Face it. Most congregations are declining or plateaued in
attendance and membership. While some churches flourish, the attendance and
participation in most churches has been diminishing for years. Some churches
seem to be holding their own as they work hard to stay at the same attendance
level. Many churches that are growing are doing so through transfer growth.
That happens when people who are already Christians move into your church from
another congregation. Transfer growth is relatively easy. It may take nothing
more than having a better show than the church down the street. It’s a good
thing if Christians transfer to your church because they have recently moved
into the area. It’s not that great if the transfers come because they are
disaffected or disappointed by the church down the street. Transfer growth,
while it may feel good and look good in the statistics, does little or nothing
to extend the Kingdom of God. It is far inferior to growth by evangelism.
That’s when people who don’t know Christ become Christ-followers and identify
with your church. Way too many churches haven’t had that kind of growth in
years.
Turning a church around is very difficult. The hardest part
is to get the people to want to turn around. Sometimes they know their
congregation is in trouble. They see the empty pews. They realize that most of
the congregation is made up of old people and that every funeral further
diminishes the ranks. They are alarmed, but not alarmed enough to do the things
that it would take to return their church to health. These diminishing churches
die slowly. Their death is slowed because they either have a lot of money in
the bank that they can slowly spend on safe things that enable them to get by,
or they lure a naïve pastor to work there for nothing. They convince the pastor
that he will be able to turn the church around and they will help him. Too
often the congregation not only does nothing to help him, they stand in the way
of the changes the pastor tries to initiate. If they make any changes, they are
only small ones around the edges that only serve to extend the dying process.
The first step, the most critical step, for a church to turn
around or get off a plateau is to admit their condition and seek help. They
have to realize that it will probably take radical changes for the church to
return to health. Long time church members have to willingly make those
changes. They have to accept that the changes will probably be uncomfortable
and things won’t be like they have always been. The changes will make them
uncomfortable, but they need to become more uncomfortable with the fact that
people are going to hell that they could be reaching. These long-time Christ
followers need to become more desperate to let God use them to build His
Kingdom than they are for their church to stay the way it has always been. The
desire for their church to return to being a place where lives are changed and
people find Christ must override the desire for “the good old days.” They need
to begin to see their church and their community from God’s point of view. Finally,
they need to be brokenhearted over the opportunities they have missed to reach
people with the Gospel, and dedicate themselves to seeing that happens no more.
God sent His Son into the world to die for our salvation; that
had to be uncomfortable. Jesus died a horrible death on the cross; that
couldn’t have been comfortable. The early Christ followers suffered sever
persecution, torture and death; no way that was comfortable. Yet many church
people today are unwilling to sacrifice their comfort for the souls of people
they can reach with Gods’ help. Church people need to resolve to become
Kingdom builders. That means to choose to do whatever God asks of them to help
Him build His Kingdom in their community.
It’s time to step up to the challenge to be witnesses. It’s
time as the old hymn says, “be done with lesser things.” It’s time for the
church to rise up. The world desperately needs our Savior and His love, hope
and salvation.
