How Can a Declining Church Find a Turn-Around Pastor?

Are you involved in or familiar with a church that is in decline or stuck on a plateau? Often churches in either of those conditions carry on as if there is no problem. However, sometimes members understand that their church is headed in the wrong direction. They don’t want their church to die and they would love to see it thrive. They want to do something, but have no idea what to do. Many times, no one says much about the direction of the church until it is between pastors. Then, some blame the last pastor, and he/she may well have been a factor, but churches can spend a long time in decline or plateaued. Several pastors could come and go.

If a congregation really wants to turn around, it needs to find the right kind of pastor. A turn-around church needs a strong leader: a man or woman who sees God’s vision for the church and can clearly communicate that vision. He/she should be someone who will challenge the church to do new things and make changes that are probably long overdue. The leaders of the congregation have to come to the place where they are willing to help the pastor implement a program that may seem foreign to them, but which can give the church the chance to reach its community for Christ.

The pastor cannot do it by him/herself. He must be a shepherd style leader that can lead people where they need to go (knowing it may not be where the people want to go). The lay leaders need to become lead sheep and get behind the vision. Then the pastor can outline the vision and they will help him communicate it to the rest of the congregation. That way they can help the pastor lead.

If a congregation wants to turn around, the new pastor must be a hard worker and a self-starter who will use his time to do things that will help the church realize God’s vision. The search committee should do its homework to find out if the prospective pastor has been this kind of hard working self-starter. Check not only with his listed references, but also others who may know him/her. Here is a dirty little secret:  solo pastoring at a small church can be a great place for a lazy person to be lazy. He can fake it and look busy, while getting very little done. A church has to trust their pastor to work. The key is getting a trustworthy, hard working person in the office.

If a congregation wants to turn around it must not overlook the person who is considered a bit of a “rebel.” It may be a rebel that the church needs. If people call him a rebel because he is not big on tradition, and he wants to make radical changes, he may well be exactly the person the declining church needs. The things the church has been doing have become ineffective or it wouldn’t be declining. A rebel can lead the church to rebel against decline.

The congregation that wants a turn-around pastor needs to figure out a way to pay him/her enough so that he will not have to work another job to support his/her family. I admire bi-vocational pastors. It is very difficult to juggle two careers. (I tried to do it many years ago as a church planter.) Leading a church to turn around or get off a plateau takes the full concentration of the pastor. Sometimes, declining churches have money in the bank. They have saved it for a rainy day, but they deny it is a rainy day even as the storm rages and threatens to destroy what is left of the congregation. Perhaps, they use the nest egg from time to time when expenses, like utilities and building repairs, exceed income. Often, they are willing to use their savings to sustain the bricks and mortar of the building, but are unwilling to use it on personnel, and/or ministry programs. A declining church can survive a long time doing that, but it will not thrive. People in declining churches sometimes forget the church is not the building, but people who God is using to build His Kingdom.

If a church hopes to turn around, it needs to realize that turning around depends on competent leadership and ministries that attract people to the church and enable them to grow in the Lord. A turn-around church will pay the pastor as well as it possibly can. They will give him fair vacation times and, if they are smart, they will insist that he take his vacations. Some pastors are so wrapped up in their work that he has a hard time taking time off. On the surface this is admirable, but he needs the down time to recharge his battery. This is another reason to pay him/her enough that he doesn’t need additional employment. If he has another job, he may not be able to get vacation time from his other employer and get the rest he needs. A church that wants to turn around will realize they won’t turn around on the cheap, and the pastor’s salary is not a place to cut corners.

Declining churches, the next move you make is pivotal. The choice you make concerning a new pastor may well determine whether or not your congregation can turn around and once again be a force for God’s Kingdom in your community. Ask God to guide you to the right person and to help the right person recognize your congregation as the place He has for him/her.

Check out two other posts that deal with turn-around churches: "Potholes for the Turn-around Church and Pastor" and "The Turn-around Church Challenge: Will you take the First Step to Turn Around Your Church?" 

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

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.

Is Your Church Flexible Enough to Survive?

