Unfortunately, many moderate to progressive congregations are like a disaster response effort that has outrun its supply lines. The reality is that they must believe in church growth or eventually die.

Too many moderate to progressive congregations have decided that believing in church growth is a negative thing. Believing in evangelism may be even worse. They do this to the detriment of their long-term future, and the vitality and vibrancy of the ministry they hold dear.

There is nothing wrong with being moderate to progressive, and at the same time being intentional about reaching pre-Christians and unchurched or under-churched persons. One of my favorite illustrations of this is the ministry of the First Baptist Church of Wilmington, N.C. during the tenure of its now retired pastor, Mike Queen. [See this congregation at http://www.fbcwilmington.org.]

Mike, along with his excellent staff, and dedicated lay leadership, led First Baptist Church to be continually thriving, creative, and innovative. A side benefit of their focus was that they also experienced significant numerical growth. It is not that they were trying to be church growth oriented or intentionally evangelistic. It is that they did not see a conflict between being moderate to progressive and reaching people for a Christ-centered, faith-based journey.

They were committed to extending the quality and reach of their ministry. Along the way they also knew that they had to renew the core of the congregation. They had to develop an increasing number of people who felt committed to the missional engagement of First Baptist. They had to do this with an intentional focus. It would not happen by accident.

Too many congregations focus on what they are not rather than what they are trying to become. In their attempt to focus on being missional, they forget they need to balance it with also being attractional. In their attempt to not be seen as a conservative evangelical congregation, they forget what is actually good and loving about the characteristics of these congregations. Because they have difficulty with a few conservative evangelical congregations, they reject that which would be helpful.

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