There are certain metrics and issues physicians check when we go to the doctor. They want to check our blood pressure and temperature. They do blood tests to see if there are any warning signs. They are looking for symptoms that might indicate real problems exist.
After working with churches for thirty years, I too look for symptoms that might point to greater concerns. The symptoms are not necessarily the problem; they simply provide warnings or cautions of potential issues.
While there are many potential symptoms of a sick church, I have found ten to be consistently common. These ten are not listed in any particular order:
- Declining worship attendance. Surprisingly, the majority of church leaders do not monitor worship attendance. I advise leaders to compare each month’s average worship attendance to the same month of previous years.
- Decline in frequency of attendance of church members. This symptom is the number one explanation for attendance decline in most churches. Members are not as committed as they once were. Their waning love for their church is reflected in their declining frequency in worship attendance.
- Lack of joy and vibrancy in the worship service. Obviously, this symptom is subjective. It is still, however, very important. Most people can sense when a worship service is vibrant, lukewarm, or dead.
- Little evangelistic fruit. As a general rule, a healthy church will reach at least one non-Christian for every 20 in worship attendance. A church with a worship attendance of 200, for example, should see at least ten new Christians a year.
- Low community impact. In my consultations, I attempt to find clear indicators that a church is making a difference in its respective community. I ask both church leaders and community members for clear examples and indicators.
- More meetings than ministry. A sick church will meet about what they should do rather than do it. Some churches have more committees than conversions.
- Acrimonious business meetings. Christians can and do disagree. Sick churches have meetings where the disagreements reflect obvious bitterness and anger.
- Very few guests in worship services. A vibrant church will attract guests. A sick church will not.
- Worship wars. Yes, they still exist in many churches. Those wars are indicators of an inward focus by the members.
- Unrealistic expectations of pastoral care. Sick churches view pastors and other staff as hired hands to do all of the work of ministry. Healthy churches view pastors as equippers for the members to do most of the ministry.
None of these symptoms are good, but churches do go through periods where they demonstrate a few of them. The key is to recognize the symptoms and respond early and quickly.
Here is my own subjective health analysis according to the number of symptoms:
1 to 2 symptoms. Normal for most churches for a short period of time. Not an indicator of poor health, but the symptoms should be addressed promptly.
3 to 4 symptoms. The church is sick and needs immediate attention.
5 to 6 symptoms. The church is very sick. If significant changes are not made, the congregation is in danger of moving into the phase of terminal illness.
7 to 10 symptoms. The church is in danger of dying in the next five to ten years. While it is possible for a church to recover from this level of sickness, it is rare. Intervention must be quick, intense, and dramatic. The amount of change necessary is often more than most leaders and members are willing to bear.
Give an honest assessment of your own church by these symptom indicators. What do you see? What should you do if there are a number of symptoms? Let me hear from you.
photo credit: Come in and take a pew via photopin (license)
My church displays 10 out of 10. It is a very difficult place to be the pastoral leader. I do not believe that they enjoy being sick. I do not believe that God wants them to be a sick church; however, they continuously make choices and kill actions that might make positive change. They need more than a diagnosis, they need a prescription and a life-coach.
M –
You’re right. Understanding symptoms is just the beginnings.
What would you say about a church that avg. 60-120 in attendance, less than that in the summer when 1/2 the church takes off to their condos. And a regular attending person whos active in church&community gets sick, has a major kidney surgery, misses 3 weeks of church+6 weeks prior to the kidney stone surgery,&nobody calls, texts, emails or sends a get well card? What do you have to do to not be invisible? I guess if I died some body might notice. It’s unacceptable&cold.
M…
Diagnosis is easy when it comes to churches; treatment is sometimes extremely difficult. That’s because the cure sometimes requires change (something Thom wrote about, and to which I responded with my own thoughts).
Dr. Rainer’s Work: https://thomrainer.com/2015/06/five-types-of-change-resistant-churches/
My Thoughts: http://www.johnrothra.com/evangelism/connection-between-church-growth-resisting-change/
My I add:
Having the same leadership for decades. There is oftentimes a fear of bringing in new leadership even when the church is “sick.”
New ideas are quickly shot down. The people that suggest doing anything different are immediately labeled as heretics.
Thanks, Mark.
