Comment

Comment by Damien Barber on January 3, 2013 at 11:15am

#1 I would say is lack of prayer and #2 is selfish attitudes; #3 is a bit harder to me and I would say probably either passionless leadership or lack of vision.

I also think that something that could be added to the list would be a lack of doing things together as a church family (both spiritual and non-spiritual) b/c one of the biggest draws of a church (apart from salvation) is the sense of community it provides, and you cannot get that with 2-3 hours on Sunday and an hour on Wednesday.

I personally would say the least big deals on the list are probably manufacturing energy and unwillingness to take risks. Although there are certainly benefits to risks, I feel the church can grow without them; and although the energy put into dead programs is a waste of energy I do not think that it overall will take from other areas that produce growth, but I am coming from a small church in a rural area where often even a dying program is better than no program and we suffer more from not doing a whole lot than doing things that are a waste of energy.

Comment by James Nored on January 2, 2013 at 9:34pm

Thanks for the thoughts, Sondra! Sometimes leaders do go on auto-pilot, which causes them to really cease to be leaders. Certainly, they cease to be passionate leaders.

Comment by Sondra Jenkins on January 2, 2013 at 6:32pm

Great points! I'd edit Point #2 about Passionless Leadership to include not only leaders whose average stay is less than 2 years, but also stagnated leaders at the other extreme of the "tenure" track. Sometimes, passion has waned because after decades of leadership, the church is now on "auto-pilot," the leader has become disengaged from his/her original call. In that instance, the leader now occupies just a stagnant, cermonial leadership role, no longer a vibrant, missional role.

Comment by James Nored on January 2, 2013 at 4:43pm

Bob, you are most correct in indicating that the way to grow the church is through evangelism. Any other type of numerical growth is not true growth in the kingdom. In a shrinking "market share" of Christians, most churches are willing to be thankful for any members who show up and ask questions later, so to speak. On a church level, the church must ask, are we really reaching new people for Christ? Or are we just attracting people from churches that are not as vibrant or are dysfunctional or have moved into the area?

Comment by James Nored on January 2, 2013 at 4:40pm

Sandy, you have shared some excellent thoughts on most all of these points. You and my buddy John ought to meet, because you and he and I think very much alike!

I like what you said about how church leaders should not expect their members to be more passionate about their faith than they themselves are. No church can long term rise above the spiritual passion of its leaders. They will either never rise to the occasion, lower their expectations, demand new leadership, or drift away or go somewhere else. 

Comment by James Nored on January 2, 2013 at 4:37pm

John, your comments that you make about gearing the church around one person are very true. That becomes a church of the lowest common denominator, which does not allow the church to move forward. It is also a church that is held hostage.

Similarly, I believe that a church that tries to please everybody is doomed to failure as well. Whereas the lowest common denominator church does not move forward, the church that tries to please everybody gets whipsawed in every direction. Instead of one person taking the church hostage, the leadership is held hostage by whoever talks to them last or storms their door. 

The fact is, no church can please everyone. The church must know who it is and what its mission is. That takes courage and conviction. And in the end, this is a church that will grow, even if it loses some who do not buy into the church's mission.

Comment by Sandy Detherage on January 2, 2013 at 2:31pm

There is a lot of good material here. The list could probably be longer if we truthfully looked at our own condition.

A clear vision is important in anything we attempt to do. I can't imagine a pilot or air traffic controller who did not know what they were supposed to do BEFORE they actually attempted to do their job. Perhaps that is why Paul encouraged Timothy to, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth." @ Tim. 2:15 (NIV).

Focus is required in the rest of our life as well. An Olympic athlete demonstrates this focus prior to each event. All distractions aside, they concentrate intently on the successful completion of what they are about to accomplish. Sound familiar? (Philippians 3:13-14).

Passionate love for Christ and His church must be present for leadership to effectively "lead." Jesus said it best when He told His disciples, “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master." Matthew 10:24, (NIV). Church "leadership" cannot expect the church to be more passionate about serving in the Kingdom than the leadership themselves.

It appears that there would be no need to "manufacture energy" about a program if true passion for that program was already being genuinely demonstrated. Perhaps this is why Jesus said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." Matthew 23:23 (NIV).

Prayer is good. Sincere prayer, requesting that God's will is accomplished through us, (rather than praying for our will to be accomplished), is difficult but closer to having our spirit being "one" with that of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (John 17:20-21 and James 4:1-3).

"Unwillingness to take risks" may reflect a generational/cultural difference but is still an area for spiritual growth. Jesus called His disciples to leave their various vocations to simply follow Him. When they expressed concern about cultural responsibilities, (i.e. burying their father), Jesus asked them to break away from the old and embrace the new. Sometimes we all need to be challenged into serving outside of our comfort zone so that we can see through the eyes of Jesus. (James 4:14-26).

The statements about "Disobedience to the Scriptures" is right on target! Jesus prayed so fervently for His followers to be unified, (John 17). As Paul identifies the "works of the flesh," (Galatians 5:19-21), he specifies that "hatred," "discord," "jealousy," "selfish ambition," "dissensions," and "factions," are all on that infamous list.

We all have displayed "Selfish Attitudes" at some point in our life. Unfortunately, we all will probably do it again if we live long enough. This mainly occurs when we fail in the previous seven points. I pray that I can join Paul in saying that, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me." Galatians 2:20 (NIV).

Comment by John on January 2, 2013 at 2:08pm

James, in my experience, "Lack of Prayer," "Unwillingness to Take Risks," and "Selfish Attitudes" are the main culprits.

 

We like to call church "family" (and for good, Biblical reasons). However, if every family event was conducted in a manner that pleased one - and only one - subset of the family, we'd call that family dysfunctional. Yet, too often (in my experience), we expect church to focus on the needs of a small segment of personality types while ignoring the needs of the vast majority. Something is really wrong with this picture.  

Comment by Bob Young on January 2, 2013 at 2:07pm

Any or all of these may be contributing factors, but the one most significant reason churches do not grow is that they do not successfully reach out with the gospel to bring more people to Christ (and thus to the local church).  Churches that are adding members by evangelism grow.  There may be a very small percentage of churches that are the exception to the statement, but evangelism grows a church.  Some churches grow (swell) without evangelism because they attract those already Christians.  The church, church leaders, preacher, that wants the church to grow must find or develop gospel bridges or connections to the surrounding community and share the gospel.