Hope for the Church (Part 2) The Price the People Must Pay

Some churches are flourishing in this culture at this time, but in this very same setting the attendance in the vast majority of congregations is on a plateau or declining. This is the second in a series of postings that offer some practical guides for declining or plateaued congregations that want to become places that change lives and their communities by making disciples. Last time, I wrote about the price the pastor must pay; this week it’s the price the congregation must pay to restore hope for the future of the church.

The price a congregation must pay if there is hope for the church

1. The people must truly want new people to become part of their church family. People in some congregations have an intense love for the folks in their church. The church has become a second, and in some cases a first, family for them. This is wonderful for the members, but, if that family feeling includes excluding new people, it’s dangerous for the Kingdom of God. The church should have a family feel, but if it hopes to fulfill its great commission, it must be a family that is open to new members. Not only must the established members welcome visitors and new members, it needs to be anxious for new folks to become part of the family.

2. The people must be willing to make changes. First, it is important to know for sure that the one thing that can never change is the wonderful message of the Gospel. However, the way the message is delivered and packaged needs to be continually changed to keep it relevant to the people God wants your church to reach for Him. Churches find it hard to change. One of the reasons is that they find it almost impossible to stop doing what they have done before, even if a program lost its effectiveness long ago. It’s hard to start new efforts when the church calendar is cluttered with events and old programs.

3. The congregation pays a price by surrendering leadership to leaders, particularly the pastor. This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but it’s very hard for many congregations. Congregations are led by various things. Sometimes it’s the past. Perhaps the church has had some glory days and it attempts to repeat those wonderful times by doing the same things. The problem with that is the culture and their community keeps changing. In other churches, a pastor once did something bad and caused the church a lot of grief, so they want to make sure that doesn’t happen again. As a result of their distrust of anyone in the position of pastor, there is very little real leadership (by the pastor) taking place. In other congregations, there is an influential family, or person who is the acknowledged leaders. Too often this person or family refuses to let anything, or anyone threaten their position of power, and they see a pastor who leads as a threat. If a congregation truly desires to get off its plateau or turn around from dying, it has to pay the price of allowing the pastor to be the real leader.

4. The people must be willing to be trained and to work. The pastor’s job as shepherd is to lead the church. The job of staff is to manage the various ministries of the church. And the role of the members of the church is to do the ministry. (Don’t believe me? Check out Ephesians 4:11-12.) Too many congregations believe that it’s the job of the pastor and staff to do everything, but that’s not the way God planned the church. Ask many members what ministry they do in their church and they will tell you about a committee that they’re on. The extent of their idea of their ministry is to attend committee meetings. My experience tells me that a great majority of committee meetings are not ministry; they are bureaucracy. If the church is to win the world, the people need to discover their spiritual gifts, hone those gifts with training, and then actively pursue an area of ministry that requires their gifts and training.

5. The people need to accept God’s vision for their congregation with enthusiasm. The vision that God gives them through their pastor may well be different from what they have seen before. The pastor will ask the church for input, but when it comes to the future of the church, the input that really counts is God’s input. You have a say, the pastor has a say, but the vision must come from God. The congregation that is plateaued, or declining, should expect the vision to challenge them to do something new. Don’t make the pastor have to pull and prod you to do what God has assigned the church to do. The pastor should lead the church like a shepherd leads sheep. He should not have to drive the church like a cowboy drives cattle.

6. The people must pay the price of sacrificial giving. Increasing the influence of the church so that it can make more disciples costs money. Church members should arrange their personal finances so that they can give 10%, and sometimes more, of their income to the church. Also, church members need to remind themselves that when they give money to the church it is God’s. Some want to attach strings to their gifts. By doing so, these members are seeking to control the vision and the future of the church. Make sure that your tithes, offerings and gifts are given to the church to be used as God sees fit. It is sad to see a congregation unable to seize an opportunity that God has laid before it because all of its savings are designated for someone’s favorite project. Give it to God. Pray for the leadership of the church. Trust God to lead the leadership.

7. The congregation must do all it can to keep the pastor long enough to see the trajectory of the church change. Even in the best circumstances, change takes time. Churches that change pastors often, almost never grow, and almost always lose influence in their community. It only takes a small minority of people in the church to dishearten a pastor and make him/her want to find somewhere else to minister. Pastors become open to the possibility of moving because of the pain generated by unrelentingly difficult people. Your pastor, particularly in a church that votes their pastor in, is God’s gift to the church. He should stay until God removes him. The congregation should do its best to make a long stay with them a pleasant prospect for the pastor and his family. Pay him as well as you can. Encourage him to take his vacation time. Provide money and time for him to take training and find spiritual refreshment. Protect him from any people associated with your congregation who somehow feel it is their duty to make life hard for the pastor. The church should hold the pastor accountable to live a moral live, take care of his/her family, and lead the congregation to accomplish the goals that will enable it to fulfill God’s vision. It should also love him and reward him when he/she does a good job. Most of all, the congregation should pray for their pastor and his/her family.