In the UMC churches, drive through fast food baptisms, no mention of salvation, no invitation to acceptance of Christ given at the end of a service. Pastors who read the same prayer every Sunday. My lord, don’t ppl know how to pray to Jesus from their heart.? Nobody brings a bible with them 2 church any more. Ppl don’t know the books of the bible. No focus on learning scripture. Trying to normalize or ignore sin&expect congregants to accept it. Services are like a country club. In groups. Out groups. Famous words it’s always been done that way, nobody asks why? I’ve been faithfully attending&active in music&chaperoning teens. Still over half the church doesn’t even call me by name or call me at all when I had 3 major surgeries in less than 6 months. What do you do? Keep going &feel ignored&invisible? Work harder? Give more? I’ve tried everything.
That is a great example and quite telling in my experience.
I see many of these symptoms. I could add a few.
1. Church has become too programed. No time for the Holy Spirit.
2. Leadership no longer allows joyous praise.
3. Taken out testimonies
4. No longer have evangelistic Sunday night services
5. Congregation no longer invites lost friends, neighbors.
6/ How can a church effectively preach on sermon on Sunday morning and minister both to the congregation and to the lost?
When the church was alive, most Sunday mornings were encouraging to the saints, and Sunday night was Evangelistic.
Robert,
The changes you have noted are definitely significant. It may be that some of the items listed are being given priority in a different venue or meeting. If they are, the issue might be more one of preference. For example, a church might not do Sunday night outreach services (because attendance dwindled down to a few church members) and instead make a concerted effort to refocus on congregation wide personal evangelism.
While this may or may not be the situation in your church in particular, it is wise for church leaders to keep in mind the difference between true signs of declining Church health and a strong preference for doing things the way they have always been done. I pray your church is seeking growth and health, not just the changes you mentioned.
I would add an 11th common symptom and that is: Having a leadership that would rather deny that any of these symptoms exist rather than acknowledge them and seek to remedy them.
I have found if you discuss spiritual health issues you get labeled as an outsider and a problematic individual. I do not understand why leaders refuse to admit the obvious spiritual health problems. Is it we are hiring unqualified leadership?
My church is sick but they can recognize problems with the deterioration of the physical church building; they want to fix those things. The deeper spiritual issues are all ignored.
Steve –
Your observations are on target, and all too common in many churches.
According to NAMB statistician Richie Stanley, presently (reported since 2010) 72% of all SBC congregations are plateaued/declining in terms of their biblical growth; 100% of those 33,000+ churches are led by: Senior Pastors (at least, that is what those men tell their associate pastors!). NAMB’s revitalization efforts, and those such as the SBTexas’ Ezekiel Project (e.g., here: http://sbtexas.com/church-revitalization/), have begun with senior pastors because their involvement in revitalization is key (not the total solution–or even close to it, fortunately–but key as potential change agents; cf. the research of Dr. Pat Morley of several years ago). What I have not seen are: reports of the successes of NAMB and state-level initiatives which include those senior pastors . . . But LifeWay’s stats prior to the summertime SBC annual meeting do not seem to point to a positive trend developing . . . And my consulting experience is that senior pastors do not want to talk about it.
An observation: nothing seems to take as long to die as a Southern Baptist church. It may be one more way God demonstrates His presence and plan; He is committed 150% to do His part for church growth–and does it!–and He is committed 150% NOT to do our parts . . . And so, 3000+ churches close/fail annually, while the populations of their zip codes continue to increase. But, initially, the problem is an administrative–not a spiritual one (people do not know what they do not know about organizational administration, etc.–but, again, Andy Anderson’s Sunday School Growth Spiral provided the answers . . . No better answers have been offered by anyone at any level since Andy retired from the BSSB in 1993).
David Troublefield, DMin
RetroActive.Church@gmail.com
I think it is interesting that even though your order was random, the first few symptoms were worship related. Perhaps intuitively so, because at the heart of every sick church is a a lack of vertical focus (first love/first & greatest commandment).
In my pastoral experience, while the inwardly and outwardly focused symptoms can be improved on, the real solution to the sickness is personal and corporate worship.
