8 Reasons Failing Churches Are Failing to Change

The closing of churches in America is a daily occurrence. Even with as much emphasis denominations are making on planting and developing new churches, the rate of decline and death is far outdistancing the growth seen in the new church initiatives. My question is, “Why, if it is possible, don’t these churches pull out all stops to reverse the decline?” In my many conversations with leaders of dying or plateaued churches, I have discovered there are many reasons. Some of those are:

1. In denial. As has been often said, denial is not just a river in Africa. It is difficult to see and accept that someone or something we love is not doing well and may be moving toward death. Our minds deal with these painful situations by denying their existence. Sometimes it is easy to be in denial because there is still a rather large attendance in morning worship. We fail to realize that those in attendance are aging rapidly and natural attrition will quickly decrease our attendance and membership. Since I have difficulty is seeing my own aging, it is difficult to grasp the aging of my friends and family.
2. Keeping our heads down. Denial is burying one’s head in the sand. Sometimes we don’t do that, but, instead, fail to look up and look around to notice what is going on. From my perspective in my little world, I don’t notice that the church is wasting away. I’m still here and my little circle of friends is still here. What more could I ask for? It is not until my circle starts to disappear that I realize the church is losing members.
3. Afraid of the truth. Many times church leaders are afraid, if everyone realizes that the church is declining, that their leadership will be questioned. We preachers are well known for having double vision when it comes time to count attendance. A recent blog by a fellow Disciples minister (Evan Dolive) suggested perhaps we would do well to stop taking attendance. Maybe we should, instead, concentrated on being a healthy church that is producing disciples and impacting our communities for Christ. I sense the attendance issue would take care of itself.
4. Change haters. It is the rare bird who likes and embraces change. For most of us, the call to change runs contrary to our nature. Beginning as small children we find comfort in repetition. There are a couple of books that, at his request, his mother and I read to our oldest son several thousand times. Like most men, I am challenged at the thought of throwing away a favorite piece of clothing. It just about can’t get too ragged for me to quit wearing it. I tend to drive to work and home again the same way day after day. (Sometimes I arrive in my driveway and wonder how I got there.) I have followed the same system of sermon preparation for years. Many of us say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The problem with the church is that it is broken. We say things like, “If it was good enough for our parents it should be good enough for the latest generation.” For many of us that makes sense. Unfortunately, it is wrong.
5. No longer motivated to do evangelism. We have lost the vision for evangelism. As a seminary professor said several years ago, “We haven’t been nearly as good at evangelism since we canceled hell.” In our multicultural, pluralistic society, we are confronted by ever increasing populations of people adhering to other religions. As we attempt to adapt to our new world, we have become fearful of appearing narrow minded, spiritually arrogant or religiously intolerant. No evangelism no church growth. It is a simple but powerful formula for decline. Sooner or later our passing disenchanted members back and forth can no longer disguise our lack of real growth. We have, somehow, lost sight of the fact that Christianity is unique in world religions.
6. Too frightened or lazy to do what needs to be done. Changing a church – what many of us call Church Transformation – is difficult work. It takes much study, thought, prayer, teaching and trial and error. There are few models of church transformation to follow. It is emotionally draining, calls for long hours on the job, produces very little positive feedback (especially in the early stages) and takes many years to do. Frankly, it is easier to ride out what you have and pray it lasts until you are ready to retire.
7. Don’t know another way. The way we are doing church is how we have always done church. We mistakenly believe that the 20^th Century way of doing church is the way church has always been done and is the only way it can be done. We are just doing church like we have always seen it done; we don’t know another way. For some odd reason we seem convinced that if we keep doing what we are doing it will, somehow, begin to produce different and better results. To make the necessary changes that will make the church healthy, viable, and growing takes learning a whole new way of doing church. It is not that we must change everything we do; but we must come to the point we are willing to change everything we do.
8. Work from the misconception that doing church like we do it is sacred. Along with only knowing one way to do church, we often mistakenly believe that what we have inherited from our parents is the God ordained, sacred way of doing church. To do differently would be sacrilegious. This is an amazingly egocentric way of looking at things but it is very common. It helps a lot to get out of your tiny denomination box and visit churches of a different flavor. This must be done with an open mind and heart. The self-righteousness that fosters the idea that our way is God’s chosen way generally closes one to learning from others. It is easy to discount and look down on how others do church differently and rationalize that their “success” is not real. But if what we are doing is not reaching people, perhaps we would do well to be more open.

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com.