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.

Know It All

Have you ever known a know-it-all? Of course you have. Aren’t they irritating? If they think they know it all about just about any subject but don’t, there is just no talking to them. And if they think they are a know-it-all and aren’t, you are almost overcome by a huge urge to strangle them to put both them and you out of your misery.

With that said, I must admit that I am a know-it-all. At least that is how I am often billed when it comes to the subject of church transformation. I must be a know-it-all since I have written two books on the subject (Renew Your Congregation and Developing a Significant Church), lead seminars on the subject all across the country, have consulted with several churches and coach several pastors in the leading of transformation in their churches. The difference in my books on transformation and others on the subject I have read is that I am one of the few who has actually experienced being a part of a transforming church. Admittedly that doesn’t make me an expert but I claim more credibility than most writers on the subject. The truth is, I don’t claim to be an expert on church transformation. But just by knowing something on the subject puts me worlds ahead of others. Transforming a church is a subject few know much about. This is rather astounding considering that there are hundreds of thousands of churches in North America in dire need of transformation. I would seem that more help for those wanting and needing transformation would be available.

For years it has been my view that there are really no experts in transformation because transforming a church is such an organic operation. There are no two churches just alike, so a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. There can never be a handbook made available to churches to get transformation done – something like “Church Transformation for Dummies”. There are some basic principles and systems that must be in place and functioning well for any church to be healthy and grow. I believe it is true that a church may have an increase in worship attendance, even a sizable increase, without being healthy. Measuring the attendance in morning worship is not the only or the best indicator of health and growth. Things such as worship attendance and giving are much like vital signs that are taken to keep abreast of the present condition of the patient. Working as an Emergency Medical Technician I have taken lots of vital signs. Sometimes they told me exactly what was going on with my patient and sometimes they misled me. Occasionally a person with great vital signs would completely crap out on me. The vital signs are helpful but not the only thing to be looked at.

A much more important measurement to be taken is the spiritual vitality of the church. One must consistently ask, “Are these people growing spiritually.” Some people believe spiritual growth can’t be measured. Perhaps not. But it can almost always be observed. Just take a look at how individuals are treating those closest to them. Is that behavior getting better? Take a look at how the people are investing their time. Are they spending more time doing significant ministry in the community? Don’t confuse spending more time at the church with doing significant ministry. Sometimes these are two very different things. I am a great believer in the 1-5-4 principle of church growth. 1-The church’s primary mission is summed up in the Great Commission: to go into the world and makes disciples. 5-A healthy church does five things consistently and well: Worship; Discipleship; Evangelism; Fellowship and Mission. When I say, the church, I mean those of us who make up the church. 4-Growth is measured four ways: Numerical growth; Spiritual growth; Ministry growth and Mission growth. In a healthy church, each year more believers are being added to the Body of Christ; more people are deepening their walk with God through practicing spiritual disciplines; more people are involved in ministry in the life of the church and more people are involved in the outreach/mission of the church. These things are much more difficult to measure than counting heads and counting dollars. It takes a system to be close enough to the people to observe these things. The best way to do that is by implementing healthy small groups.

Another thing that almost every church must address is how we speak to and treat each other. For some odd reason we think we should tolerate extremely poor behavior in the church. Like it is the “Christian” thing to do to never call down bad behavior? We allow people to speak unkindly to each other; for disagreements to deteriorate into name calling; for voices to be raised and we explain that behavior away with, “That is just the way they are.” And that is probably the way they will stay unless someone challenges them to adopt better behavior. Churches need to adopt clear policies on what is and what is not appropriate behavior in the church.

Another system that must be changed is gossip. More harm is done through gossip than any other sin in the church. We are so accustomed to gossiping that we often don’t realize we are doing it. Here is some help. If you are talking negatively about someone and they are not present, that is gossip. If you are talking about a person or a problem and you are not a part of the problem or the solution, you are gossiping. When first moving away from gossiping, it is amazing how quiet things become and how short conversations are.

Another basic system change in the church is raising the bar. For several decades, churches, in an effort to attract more unbelievers to the church, have lowered expectations of church membership. Expectations have now been reduced to occasional attendance in Sunday worship and some sort of limited financial commitment. And that is considered an active member. Everything else has become optional. And for the church member who doesn’t even show up, we just move them to inactive status. When more is expected of a church member (a disciple of Christ) more is delivered. Also, younger generations are not interested in something that has so little expectations. People desire to be a part of something that matters, that impacts them and others, something that has real meaning. A church must raise its expectations to become a growing, healthy church.

So, like it said; I am not a know-it-all. But I am a know-a-little-something.

BTW, if you haven’t, that a look at my new web site – www.williamtmcconnell.com.

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