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8
Reasons Why Churches Don't Grow
by Lieutenant Peter
Brookshaw
I want to offer you eight reasons why some churches never
grow. Many churches are really flat out and committed to many
programs. Many churches have leaders who love God and want to
serve him. I acknowledge that. I don't what this post to be
seen in a negative light as such, but a challenge to consider
what needs to change to grow healthy churches.
For some churches it's either deep painful change or slow
painful death. Surely the discomfort of embracing new ideas
and changing old habits is worth it.
What authority do I have to speak into such a situation? Maybe
none. Maybe lots. I have spent many years in churches that
have either declined or grown. I have led a small, inward
focused, hurting church to a place of growth. I now lead an
amazing group of people in the northern suburbs of Melbourne,
namely The Salvation Army Craigieburn (Salvos 3064), that
continues to witness steady growth.
What do you mean by a church that doesn't grow? Good question.
I mean exactly that. A group of disciples of Jesus Christ who
are a missional people should surely be a growing group of
missional people. Forgive me if we differ at this point. We
can strongly debate ecclesiastical structures and missional
methodologies if you like and that is valid. Though, I will
not compromise on the fundamental belief that a healthy bunch
of disciples of Jesus Christ should be both living out a
Christ-like existence, but also inviting others to join them
on the journey.
So let me delve into reasons why churches don't grow:
Reason 1 - Why Some Churches Never Grow - The People in the
Church are Inward Focused
People seem to automatically move to a default inward-focused
mentality. If the people of the church fail to continue to
remind each other of the importance of being outward focused,
people drift inwardly. The church must be outward focused, and
not just 'focused' but practically engaged in ministry that is
expressed beyond itself.
An inward focus means the people of the church care more about
themselves than others. In 1 John 3:16 we have this amazing
picture of sacrifice, when John writes, 'This is how we know
what real love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And
we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.'
The suggestion is not just to lay down your life for those you
love and respect, but to even lay down your life for those
your struggle to get along with. Love is meant to be expressed
to everyone. Jesus laid down his life for everyone. We must
stay outward-focused and keep it about living out God's
mission in the world. In the face of many a church decline, we
must stay focused on Christ and his mission.
Reason 2 - Why Some Churches Never Grow- The Leaders/Pastors
of the Church are a Hindrance to the Growth of the Church
I'm not wanting to step on to many toes here, but let's face
it, sometimes the greatest hindrance to a local congregation
being healthy and vibrant is its leader. John C. Maxwell calls
this the law of the lid. The idea is that a leader will hinder
the organization's effectiveness when the leader reaches
his/her lid.
Let me suggest some reasons why leaders can become ones who
hinder the growth of a church:
They micromanage others They exert too much 'power' in their
leadership position They exert too little 'power' and thus
foster a culture of anarchy They fail to lead with passion,
vision, integrity, faithfulness and compassion. They choose to
want to be a 'likeable' leader and therefore do not make tough
decisions They fail to drive a culture that is God-honoring,
Jesus-centered and Holy Spirit empowered
Some might well argue that leaders need not make or break the
life of a church. Though, I'm yet to see a healthy, amazing
church that has a dysfunctional leader as its captain. I'm yet
to see it. I'm sure someone can prove me wrong.
Reason 3 - Why Some Churches Never Grow- Churches do lots of
Good Things, but not Great Things
What do I mean by this? Let me give you an example of a good
church. I think of a church that regularly has
programs/initiatives that offer hope to people's lives. They
run community lunches and outreach ministries and women's
programs and Children's programs and loads more. They are a
good church, doing good things. But are they doing great
things?
The next point I'm about to make, might sound a little
controversial. Many churches do good things, but are still not
growing, and the Kingdom of God is not growing. Now, sure,
these kinds of churches are helping many people. The Kingdom
of God is being expressed through their ministry, sure. They
are being a blessing to many in their community. Though people
are not joining them on the discipleship journey. I'm not
trying to sound negative, all I'm saying is that, at what
point do you look at all the business of church life and say,
I think we have compromised the making of disciples in the
process.
If your theology sits fine with simply expressing the love of
God in your community, then fine. Move on to the next point.
