst.