The Pros, Cons, and Purpose of Structure

I want to share a very important point with you about structure. In this article, I will cover some of the pros and cons of structure, as well as the purpose of it. Structure is important in a church, but we must only have enough structure to support life. The whole purpose of structure is to support life, but if there is too much structure, it will have the opposite effect, killing whatever life was there to begin with. 

Take for example the human skeleton, which is a type of structure that God created to support human life. A human skeleton is very beneficial, in that it provides support and stability to the body, without which we would be blobs of flesh on the floor unable to stand up, move around, or do anything. We would be helpless and useless. So we can all agree that structure is a good thing. But if we have too much structure, then it becomes detrimental to life. For example, if you were to put an adult human skeleton on a baby, it would crush the baby and destroy its little life. That is why the Lord in His wisdom has so designed it that at every stage of human growth from an embryo in the womb, to infancy after birth, to childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood, the human skeleton is only big enough to support the life, but not so big as to crush the life. 

It's the same way with the Body of Christ. As we plant churches and build, let us be very careful that in seeking to bring structure that we do not create too much structure. For it is possible to create more structure than is needed to support the life of the Body, thus having the opposite effect than what is intended and destroying the newly planted church. Therefore, the amount of structure should only be in proportion to the life of the Church, and as the life grows, so does the structure grow proportionally.

The types of structures that can be helpful are discipleship structures for example, like Life Transformation Groups (LTGs) and leadership structures like elders to oversee the fellowship. As a church grows, we can also implement leadership and accountability structures, such as boards of directors, boards of deacons, or committees, such as missions committees. We can build organizations structures as the staff grows. We may also find it helpful to create program structures to support various programs like children's ministries, homeless ministries, or other such programs. Some house churches eventually become large enough to need public buildings, which are a type of physical structure. All of these structures are fine in their proper place and at the proper time. But let's keep it healthy and not add any more structure than is necessary. 

That's why we should always remember what the core of the Church is. The core of the Church is the minimum (core) requirements in order for it to still be considered the Church in the sight of God. The core of the Church from a biblical perspective is present whenever two or three people are gathered in Jesus' name (Mt 18:20), who are carrying out the Great Commandment (Mk 12:29-31; Lk 10:27-28) and the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20; Mk 16:15-18). Let's always remember what that is, so that we don't lose sight of what the minimum is for the Church to exist in any given place, and be sure that any structure we create does not become detrimental to it. 

Let us remember that the Body of Christ, the Lord's Church, is an organism, not a machine or a business. We must never try to run the Church like a business or operate it like a machine, but instead always use the organic principles found in Scripture and in nature. Let us always remember that when our Lord described what the kingdom of God is like, he used a lot of organic things, like seeds and yeast, to do so. Therefore, we should seek to operate as Jesus did according to the organic principles He laid out for us and that He and His apostles demonstrated by their example. 

I'm afraid that many churches today have too much structure and very little life. They may be running like a finely tuned machine, but they are missing some of the basic elements necessary to be considered the true Church. For example, if they are not loving God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, then they are no longer the true Church, at least not a healthy one. This is essentially what the Church in Ephesus was rebuked for by the Lord in Revelation 2:1-7. Likewise, if a church is no longer loving their neighbor as themselves, then they are not a healthy church. and the same can be said of a church that is not obeying the Great Commission by helping to complete it. It doesn't matter how much structure they have, including a large staff, a great big, beautiful building, or a board of directors made up of prestigious members of the community, because if the basic life of the church is impeded, suppressed, hindered, missing, or found lacking in any way the sight of God, then they are no longer healthy and pleasing to Him. In some cases, their structure may have become a burden to the members of the church, like a yoke of slavery.

Let's be careful that as we plant churches we only create enough structure in each fellowship to support life, and not more than is necessary.

Attribution notice: Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible NIV. Image taken from Organizational Physics may be subject to copyright, used here per the Fair Use Act for educational and commentary purposes only.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog available through the Home page, such as A Tale of Two Kings, The Servant of the Lord, The Shepherding Role of Elders, Success in God's Eyes, Accountable, correctable, and teachable, A Personality Profile of the Apostle Paul, Persecuted or Popular?, and Having a Servant's Heart. You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.