It was sad to see. The church that my parents attended literally died. Largely, the people who made up this congregation got old and passed on to the next life. When they did, they left no one to pass their church on to. The church attendance had been dwindling for many years. I visited there about a year before the denomination finally pulled the plug. It was like I stepped into a time machine back to my childhood in the early 60s: the order of worship was just as I remembered, the songs we sang were the same, the choir had new robes, but many of the members were the same, the same nice lady still played the organ, and the same people (the ones who were still living) sat in the same pews. This churched thrived in the post WW II era. As the men who fought that war came home and started families they brought them to church, built a beautiful little building, and expected things to go on like that forever. The only place they went on like that was in the church building. The neighborhood changed as the children of those men grew up and moved to other parts of the city. Eventually, most of the old-timers moved out of the neighborhood, too. Because they loved their church, they would drive back to the old neighborhood each Sunday, but their children wouldn’t. Finally, the congregation got old and died off. When there were only a few of them left, the denomination stepped in and gave the debt-free building to another of their local churches to use as a satellite campus. Of course my 90-year-old parents and the other members were invited to continue attending, but everything changed and they couldn’t accept so many sudden changes. It was no longer their church.

A similar thing happened in another denomination in another state. The church grew down to ten attenders. Their congregational polity required that they vote to turn the building over to the denomination. It looked like they would make that decision so that the assets could be used by the denomination to build the Kingdom in the area. However, at the last minute the last 10 members voted to keep the building so that they could use it for a small group Bible study on Sundays. (There was no mention of reaching out to the community.)

From time to time, both of these churches had been challenged to make some changes that would help them stay relevant and reach people for Christ. Both churches went through a lot of pastors, some of them were incompetent, some of them had great ideas, but the congregation was stubborn. They wanted the church the way it was, and that’s the way it stayed. Their concern was pleasing the people they already had, instead of trying to reach those around them who needed the good news. It had not always been that way. At one time these churches worked hard to affect the world for Christ, but that was long ago.

On the other hand, there are churches today that are growing like crazy. Many new church plants struggle with facilities and meet for years in high school gyms, warehouses or abandoned big box stores. I know one new church which has yet to have its first publicly advertised worship service that already has a larger attendance at their Sunday evening sessions than the national average church attendance. They crowd into a small office.

What’s the deal? Why do many churches find themselves with a building and no people, while other churches find themselves with a growing number of people and a desperate need for a building? I have puzzled over this for years. It excites me to see people crowd in to make-shift church buildings because they want to hear the message of love, hope and forgiveness. At the same time, it breaks my heart to see nearly empty churches that seem to care only for self preservation and are not concerned about the deep spiritual needs of those around them.

I think I found the answer as I was reading in Mark. It has to do with wineskins.

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins" Mark 2:22 (NIV).

Jesus warned the disciples that their new relationship with him would not fit with the old temple religion of the Jews. Maybe it’s the same thing with some of our churches. They are only a little less into tradition and preserving the way things have been than were the Jewish authorities. Many congregations might well be as snobby about who is admitted to the “inner circle” as the Pharisees and Sadducees.

In Jesus’ day in Judah wine was often stored in wineskins. When the juice fermented to become wine, it gave off gases that stretched the skins. Old skins that had lost their elasticity couldn’t stretch to accommodate the process. They would break open and be ruined and the wine would spill out and be lost. I think this is the problem of many declining and plateaued churches. They have become too inflexible to accommodate the changes necessary to reach a new generation, so many are apparently being discarded. The great Bible scholar William Barclay commented on a similar passage in Luke: “No business could exist on outworn methods – and yet the church tries to. Any business that has lost as many customers as the church has would have tried new ways long ago – but the church tends to resent all that is new.” (It’s interesting to note that he wrote those words in 1953.)

The difference between churches and wineskins is that churches have a choice. They can choose to change. They can remain flexible. It all depends on the culture of the church. If the culture of the church is to be committed to the way things were, then no matter what the leadership does, the church gets old, and brittle, and eventually worthless to God’s plan to build the Kingdom. If an old church can maintain a culture that is committed to being a means the Lord uses to love people and bring them into His Kingdom, then it can continue to be a great beacon of His light in the world.

Sadly, even when declining and plateaued churches know they need to become flexible and make changes in a changing environment, they choose not to. Then, the only recourse God has is to make new wineskins (new congregations) that He will fill with his new wine (new believers).

What’s your church like? Is it an old wineskin—inflexible and no place for new believers? Or, is it willing to do whatever it takes to help new people become followers of Christ? How about you? How is your flexibility? How set are you in the way it has always been?