Potholes for the Turn-Around Church and Pastor

The dream of being a turn-around pastor comes when a pastor looks at a church that’s not producing fruit and realizes that God wants him to do something about it. Usually, he sees something in that congregation that others can’t or won’t see. It’s a glorious challenge that some pastors accept. Sometimes, he has to work hard to get the congregation to simply recognize that changes need to be made. Then he must convince the people that things can be different and that they can, with God’s help, regain positive momentum. Once the church agrees to be open to the pastor’s leadership, the temptation is for the pastor to think he’s home free because everyone is behind him and the church is on its way to new relevance, strength and growth. He thinks that since the church has decided to make the U-turn, things should be easy now. However, as difficult as it is to get a declining or plateaued congregation to agree it needs to make changes, the would-be turn-around pastor should be aware that more opposition is likely. There are potholes in the road after the church turns around.

Check out the book of Nehemiah. The project God assigned was to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. This was the start of the turn-around for the city after its destruction by the Babylonians. Nehemiah received a vision from God. He got the okay from the king. He had every reason to believe that he would be successful, but he still had plenty of continuing opposition to overcome.

Turnaround pastors can learn from Nehemiah that even with assurance of success, you can expect opposition when you strive to fulfill God’s dream. It’s easier to deal with a pothole if you know to expect them. Here are some of the things you can expect to hear:

-        “This is not the right time.” These folks will say they agree that the church needs to change, but this is just a bad time to make those changes. They will point to any one of a number of things as evidence—from a bad economy to the wrong time of year. Delay is their goal.

-         “It will take too much time.” Those in opposition will say they don’t really believe it can be done because they believe either the pastor or the people will lose interest or become exhausted before the job is done.

-        “Your dream is too expensive.” This point of view may well have contributed to the decline or plateau the church has experienced. These people have yet to realize that turning the church around is the most important thing the church spends money on.

-        “Your results will not be done well.” This may imply that the speaker doesn’t believe the pastor is smart enough or competent enough to lead the church to turn around. Or it could be that the speaker has no confidence in the ability of their people doing things effectively.

-        Some who oppose may be crass enough to use ridicule to try to demoralize the pastor or the people, so that they will just give up.

-        Elements of the opposition may try to find ways to halt renewal efforts by finding obscure bylaws clauses or parliamentary procedures.

The turn-around pastor must then anticipate opposition and find ways to counteract the influence of the opposition. Either he can steer around the pothole or brace himself and his supporters for them.

-        First of all make sure you stay close to the Lord. God will give you the assurance and encouragement you need.

-        Make sure you spend time with people who encourage you.

-        Listen to encouraging words and music. Fill your mind with good stuff.

-        Don’t just be a consumer of encouragement, but also give encouragement to your supporters whenever and however you can.

-        Prepare well. Make sure you know as much about what you’re doing as you can. Be ready for questions. Have answers.

-        Work hard. Let your effort show the way.

-        Do all you can do and trust God! Do your best. Remember that is all you have to do and all that God expects of you.

It seems that there will always be negative people. Some of them think that their purpose is to cause potholes in your path. They have no dreams and resent the fact that you actually think you can achieve yours. Do your best not to let them bother you, because when it comes down to it, what do negative people win?  All they win is a jeering laugh at the expense of the person who is trying to make the dream come true. On the other hand, what does the dream achiever win?  Usually he achieves the objective, and win or lose, he always receives God’s approval.

Remember that turning a church around is difficult. Admit that. Know that. Deal with that. Let the congregation know that turning the church around will be tough, but keep reminding yourself and them that, “It is not the things we fail at that shame us, it’s the things we should have done, and could have done, but never even tried.” In football they tell players to “leave it all on the field”, which is to say, don’t hold anything back. Turning a church around is your SuperBowl. It is the ultimate test for the pastor and for the people. If God is calling you to be a turn-around pastor, don’t let potholes scare you away. It’s worth the risk. It’s worth the effort. Go for it! 

Click here Check out my post, "The Turn-around Challenge: Will You Take the First Steps to Turn Around Your Church", from February 18, 2014

Fickle Holy Week Crowd – Fickle Congregations

The crowd in Jerusalem was a fickle bunch. On Palm Sunday they welcomed Jesus as a new king coming to lead the Jews to throw off the oppression of Rome and establish Israel as God’s great kingdom on earth. By Friday morning they were yelling for Pilate to crucify Him. How could they change so fast? I know the easiest answer is that the Sunday crowd and the Friday crowd were not the same. Maybe that’s true, but if it is, what happened to the Sunday crowd? Why didn’t they show up on Friday when the heat was on Jesus?

Actually, this kind of sea change is often seen in congregations. Pastors are welcomed with great fanfare. They are invited to lead the congregation. The church believes that he can get the congregation off a plateau or bring it back from near death. The people can’t wait to see their church return and perhaps surpass its glorious past. They are sure that soon things will right themselves and it will be just like the good old days. This pastor is a leader and they know if they just have a leader their congregation will succeed.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem the crowd were sure He was the king they wanted. Even though they were greatly outnumbered by the Romans, a King Jesus could heal their wounded and restore their dead to life. If their supply lines got thin, Jesus could multiply rations like He did with the loaves and fishes in Galilee.

