The following are four common problem areas that declining
churches (most SBC churches) need to consider:
1. Lack of earnest
prayer - In the book Fresh, Wind
Fresh Fire, C.H. Spurgeon is quoted, "The condition of the church may
be very accurately gauged by its prayer meetings. So is the prayer meeting a
grace-ometer, and from it we may judge of the amount of divine working among a
people. If God be near a church, it must pray. And if he be not there, one of
the first tokens of his absence will be a slothfulness in prayer." It is easy to throw rocks at the weakness of
prayer meetings in most churches. In
most churches prayer meeting is poorly attended. It is considered boring, demonstrating
vividly a lack of Christian imagination and faith. Where prayer is lacking, people are revealing
a tendency to deadly self-reliance.
Without prayer churches realize only what human energy and thought can
muster. Ruts and prayerlessness are twin
companions. Prayerlessness is the forerunner of decline.
2. Unhealthy exercise
of control - When churches are unhealthy, a common characteristic will
almost always be the presence of ungodly leaders. Ungodly leaders are prayerless and
proud. They have a position that is a
reflection of personal power rather than a result of their faithful
service. They usually are better
acquainted with the church bylaws than with the Bible. They excuse their lack of love because they
are "driven." Their passion is
usually reserved for their pet grievance, which usually has to do with a
building, rule or cherished tradition.
An ungodly leader does not make a practice of listening to God. Godly leaders are teachable and broken. They are routinely repentant and are familiar
with their own weakness and struggles.
Godly leaders want what is best for the Kingdom even if it goes contrary
to their personal preferences.
3. Failure to engage
the community with the Gospel - Healthy churches engage their community
with the Gospel. They regularly plan
ways to connect the lost in their community with the Good News of Jesus
Christ. Many churches are in a tailspin
because they have stopped inviting friends, co-workers, family and neighbors to
meet Jesus. Most of their ministry
energy is spent on maintenance. Growing
churches spend time, energy and money dreaming up ways to connect the lost
around them with the life-giving, life-saving message of hope in Jesus
Christ. They work at VBS, revivals, and
personal evangelism. Their churches are
what Jim Cymbala described as "Holy Ghost emergency rooms." I love what Luis Palau said, "The church
is like manure; pile it up and it stinks up the neighborhood. Spread it out and it enriches the
world."
4. Denial - Are
we willing to commit to the kind of congregational self-examination that might
lead to meaningful change? Back in the '90s George Barna wrote The Frog in the Kettle to illustrate that "if you drop a frog
in a kettle of boiling water it will jump out immediately in reaction to the
pain. On the other hand, if you put the frog in water that is room temperature,
slowly heating it, the frog will remain in the kettle and eventually cook to
death." The death-bringing changes
that affect churches happen gradually over years. Like going to the doctor to examine a
suspicious growth, it can be frightening to put a church under scrutiny, but it
could be the step that saves its life!
If a church did nothing more than prayerfully examine a ten to fifteen year
profile of it's vital statistical information, in some cases that would be
alarming enough to cause them to "seek treatment."
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