Churches don’t need administrative support staff or a custodian. They don’t need a nursery or a dynamic children’s ministry. Of course, all these things can be greatly advantageous for the sake of Christ. But all over the world, churches are thriving without them.

It’s amazing how many things churches don’t need. Churches, for instance, don’t need a full-time pastor. I’ve seen healthy, effective congregations led by energetic bi-vocational pastors. Churches don’t need to own a nice building. I’ve met with Chinese Christians in a rickety home and African pastors in an open-sided pavilion, where the rain drummed so loudly on the metal roof that it was sometimes difficult to hear.

Churches don’t need organs, baptismal tanks, or that little sign on the wall that advertises the hymns that will be sung in the service. Nor do they need drum sets, electric guitars, sound boards, graphics on the front wall, or a website. Dare I say it: they don’t even need to serve coffee.

Churches don’t need administrative support staff or a custodian. They don’t need a nursery or a dynamic children’s ministry. Of course, all these things can be greatly advantageous for the sake of Christ. But all over the world, churches are thriving without them.

What Every Good Church Needs

A healthy, fruitful church, however, cannot do without a few precious things if the people want to be the congregation God wants them to be.

Above all, a church must know and treasure and celebrate and commend the triune God. Without this, a church will cease to be a church in all but name. That’s why, when I recently preached the ordination sermon for a dear friend, I charged him from Ephesians 3, on behalf of our congregation, to be God-centered in his future ministry among us.

What churches and pastors need more than anything else is a great big vision of a great big God, a God of magnificent love and lavish grace. Ephesians 3:14–21 gives us that kind of vision. So, this can be an exhortation and a prayer not just for one pastor in one congregation, but for every pastor in every church. I’ve written it that way, as a letter from a church to its new pastor.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Dear Pastor,

We’re glad God has called you to shepherd our congregation. We love you, respect you, and pray for you. We know you’re human just like us. We don’t need you to be a perfect minister, because we’re all ministered to by a perfect God. The apostle Paul’s passionate prayer in Ephesians 3:14–21 for those he shepherded gives expression to some longings we feel for you as you shepherd us, so here are three heartfelt requests for your ministry.

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