It didn’t turn out that way. Instead of rousing the crowd against the Romans, He went to the temple and deliberately irritated the temple authorities. He even went so far as to disrupt their money-changing operation. When He should have been getting people mad at the Romans, He criticized the Jewish authorities that He needed to legitimize His kingship. Jesus was leading a revolution, but not the revolution they wanted. So … “Crucify Him!” “Crucify Him!”

The new pastor turns out not to be what they thought. He has some strange ideas about how things ought to be done. He makes big changes in the music. He brings in guitars and drums, and not just on youth Sunday, but every Sunday. The choir is down to singing only once a month and the only time the organ is heard any more is at a funeral. He’s got somebody leading some kind of recovery group and a few of those people have been showing up in church. Somehow he got the board to let him remodel the children’s area with all kinds of wild color schemes and decorations. It looks more like a fun area than a classroom. And there are so many kids running around making noises and messes … It’s not at all like it used to be. Sure, the attendance is coming up, but those people aren’t like us. They don’t know how to dress for church. They have tattoos and some of them smell like tobacco. He doesn’t seem to care about the way things have always been done and doesn’t think he needs the approval of the long-time lay leaders. The church may be growing, but it’s not growing the way they want. The pastor is a leader, but he’s not leading the way they wanted. Someone get up a petition; let’s get rid of him. In effect, “Crucify him!” “Crucify Him!”

The Holy Week crowd got rid of Jesus and preserved the way things were, but in a relatively few years the temple system was destroyed. The local lay leaders usually get their way too, and while they may preserve the traditions of their congregation, the church dies in a few years. Sometimes, the pastor survives and leads another congregation to growth. Too often, he’s so damaged that he decides to walk away from pastoral leadership.

Jesus was just doing what God sent Him to do, and the crowd reversed itself. In the same way, the pastor was doing the Lord’s assignment too, and the congregation turned on him. It’s a small consolation for the pastor to realize that he faced the same thing Jesus did. The congregation, like the Holy Week crowd, couldn’t trade their pipe dream of the future for God’s vision. They couldn’t submit to God.

The Turn-Around Church Challenge: Will you take The First Step to Turn Around Your Church?

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.

If You’re Not Growing Where You’re Going …

I drove past the big billboard next to a large church on a freeway each week for 7 months and it bugged me every time. It said, “If You’re Not Growing Where You’re Going, Try Us.” I think churches should advertise, but I think it should be targeted. This sign is targeted, but it’s targeted toward people who are already church members. It seems to me we should be targeting the unchurched. Perhaps, this church is located in an area where everyone goes to church and their only opportunity to grow is to pick off disaffected members of other churches, but I seriously doubt that. Aside from the fact that it seems less than honorable to intentionally try to attract church people who are not satisfied with the church they attend, chances are that any one you get that way will, after a brief honeymoon, be dissatisfied with your church too. (And probably become a pain in the neck or even lower.)

Yet we hear that sentence all the time. “I’m just not being fed.” The question I always wanted to ask, and now that I am older, do ask from time to time is, “Why not? Why aren’t you being fed”?

Sometimes the answer is, “The pastor’s sermons are boring.” That might be true, but rather than leaving, this person should pray for his pastor and support any efforts he makes to improve.

Sometimes the answer is, “The pastor’s sermons are too simple.” Maybe his sermons are simple, but it may be his sermons are simple to you because they are targeted at new believers. Perhaps you find them simple because you need more challenging stuff. In that case, instead of complaining about simple sermons, you should pray for the people he hopes the sermons will reach, and ask him for guidance for ways you can go deeper. He would probably love to give you some direction.

Other times, the reason the person isn’t being fed is, “The music is not to my taste,” or “too loud”, or “for another generation”, “I don’t like all the tech stuff”, or simply, “I don’t know the songs.” Again, look at whom the church is trying to target. You might say, “Well, if I’m not part of the target, then I guess they don’t need me.” That is exactly wrong! The church needs you to be on the team, to be part of the effort to reach people who don’t know Christ. All of these criticisms imply that the church is supposed to revolve around you. It’s not! It exists to glorify God. We glorify Him by obeying Him, and He has told us how to do that: reach out to those who don’t know Him with His message of love, hope and salvation; to grow up to be like Him in our actions and attitudes; to grow together in love and fellowship; and to lift up those in need without expecting anything in return. Newsflash! The church does not exist for its members; it exists to bring the Gospel to others. Members of the church are supposed to grow up to take their places in helping make that happen.

Thom Rainer estimates that “we only reach one person for Christ each year for every 85 church members in the United States.” It’s time for all of us to be too busy to complain. Churches don’t need to compete for members. A church that seeks to grow because Christians transfer to it from other churches is not building the Kingdom of God. There are enough unchurched people in America to fill all our churches several times. Our competition is Satan, not the church down the block. Let us point our efforts at him.