The Apathetic Generation
The majority of the population in the U.S. is going to be retiring “boomers” who are checking out of the church because the church has not adapted a vision for them. They will miss 3 out of 4 Sundays to visit their children and after 25 years still label their Bible Class as Young Families. Since the young people are questioning their denomination, the boomer is going where the grand kids are going. In all the focus on reaching the young people; the generation that was raised on goal setting, bullet points, and mission statements have quit. Take a look at the apathy in your church among the “empty nesters.” Re-engage this generation with a vision for their children and watch the church take off.
I see this in one of our members. She comes once in a while to our church and spends the rest of the Sundays going to the church her children go to
What does it mean when many of these items follow a new pastor to a church?
We have a relative who played in a Christian band with a leader who turned out to have a fear of failure. So even though they were phenomenal musicians, with good hearts, this individual would sabotage things (ironically to prevent any possibility of failure), including being unresponsive to venues that wanted to host them. In the meantime, this leader started insisting that the band needed to do more Bible study (led by him of course), to meet more for talk and study, rather than for active rehearsal and scheduling and public playing. In other words, as per #6, he used meetings to avoid real activity and ministry, under the guise of piousness and Godly devotion. It destroyed the band, the potential they had, the ministry they had begun. It was tragic, selfish, and so wrong. Christians like to blame the devil when things go wrong, but too often people do their own damage, without any help from him.
I’m in an all-day budget meeting at LifeWay, so my interaction in the comments will be limited for the time being. My team will be approving comments, however, so continue to share your thoughts. Thanks,
Thom Rainer
Great insight. However, I think your ratio of members to new believers is too low at 5%. That number can… and should be… much much higher. The goal I recommend is 12%. How do I get to that?
– At least 10% of members evangelize one person at least once each month
– At least 10% of those reached accept Christ
If the SBC (15 million) did this, there would be:
– 1.5 million evangelistic conversations each month
– 18 million evangelistic conversations each year
– 1.8 million people saved each year (that’s 12% of the SBC membership)
I believe that this goal is not only achievable, it should be the actual goal (not 5%). I’ve written about this at http://www.johnrothra.com/1X
How do you lead a change?
(A x B x C) > D = Change
Change: a self-sustaining new condition (ie, if the pastor must sustain the “change,” then it wasn’t change–instead, the pastor created a fad/trend that can’t outlive its own lifetime); if change is needed, then Change is the most important part of the equation.
D: resistance to change; the lengths people will go–even painful lengths–not to change (God hard-wired us for latency, or the tendency to wind down physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc–and to require winding up again fairly continually via divinely-created compensations such as nighttime, functional rather than dysfunctional relationships, revival/regeneration; note: solve the latency/homeostasis issue so that it stays solved = become a zillionaire!–every leader always deals with folk not motivated for what is offered by them).
> : part of the left side of the Change equation must overcome the other part for change to happen…
( and ): the factors of the left part of the left side of the equation each must exist and function together synergistically in order to overcome D.
A: dissatisfaction with current reality–and enough of it to willingly consider alternatives; diagnosing dissatisfaction as “dissatisfaction” is a function of management–ie, nobody acting as a manager auditing current reality and saying, “This isn’t satisfactory,” then no Change (pastor, feel free to raise the congregation’s level of dissatisfaction via prayer, preaching/teaching, informal conversations, and sightseeing trips to places where better things are happening).
B: awareness of the probable existence of a preferred future–that, even if many things are ok, the surrounding population of the church’s location supports every church growth-related measurement being even better (e.g., baptisms, attendance, total designated receipts); B is a function of leadership–ie, nobody casting a vision of an even greater future = no leader is present (an observation: the SBC today has a great many more problem-finding managers than it does solution-discovering leaders; c.f. the present state of the denomination in terms of its potential for sustained growth as reported this summer).
C: a knowledge of first steps to take in order to go from A to Change; this is a function of administration, not just of management or leadership (ie, even where leaders cast vision, in 2015 too few seem able to execute the steps of a plan–like Flake’s Formula–to achieve that vision, and most seem to have no plan at all [not to choose a destination = the church goes in circles, if anywhere–and anybody can lead it in circles, not just a well-paid, seminary-trained pastor ])–so, nobody serving like an administrator does = no Change (ie, everything rises and falls on: management, leadership, and administration–not just on leadership as so often is said).
x: the A, B, and C must function together synergistically–and the absence of even one of them means D can’t be overcome (like multiplying by zero; 0 x 100000000 x 34977543378 = 0).