Though, I would argue, that living out the love of God and
inviting people to live in the love of God themselves must go
hand in hand.
Many churches are not growing because they do not keep the
main thing, the main thing.
Reason 4 - Why Some Churches Never Grow -They Fail to
Understand and Embrace the Role of the Holy Spirit
Much
could be said on this point. I do not intend to want to create
a dualism amongst Christians. Though I sit in the theological
camp that says, you can have more of the presence of God in
your life. Some would say you are simply 'becoming more aware
of God's presence', but I don't think that fully captures what
I'm talking about. I am saying, that a Christian can invite
the Holy Spirit to move more in their life. They can invite
the Holy Spirit to fill them, overflow within them and give
them joy, peace and power.
Now, because I believe the fundamental idea that we can have a
greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives, I believe
the converse to that. I believe that people who are followers
of Jesus, can have a flicker of the Holy Spirit inside of
them, but very little Holy Spirit power moving within them.
So with that in mind, we can have churches with very little of
the Spirit of Jesus amongst them. Maybe they never invite the
Spirit of God to move amongst them. Maybe they simply
acknowledge the Father as Lord over all of creation and forget
the third person in the Godhead. Maybe they simply don't
believe in the above premise, that they can have more of the
grace, power and peace of the Holy Spirit within them.
Whatever the reasoning, I believe wholeheartedly, that the
reason some churches are not growing, is because they have
never understood or furthermore embraced the power and
presence of the Holy Spirit.
Is there a correlation between the dynamic growth of the
Pentecostal movement and the willingness to embrace the Holy
Spirit as a significant part of the life of a church?
Don't be afraid of the ministry of the Spirit of Jesus.
There's no need to be freaked out when someone offers a
prophetic word, or someone prays and believes for healing. I
believe that churches would be far better off if they realized
that when Jesus ascended into heaven he sent the Holy Spirit
to lead, guide and ignite the followers of Jesus to transform
the world!
Reason 5 - Why Some Churches Never Grow - They Don't Really
Care about Growth and Their Theology Justifies That Position
Let me step onto shaky ground. Some churches don't grow
because people don't care, are complacent and they develop a
theology around their lack of passion that justifies why they
don't care.
I've lead a church that was complacent. A church that was more
content on simply showing up on a Sunday morning and ticking
the 'church' box. If new people ever engaged in their
fellowship they quite often did not feel welcome and did not
come back. Unbeknownst to the church, they began to justify
their lack of growth, with comments like, 'Well that's just
what it's like here...' The challenge when you sit with this
kind of a mindset is that you end up needing to change the
focus of your preaching/teaching/small groups. You need to
shift the emphasis away from reaching out by partnering with
God in mission, to one of say, a watered down message on
holiness, or a nice, safe message about the benefits of
sharing in fellowship together.
I want to say something clearly. When people care more about
themselves than about others, they really don't care about the
health of a church. They are choosing to put themselves at
odds with the commands of Jesus to go into the whole world and
make disciples. When an entire church has this kind of
apathetic attitude to the ways of Christ, things either need
to drastically change or something more controversial: Shut it
down.
Apathy is an absolute killer to growing healthy churches.
If you are not fired up for the things of God, then get fired
up! God is looking for some people to say, 'Here am I Lord,
send me!'
Reason 6 - Why Some Churches Never Grow - Sin is not Held to
Account
Well, if you're still reading, you're probably wondering how
many more punches will I pull. Let me say this, the church
will not grow to its fullest potential when there's sin in the
camp. You can have the arguments and theological debates about
what exactly is sin. You can comment if you like about how you
know whether this or that attitude is sinful, or whether that
particular action is sinful, etc, etc. Great, go off and have
that debate.
The fact is, when the secretary is stealing the offering
money, there's sin in the camp and it affects the growth of
the church, not to mention the credibility of the faith
community. When an elder of a church continually undermines
the minister of the church, there's sin in the camp. When a
small group of a church back-bite and back-stab the faith
community in which they are a part, there's sin the camp. When
the Corps Officer or Senior Pastor dabbles in porn on his day
off, there's sin in the camp. When a church worships its music
over who they intend to worship, there's sin in the camp. When
5% of the men in the church secretly are part of the Free
Masons, there's sin in the camp.
