by Meredith Day

ANAHEIM - The church cannot ignore the world in which it operates, and it's imperative that Christians understand how they can best fulfill their mission within the current circumstances, said Aubrey Malphurs, an author and scholar who heads up the church consulting organization The Malphurs Group.

On Feb. 18, Malphurs spoke to a capacity crowd that came early to the On Target Evangelism Conference to be part of his workshop on Building Christ's Church in the 21st century.

Emphasizing the importance of strategic planning for churches, Malphurs encouraged pastors and leaders first to be mindful of factors that are pushing some people away from churches. Citing I Chronicles 12:32, he urged his listeners to be like the men of Issachar, who "understood the times and knew what Israel should do."

"If we've ever lived in times when we needed to be strategic, they are these times," Malphurs said, noting the "church landscape" is radically changing. The majority of North American churches is on a plateau or on the downside of their growth cycle, the number of people in churches is declining, and the generation gap is widening. On the other hand, non-Christian groups are growing.

"People are interested in spiritual things, but guess where they're not looking for answers? The church," Malphurs declared. "As someone else has said, 'These people love Jesus, but they don't like the church,'" he added.

It seems like the perfect storm of confusion and apathy, created by a world that is increasingly concerned with matters that the church is increasingly ill-equipped to answer. But Malphurs said the solution is revitalization, taking churches and pastors that are struggling and discouraged and urging them toward a renewed sense of values, mission, vision and strategy. Those four components are the keys to effectively envisioning how any church can impact its world, Malphurs explained, and the process requires a commitment to prepare individually and corporately for change. That shifting of core values, vision and mission will inevitably impact a church's strategy for reaching out to its community.

Echoing the California Southern Baptist Convention healthy church consultation process, Malphurs noted the church exists to glorify God through evangelism, fellowship, worship, service and discipleship. Working to instill these in the values of a church will ensure that it is the kind of "Rock" Jesus spoke about in Matthew, the kind of foundation that is firm in a world that is constantly changing.