Short version of the above: Implement Andy Anderson’s “Sunday School Growth Spiral” in your church–it provides guidance with each part of the Change equation and leads to sustained growth anywhere it can be had (there was nothing like the Growth Spiral before it–or since it, again as evidenced by the current condition of almost all SBC congregations; Thom’s staff at LifeWay understands all about it, and can help you get the Spiral started where you serve).
David Troublefield, DMin
RetroActive.Church@gmail.com
I only would add:
After 25 years in full-time vocational Christian ministry serving SBC congregations, I now work as one of a nearby county hospital’s executive team members (and speak/consult in my spare time . . .). Our hospital has a fairly active Emergency Room; if the physicians serving patients in the ER only were able to diagnose illnesses or injuries (ie, “Yes, sir–worst broken leg I have ever seen!” or “No, ma’am; this typically is not a life-threatening illness . . .”) without also offering specific insightful prognoses and commonly-recommended prescriptions/treatments based upon years of medical study/practice (with all necessary follow-up visits scheduled, to check for progress made by patients), then the hospital’s Emergency Room would not be the useful place our clinical and nonclinical staffers know that it must be for the population of our service area (we say, “Heaven touches earth–literally–at the address of our hospital in this town!” and exceptional holistic healthcare consistently delivered to those in need is our team’s aim). It’s the same with identifying “10 Symptoms of This” and “15 Symptoms of That”; without specific how-to’s for addressing the ills of a church following its diagnosis, the congregation will struggle to proceed toward change (because “effective processes” is one of six characteristics of the only kind of team ever achieving exceptional results like those needed by the USA today, our churches simply can’t do without “ways” or “processes” that work and understanding the specifics of them).
Everyone: don’t stop with symptoms or signs; insist on steps and specific how-to’s. In this day and age of so much unnecessary decline in SBC and mainline churches–when fully 50 million more people live all across the US than was true only 20 years ago–all congregations everywhere can experience significant biblical growth (as defined by Gene Mims, formerly of LifeWay), and a future that is utterly fantastic is possible for each of them! Don’t wait; your Cooperative Program contributions annually are meant to aid congregations like the one yours may now have become–avail yourself of the resources/resource persons on the local/state/national level in denominational life (ie, your DOM, or state Baptist convention staffers, or NAMB staff members) that you already are paying for (we’d never otherwise leave that much money on a table and simply walk away . . .). Those dear brothers and sisters in the Lord know their stuff (just ask Thom) are aching to assist you and your church today! :- }
Have a super Saturday,
David Troublefield, DMin
RetroActive.Church@gmail.com
Very interesting comments. The trouble is, a doctor can’t write a column about what to do about a specific patient’s broken leg. Neither can someone write a column about what a specific church should do.
My church is in trouble. We used to be a mill town, like many other towns in my state. Our attendance has declined just like everyone else’s. We have a church that costs tens of thousands of dollars to maintain. I’d like to get rid of the building, and have my tithe go to people, not to a building. I don’t know if we’ll get there. There seems to be some interest in doing that, and also a lot of resistance, and a lot of desire to somehow go back to what we once were. But if that is what we do, I will leave, and find a more functional church, or simply mail my money into the local United Way or some such thing. I hope that doesn’t happen. I believe you can’t really be a Christian outside of a Christian community.
After assessing the situation well “on the ground,” an info piece indeed can be written about how a Christian congregation can address its difficulties. To insist otherwise is to deny SBC church and denominational history.
Things obviously change over time, but God wants for all churches to experience biblical growth–that is: spiritual growth (becoming more like Christ in character), numerical growth (increases in attendance and membership), ministry growth (more or better meeting of known needs of others, in Jesus’ name), and mission growth (increased number and/or support of gospel mission points). Clearly, an unreached population must be available to be reached for Christ and His church in a community, but nothing at all has to stop the other 3 kinds of growth. Southern Baptists of decades ago searched a town for one remaining lost soul, like DL Moody did (not a Baptist pastor himself). Things change, but the approach to finding solutions is exactly the same and very specific, and being used by lots of congregations to capture their futures–whatever that future may be–with the Lord. It is too soon to quit if an unreached population surrounds the church building, in my opinion.
Not all church growth problems are spiritual ones; most of them are matters of organizational administration, at least initially.