I think you get the point.Though, this is not all that's worth
sharing about growing healthy churches. When the leadership
team, or minister/s become aware of sin in the faith
community, there may well need to be action.
Please do not ever say to me, 'Well, that's just the way Mrs.
Hodgepodge always reacts to those kinds of things.' Seriously?
Are we o.k. with that kind of mentality? Just to let things
slip and slide, because we don't want to hold anyone to
account for their pathetic behavior? I want to drive this
point home, because I think it is detrimental to the life of
the church in general when those who are leaders or overseers
of a faith community will not hold people to account for
sinful behavior.
Is that easy to do for a leader? No, of course not; unless you
have no compassionate bones in your body. I would think, many
reading this would understand, that holding someone to account
for their actions is not easy.
The problem is, the reason some churches are not growing may
well be because the unacceptable behavior has never been
addressed.
Reason 7 - Why Some Churches Never Grow - Churches Fail to be
'Missional'
I would suggest some churches don't grow, not because they are
apathetic, but because they misunderstand why they exist.
I must say, I don't know everything there is to know about the
emerging missional church. I have much to learn; granted. That
being said, I think it is fair to say that some churches do
not grow because they fail to be missional. They believe they
exist for themselves. It is safe to say there are churches
that exist that are not even wrestling with ideas such as,
'How can we be missional?' 'What does mission even mean?' 'How
do we become a missional church?'
How do you define the missional church? Lois Barrett's
definition of the missional church (cited in Mike Frost's The
Road to Missional) goes like this:
A church that is shaped by participating in God's mission,
which is to set things right in a broken, sinful world, to
redeem it, and restore it to what God has always intended for
the world. Missional churches see themselves not so much
sending, as being sent. A missional congregation lets God's
mission permeate everything that the congregation does--from
worship to witness to training members for discipleship. It
bridges the gap between outreach and congregational life,
since, in its life together, the church is to embody God's
mission.
The people of God must be outward focused. They must be a
people who seek to both pronounce and demonstrate the love of
Christ. Healthy churches thus learn to be missional and learn
what it means to embody God's mission in the world.
Reason 8 - Why Some Churches Never Grow - They Have Never
Learned How to Pray
The Chinese church continues to multiply and the African
church is bursting at the seams. The church in South Korea is
known for its growth. At the risk of sounding very simplistic,
let me say, there's a correlation between the prayer life of
churches and their growth. Churches that know how to pray,
know how to grow. Or rather, churches that include disciples
who are consistently engaged in prayer, usually are
consistently a part of a church that is growing and healthy.
Of course there are exceptions, but the point is worth noting.
They say, you find out how popular Jesus is, by how many come
along to the prayer meeting. I have not heard of a church that
is absolutely sold out to bringing justice to the oppressed,
and that consistently makes disciples of Jesus Christ and who
do not pray.
I have on the other hand, consistently heard, read and
witnessed churches that pray fervently, with boldness and
faith and become churches that grow.
We may know this to be true. The challenge is taking this nice
little, simple concept and applying it. Many a pastor would
tell you the importance of prayer. Many would absolutely be
nodding their heads when you speak of the power of prayer.
When the rubber hits the road, some churches cannot even get
more than a handful of people to a prayer meeting.
Maybe it's because when the people come together to pray, they
don't actually pray. They just talk. They debrief. They
scrutinize church programs. They read poems. They even read
Scriptures.
Intercessory, gut-wrenching, passionate prayer isn't always
high on the agenda. People are too concerned about the person
next to them. Others are too worried what others may think if
they pray out loud. Others secretly wonder whether God
actually hears prayers. Some are convinced that God knows the
end from the beginning and God will simply sort it all out.
A healthy church demands passionate prayer. A healthy, growing
church, prays... I mean, really prays...
Finally let me finish with some words from Leslie Newbigin:
We do indeed look forward with eager longing to that Christian
society which is the final goal of all God's creative and
redemptive love, but until that day we are called upon to seek
on earth a society which, as far as may be granted to us,
reflects the glory of the city to which we look forward.
God help us to establish healthy, missional churches that are
growing and effective for the sake of the Kingdom of God.
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