Church Rental or Church Ownership?

I can remember my getting my first car like it was yesterday.

I started searching newspaper ads and autotrader (when it was only in magazine format) months before turning 16. I knew what kind of budget I had to work with, so I wanted to figure out what kind of truck or jeep I could get. I picked up off road magazines every month to get ideas of how I would fix up my 4x4 with bigger tires and accessories. I knew exactly how much each fix-up would cost. Of course I didn’t factor in labor costs because I was going to do all of that myself. I was even researching potential jobs, hourly wages, and how much I would have to work to have enough money to do each improvement.

As my 16^th birthday neared my dad began to take me around town to look at different cars. One Saturday we stumbled upon a 1996, single cab, 4x4, Ford F150. I knew it was the right car from the first look. It was almost like it spoke to me.

With every other car lot I hated seeing the car salesman approaching with his card in hand, but this time I was eager. We asked to see inside of the truck and then decided to take it for a test drive. I was falling more and more in love with every mile.

When we got back to the dealership we went inside and my dad started negotiating prices with the salesman. They went back and forth a few times, and I started getting that weird gut feeling that we were about to leave empty handed, and just about that time my dad said, “Alright, we’ll take it.” I kept a straight face, but inside I was jumping with glee!

I was about a week away from turning 16, but my dad pulled the trigger anyways. We got to drive it home and park it in the driveway until I officially got my license.

I think I washed the thing every day that week. Neighbors made jokes about how I was going to wash the paint off if I wasn’t careful.

Now that I actually had the truck, instead of just dreaming what could be, I went to Autozone and bought a book on 1996 F150s. It had all the ins and outs on basic maintenance, and got as complicated as completely rebuilding the engine.

I did my best to keep that truck in perfect condition. I changed the oil right at 3,000 miles. The gas gage rarely dipped below a quarter of a tank. I washed it once a week and kept it vacuumed. I waxed it every 6 months. I did everything by the book.

Why? Because it was my truck. My grandpa once told me that you could tell a lot about a man by the way he kept his truck, and I wanted to make sure that whatever you could tell about me was something good.

Maybe I’m weird, but I still take just as good care of my vehicles as I did when I was 16. The only difference is that I run the gas gauge a little closer to empty before filling it up.

The difference that ownership makes in taking care of something is huge.

If you’re in a rental car you don’t care about getting the oil changed. You don’t care about having proper tire pressure to make sure you’re not getting uneven tread ware. You don’t care about waxing it to make sure you don’t get clear coat damage. You really don’t have any interest in investing any of your own time or own money into the thing because it’s not yours.

A rental car is just something you use when you need it. It’s not something you take ownership in.

I think the rental car mentality is a danger we face with our churches.

The growing trend is to hire more staff to do the work so members and attenders and go and be fed, served, and even entertained. Church becomes something that you use when you need it, but not something you take ownership in.

People have begun to accept that ministry is for the people who get paid, but this is not Biblical at all! Everyone is called to ministry, and everyone should have a ministry they’re plugged into. Stop viewing your pastor as the minister. Start viewing him as the equipper and yourself as the minister. If this happens then you’ll find yourself taking ownership in the church, and the church’s influence will grow far greater than you probably ever imagined.