I encourage and welcome your comments.

Next time we’ll look at “The Price of Having the Right Priorities.”

Hope For the Church (Part 1) The Price the Pastor Must Pay

The truth is a lot of local churches in North America have a very uncertain future. The state leader of the church group with which I am associated estimates that as many as 90% of our churches are plateaued or declining. He is afraid that many of them are in grave danger. Some of them can’t see it; others see it, but think that somehow it will just get better. These congregations just keep doing things they always have and wish for better days to return, instead they of facing their problems and taking steps to overcome them. It is tempting to give up hope on such local churches.

I think there is a lot of hope for the church, but some things have to change for that hope to be more than a wish. Some prices have to be paid by both the pastor and the congregation. These are emotional as well as financial prices. Churches need to check their priorities and make sure that they are God’s priorities for His church. Even though it’s hard, there has to be a willingness to adopt new methods to deliver the old Gospel. The church needs an agile organization that can adapt to opportunities. Finally, congregations must get an idea of how they are perceived by the community they wish to win for Christ.

I’m going to deal with hope for the church in my next several blog postings. Since he should be the key leader to get the congregation off a plateau or turn it around from a decline, I want to start with the pastor.

The Price the Pastor Must Pay if there is Hope for the Church:

Many years ago C. Peter Wagner said that the first thing a church needs if it wants to grow is a pastor who wants the church to grow and is willing to pay the price. That’s still true. Pastor, do you want your church to grow? Now, don’t answer too fast. Growing churches are a lot of work! New people can bring messy lives into the fellowship. Change is a challenge for long-time members. You may have to learn some things and stretch yourself to lead a growing church. Here is a short, non-exhaustive list of the prices a pastor has to pay to lead the church he serves off a plateau or to recover from decline:

1. The pastor must completely and continually yield himself to being the pastor God wants him to be. Being God’s kind of pastor must be what your heart is set on, and what your life and ministry are built around. Only two things can come before your commitment to God’s vision for the church: your personal relationship with God and your relationship with your family.
2. The pastor must train himself. Even if you have an advanced seminary degree, you may not know what you need to know to lead a church in this crucial time. Fortunately, we live in a day when books, on-line courses, seminars, and other training opportunities abound. Maybe what you need is to get someone who has led a turnaround church to coach you through the process.
3. Get God’s vision for the church you are serving. It’s not as hard as it may sound. You know the outcome he wants: make disciples. To get His vision for your situation, you simply ask him, “Given my gifts and talents and the talents and gifts of our people, how can our church make disciples of people in this community? Who should we try to reach first? What can we do to deliver the Gospel to them in a way that is relevant to their lives and that they will accept?
4. Work hard. You know what I mean. A rut can be comfortable because you don’t have to dig. If you’re leading a turnaround, you will be building some new roads. It takes work!
5. Lead the congregation. Don’t be satisfied with maintaining status quo. Lead the church to fulfill the Great Commission in your local community with your ideas and your teaching. God called you there to be the leader. This may be news to some of the people in your church, so be prepared to deal with opposition. Remember you are doing God’s assignment, not your own.
6. Stay there long enough to see the vision fulfilled. If you start making progress, other congregations will hear of it and want you to be their pastor. Make sure you have completed God’s assignment at the church you’re now serving before you entertain a move.

The Business of the Church

Several years ago, when I was working on a management degree, an instructor asked our class “What business are you in?” At first I thought that his question didn’t really apply to me, because I was a pastor. I took these management courses to help me lead the church better, but I wasn’t really in business. But the teacher continued by saying, “By business I mean this: at the core, in simplest terms, what is your business all about? Why are your doors open? Why have you hung out a sign?” Then he went around the room asking each person. What in the world was I going to say? Most of the others were in the automobile business, so they were answering things like, making cars, providing safe transportation, or making cars more efficient, or more fun, something like that. I didn’t really listen very well because I was trying to figure out what I could say when he finally got to me. Finally it came to me, one important word—relationships. The business of the church is relationships. Jesus was asked a similar question once. When someone asked which of God’s commandments is the greatest, he was actually asking Jesus what all his teaching was really about. Remember what Jesus answered? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Therefore, what we Christ’s followers are to be about is spreading love by building relationships. In the church we endeavor to:

1. Bring people to a relationship with the Lord through faith in His Son in which they find love, forgiveness, and new life.
2. Bring people into a fellowship relationship with God’s family, the Church.

It is not enough to think of the church as a place where we simply sing songs of praise, preach and teach. What we are to be doing is encouraging full-fledged relationships between people and God and between God’s people. We can’t be just a sign post that tells about God or even a lighthouse that warns of danger. We must be a loving family: a family that loves the Father; loves our brothers and sisters; and constantly encourages more brothers and sisters to join us.

So church, how’s business these days?