David Troublefield, DMin
My church displays 10 out of 10. The church I go to is very old. My husband and I are the youngest adults at 56 and 59 years old. My son at 14 is the only child in the church. My son gets alone because he sits away from everyone and vanishes. When we had a few children once the elders would yell at them. They say they want to build the church back up as without me and my family there would only be nine people, but the members always fight with me when I make suggestions that I feel are needed for us to build the church. Your website has been a God send to me because you have mentioned things I felt was important. They will do nothing for children. The don’t want any children. So nothing is there not even a corner with toys or anything for small children and I fought tooth and nail for making a Sunday school for older children. They will not reach out to the community. I feel in my heart that we should be doing things for the unchurched. But, they think things like reaching out to the community is stupid and our Priest feels the same way. I honestly think he is there for the money he gets in salary. He goes along with the majority of the members and says reaching out is stupid because no one in America wants to be Christian any more. My husband and I used to be very involved but now we are looking to planting our own church. I am glad of your site. I feel it will help me start a good church welling to reach out to the unchurched and community we live in. God bless you and this site.
What you have described is not a church but an exclusive and cranky “social club.” Do your son a life-long favor and find a church where he (and you) can love, be loved and grow in the Lord!
Absolutely! Well said, Rick.
I have also been to a church like this where I saw no children & it consisted mostly of much older people who looked down on you for being younger. I felt so “out of place” among them. The women had their own “click”. I certainly did not go back. By all means, start your own church. Get your son out of there fast! He will have a bad feeling about church and when he gets older might not ever want anything to do with it. I feel bad for him. What I feel worse about is that we have all these discussion’s about church being this or that and its a shame. I would bet that God isn’t too pleased with his “church”.
I am curious as to what percentage breakdown you’d guesstimate for each level. For example, what percentage of churches do you encounter that really only score 1-2? Your list seems perfectly reasonable but I struggle to think of more than a couple of churches in my denomination that have fewer than 3 of these issues going on at any given time. In our denominational context, anything under 5 would be considered “pretty good” or “stable.” Do you think our standards are just unreasonably low? Is everyone else doing better?
I think I wind up at least scanning most of your fb posts and am happy to say it is usually to confirm my thinking/opinions about the church I am called to pastor, how we/I am doing etc. I am blessed to say the church I pastor got a zero
I have just taken the pastorate of a church in Montana and have only been here for 4 months, but interestingly I have seen the things mentioned in this article as the reason why that this church has not been increasing. I have also seen that if I want to make changes there is some push back due to the fact that they have always done”done it that way”. I pastored a church previously with the same condition and frankly became woreout and frustrated with the lack of interest. How long to stay in a place with this attitude is the question. To continue on with the same situation being the norm will mean sure death for the church as a whole and the individual in spirit.
Great article Thom!
I came across a sermom by Talmage today intitled “The Battle of the Pitchers.” He says at one point (states it much more harshly and bluntly than I would), “I think of the ten millions membership of the Christian church today, if five millions of the names were off the books, the Church would be stronger. You know that the more cowards and drones there are in any army the weaker it is. I would rather have 300 picked men of Gideon than the twenty-two thousand unsifted host. How many Christians there are standing in the way of all progress! I think it is the duty of the Church of God to ride over them, and the quicker it does it the quicker it does its duty.” OUCH!
What about love and obedience to the scriptures?
What about your love for God as evident by your love for people?
What about preaching of the gospel or good news according to Jesus and the New Testament writers?
What about following the example of what church and fellowship means as show in Acts 2?
What about repentance, baptism, turning to God and then maturity?
What about grace, forgiveness and faith?
It has been my experience, that some church leaders, refuse to speak on sensitive subjects, such as homosexuality. One pastor I talked to, considers it a ‘gray’ area and should be left alone. Preachers, in my opinion, need to tell it like it is !
And live it like it is! If we can’t communicate our needs, our joys, our concerns, our ideas with one another, changes will not happen. Sometimes we just need to shake the dust off of our sandles and move on….
Along these same lines…. I would like to see a blog post on how to leave a
Church gracefully. Especially when pushed out.
Me too!
Dr. Rainer,
Have you ever addressed one of the main reasons for people leaving the churches? The “Dones” aren’t done with loving Christ, but they are done with sweeping under the carpet domestic abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse and spiritual abuse.