Shot in the Back: When Churches Shoot Their Leaders

They call it friendly fire.  On the battlefield it is usually an accident.  A soldier mistakenly fires his weapon and wounds or kills a comrade.  The soldier thought he was shooting at the enemy, but fired directly at one of his own people.  It is a tragedy.  Everyone feels awful, but the soldier that is hit is just as wounded, or just as dead as if he had been shot by the enemy.  Sometimes friendly fire is not so friendly.  It can be intentional to settle some kind of score with an officer or buddy.  Maybe the officer has pushed hard, maybe he has led the unwilling into a difficult place.  Maybe the shooter is just scared or perhaps his intent is evil.

In the church we have incidents of friendly fire. Young Christians, particularly young pastors, are often victims.  We old grizzled veteran pastors have learned to watch out for it, but sometimes even we older ones fail to avoid becoming a target.  Pastors often lead out thinking that their men (the congregation) will follow them, support them, and do everything they can to win the battle with sin and Satan only to find themselves shot in the back, wounded by their own side, with their souls bleeding and no one to help them.  The very ones who should provide help and support are often the ones who have done the shooting.  Is it any wonder that so many of our churches are ineffective in reaching their communities? Is it any wonder that we have a leadership crisis?  Who wants to face an enemy as formidable as Satan when he can’t trust the people behind him to follow and refrain from shooting him or her? 

When a pastor has felt a few bullets whiz by, or has bled because someone who was supposed to be on his side in our battle with Satan shot him or talked someone else into shooting him.  He gets into the habit of looking over his shoulder and sometimes expects friendly fire even when it isn’t coming.  It is hard to do your best as leader when you always have to keep an eye out for shots from behind.

Pastors accept the call from God and work hard to prepare to lead God’s people.  They are full of the Lord and they want to help the church change the world.  I am confident that they are prepared for the battle with Satan, but I also know they are not prepared to be shot at by those that the Lord has called them to lead.  Seldom are they shot because they are not doing God’s will.  Usually it is because some folks in the church are unwilling to follow them in doing God’s will. 

Many people in our established churches are comfortable.  They don’t want things to change in their beloved church.  I sympathize with that.  My hair is gray, too.  I remember a lot of the same things with fondness: large evangelistic Sunday night services, rousing old hymn singing that raised the roof, camp meetings where people came to actually have their lives changed (and not just to be reunited with old friends), and revivals where the Spirit of the Lord moved among us.  I loved those things, too, but these days God is using different things to reach new generations.  Way too often our young ministers are getting shot in the back by the very people that ought to be not only cheering them on, but also following them to reach a lost and dying world.  These young men and women have a heart for God and an impulse from Him to win their generation.  They are often begged by churches to “come and lead us”.  Many times they hear a church say, “We used to be quite large and we can be again if you just come and lead us.  Young couple with families will come and we will grow again.”  That is what churches say, but is that what they really mean?  As soon as the young pastor begins to make the changes in the schedule, in the music, in the program, or in the décor that he believes will help the church reach new people, the shots start coming.  Not shots from the world, but shots from the church!  “That’s not the music we like.”  “That’s not the way dear old Pastor So-and-So did it.”  “That’s not what we built that room for.”  “Why do we need all this video equipment?”  “Those new people you’ve got coming here don’t know how to dress for church.”  Young leaders are just trying to get the Gospel to people in a way they understand, but too many old veteran church people see only that it is not the way it used to be done.  It is the same message of salvation, holy living, and unity among God’s people, but it is packaged a different way.  Like with any new package, some people like it and some don’t.  The thing a lot of older church people don’t realize is that the new packaging is to attract new customers.  Now is the time to present that same Gospel to younger folks who don’t have our background.  This generation of young people that the church now has to reach is not like ours.  Most of them weren’t taken or even sent to Sunday school by their parents.  Lots of them don’t know the Bible stories that were so much a part of our growing up.  To them the church is that mysterious big building that people they don’t know go to.  If the church is to make a difference in the lives of these people, we need to support our new leaders as they reach out to an unchurched generation.

Some of us are probably afraid that we are not needed by these young ones.  That is not true.  They desperately need our prayers, our encouragement, and our understanding.  They need us to get their sense of urgency for reaching people for God.  They need us to love them and understand that they are attempting to build the Kingdom of God and quit accusing them of trying to tear up the church.  Young leaders will make mistakes. That’s when they need us to give them the courage to try again.  Put away your critical attitude and become a cheerleader for your young ministers.  Ask God to give you a new burden to reach the lost.  When others of your generation start to run them down, stand up for these dedicated young people.  Love them.  Be surrogate parents for them.  Love their kids like they were your own grandkids.  Many of them are far from their families, and they need the family of God to be family to them.  Finally, when you aim your gun, be sure to aim at the enemy.  When you do damage make sure the damage you do is to the Satan’s cause and not to our own people.