Ritual Faithfulness or Great Commission Fruitfulness?

The response of pastors and other Christian leaders to church decline is generally to continue doing everything the same way but with a doubling of effort.  Unfortunately, if you do what you've always done, you get what you always got!  Pastors seem to think Jesus will say to them, "Well done my good and faithful servants; the church died but you were all faithful in your efforts.  Come to the front of the line."  Instead, He might say, "My church died in America on your watch.  I am holding you responsible.  You have failed to be fruitful."

Pastors and church leaders have great difficulty accepting the idea that ritual faithfulness is not a substitute for Great Commission fruitfulness.  If Christians huddle together in worship, study and fellowship, if they lift their voices to create magnificent music, if they recite Scripture from memory and faithfully attend all church activities but never take risks that might motivate the unsaved to accept the great gift of salvation, then they will engender the wrath of God (Mat 25:14-30; Luke 19:12-27).  In Luke 16:1-12 we read about the incompetent manager of a rich man’s estate who “cooked the books” to make the rich man think he was doing a good job.  In an attempt to diminish his punishment, the manager quickly discounted the debt of some who owed money.  This is the same tactic used by collection agencies who reason that 50 cents repayment on a dollar of debt is better than no repayment at all.  The manager’s actions generated income for the rich man’s estate.  In other words, the incompetent manager’s actions bore fruit and he was commended by the rich man.  We, who have received the great gift of salvation, must not hide that gift in the ground.  Although our efforts will expose our own incompetence and inability, we must move forward with Great Commission efforts even when it puts our reputation, wealth and safety at risk.  Ritual faithfulness is not a substitute for Great Commission fruitfulness.