Our little church was started two years ago, in the same building that the pastor had another congregation many years ago, but left to go on the missions field. Before he reopened it, it had sat vacant for two years. Our attendance went up to about 30 members with Sunday am and pm services. The pastor’s son-in-law led Sunday school classes for several months, then he and his family left due to “issues” with another member. Little by little the numbers kept dropping, and we now only have the pastor, his wife, son and daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, my husband and I, another couple who attend very infrequently, and four others who have attended for many years, in whatever form the church took. There is virtually no attendance on Sunday evenings, so they were discontinued. Our pastor is very discouraged, and has suggested we consider selling the large building. There are many repairs needed in the near future, and few to assist. I did your survey, and got six. However, my husband felt led to come to this church, and said he has not felt the Lord wants us elsewhere. Any thoughts?
To add:
1. Churches with exec staff that overworks support staff but takes no responsibility for spiritual dryness or marital or parental issues among support staff and in fact blames the staff for those issues.
2. Churches with exec staff that require staff “volunteer” their normal duties.
3. Churches that insist staff pay for mandated marriage seminars needed because of church staff culture of workaholism.
4. Churches that do not practice church discipline or practice it unequally across the staff.
5. Churches that build satellite campuses with little to no plan on how to staff or operate them.
6. Churches with exec staff that hire support staff under false pretenses – ie. promises of certain positions.
7. Churches that abruptly initiate or change or stop church wide programs or services with little to no notice.
8. Churches that consistently burnout volunteers.
9. Churches that function chiefly as evangelistic organizations to the detriment of other aspects of the role of the local church.
10. Churches with exec staffs that are effectively “closed loop systems” that do not allow for new ideas and even the proposal of alternative methods.
11. Churches that do not support missionaries but publically claim that they do.
12. Churches that are known more for what they are against than what they are for.
13. Churches with function with a “mission first” mentality at the expense of people and spiritual life.
14. Churches that emphasize baptism and re-baptism as an emotional response (over and apart from discipleship) while functionally equating it with salvation.
15. Churches that are dishonest with membership and attendance numbers.
16. Churches that cater to and promote materialism, consumerism and worldliness.
17. Churches that discount the need for theological education while demanding it for staff.
18. Churches that allow unchristian personalities or politicians into their pulpit to speak or use services to interview them in lieu of Scripture reading and a sermon.
19. Churches that put more energy into drawing a crowd than discipleship.
20. Churches that claim to be part of the Cooperative Program but allocate less than 1% of their budget to CP giving.
21. Churches that spend more on their Christmas concert/program than on CP giving.
22. Churches that are centered around a single personality other than Jesus.
23. Churches whose staff spend more time event planning than talking to people (other than coworkers) in a given week.
24. Churches that value what you can produce as it pertains to ministry goals, in terms of numbers, over who you are as a person.
25. Churches that excuse their own failings.
What if the pastor is the problem? What if there are no elders or deacons to hold him accountable but executive teams? My church has 5 of these symptoms along with others not mentioned like the pastor is always right and you can’t disagree with him.
What if the pastor is the reason there is a sick church? What if there are no elders or deacons to hold him accountable but executive teams? What happens when he chooses not to listen to other opinions? My church fits 5 of these symptoms. I don’t like giving up on family but I don’t know what else to do.
I visit a good number of churches who are very ill. It is sad and frustrating.
. . . Sad–and unnecessary. No Christian congregation MUST be unhealthy/dysfunctional organizationally; and, unless a mass exodus from its zip code is happening, each congregation in the U.S. can experience numerical growth today (U.S. population larger by 50 million more people during the past 20 years). NOT easy, but simple . . .
6 characteristics of high performance teams achieving exceptional results (note: people going to Heaven instead of Hell counts as “exceptional” results; how many does your ministry team/congregation have now–and to what degree?):
1. Common purpose
2. Clear roles
3. Accepted leadership
4. Effective processes
5. Solid relationships
6. Excellent communications
Implementing the 5 sequential steps of Flake’s Formula consistently addresses each of these characteristics and leads to growth…
I have heard Pastor’s say that it is wrong to go from one church to another (church hopping). If there is something wrong there, then why keep going to it?
I know a church where the worship is vibrant and the giving is good. It has made an impact in the community and many are being added to their number constantly. It is a thriving church and it is by no means sick.
