Are we, as a church, prioritizing programs over people?

In this video, Brandon Scroggins discusses the risk of elevating church programs over the people they're intended to serve. There's a natural instinct to keep programs running as they seem to yield visible results and foster enthusiasm. However, the proliferation of programs can lead to a dangerous disconnect between pastors and their congregants. Pastors are given to shepherd people, and the increasing number of program leaders and divisions can create distance and divide the church into various subgroups.

Scroggins warns about the danger of dividing the church into subdivisions through an overemphasis on programs. The Bible guides us to view the local church as a family living life together organically, rather than a collection of separate programs. There is a concern that an excess of programs could fragment the church, detracting from the sense of unity and community that should ideally define it.

Ephesians 4:11-12 (NKJV): 'And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.'

So easy to begin to elevate programs over people. And so we're trying to keep programs spinning. And I get the instinct because many times we think that in maintaining this this plethora of programs we see visible results and and that makes us feel good. It feels like things are getting done. It feels like people are enthusiastic.

But it can be so dangerous to begin to just keep all of those plates of program spinning and we exalt that over the people to whom we're called to minister to. Another danger with a plethora of programs is that the more programs we have, the more leaders of those programs that we need to keep them running. And then the more program leaders and directors and so forth that we put between a pastor and the people, the more that distance is disconnected. But God's given us pastors to shepherd people. And then he's given us one family of God.

And the danger with programs is that that will easily begin to divide the church into a lot of different sub-pockets, sub-divisions, and age groups and many different things. But the scriptures show us the way to lay out life in the local church. And it's a family, and much of it's organic church life. And it's the people of God coming together to live life, life on life, one with another.