Oh, did I mention that the pastor has impregnated a woman who was not his wife and he plagiarizes his sermons, that he helped himself immensely with church funds and constantly asks the congregants for vacations and gadgets? Did I also mention that he decreed that his actions cannot be questioned?
A congregation is not responsible for its employees’ behaviors, but it is responsible for what it does about its employees’ behaviors. If a church does not correct/dismiss misbehaving employees when it should, then it deserves the consequences resulting from its inaction.
They will not do anything because you know what, the pastor is the Lord’s ‘annointed.’ But my point is this: based on the list of the article, this is not a sick church.
Hello! As I was reading your list of symptoms of a sick church, I began to ponder a recent situation in the church I attend. Our church has gone through some extremely painful times over the past three or four years. Our pastor of more than 15 years, who was well respected and loved, struggled with some major financial issues that ultimately lead to his resignation. Then, a new pastor came on board only to have many families continue to leave because of past hurt as well as not being in agreement with the vision of the new pastor. The split was gut-wrenching and painful. After a few years of conflict and turmoil, there appears to be more unity among the congregation recently. There appears to be healing taking place, and health being restored.
However, I often wonder if any of this could have been avoided if we would have recognized some of the symptoms you mentioned above. Could it have been avoided if the problem was addressed before the situation went too far; or was it God’s way of moving people because they might not otherwise move on their own? Sometimes, God allows us to go through challenges to bring us out stronger on the other side.
As a congregation are you going to pursue the uneducated (http://www.economist.com/news/international/21623712-how-education-makes-people-less-religiousand-less-superstitious-too-falling-away) or actually allow non-believers a place in your pews? Many of my generation (I am now 45) were very active in church and still hold strong christian values but have decided to pass on believing in a god. Is it better to fill your pews with those who would live in a manner that you see as “christian” or do you hold that litmus test that they must believe in god and Jesus Christ? If the latter then you have to look to the uneducated in your community since the educated are leaving. If the former then you have to open up to the idea that we are not searching for salvation but instead how to be a good community member. It isn’t easy (and many will say it isn’t right), but simply regurgitating bible verses at us are the surest way to get us to leave. Instead you have to be challenged to find the deeper meaning in those words and espouse that meaning from the pulpit without simply citing verse. Maybe church isn’t for us… but I do miss that loving community and wish I didn’t feel abandoned because I didn’t pass the test…
I suppose there is a third option – hope that the light will come to the educated, but I fear too many churches have relied on this option for far too long…
It is possible to develop a core of solid Christians after starting with a community of unbelievers. Compare strong evangelical Southern Baptist churches like Saddleback Church that began with 2 families (start: community > crowd > congregation > committed > core). One important thing: the members of the church as it currently exists being insulated (from worldliness, via close walks with God) and not isolated (cloistered within the building, sheltered in place).
David Troublefield, DMin
I am afraid that people by the billions (with a ‘b”)–educated, not so educated, and completely illiterate alike–will spend eternity in Hell for no other reason but they remained unchallenged by Christians to consider seriously the Holy Bible’s claims for Christ as Savior and Lord. The gospel of the New Testament is objectively the truth–it essentially is what happened on Calvary and why for the six hours Jesus hung on the cross; nothing is able to change that story, and no one who examines the evidence of it honestly can come back as an unbeliever in his mind–intellectually–though he may continue not to trust in Christ with his heart (volitionally an unbeliever).
Open the doors, let everybody in, keeping showing all the truth of the Scriptures and challenging them with it. God is not afraid of that, and we should not be either (when people choose to become Christians biblically, they then are added to the church/faith community).
David Troublefield, DMin
A church is a loving community of believers in Christ that welcomes outsiders to God’s joyous good news. I think you were attracted to this loving community and unfortunately without Christ at the core it slowly seizes to exhibit these characteristics. Believers come in all types, regardless of gender, age, education, money etc. When the fire dies that you warmed yourself by it brings sadness, you need to be apart of that fire.
Please have a non-member take these 10 symptoms rather than a jaded member. Things stand out for a non-member that never occur to a member.
I saw these things that the last church I was at. but not
This church am at these people are loving. I see two or
There symptoms I would say it’s healthy I’m 17 and my is the pastor. the last church I was at will die.
A church that views “traditions” as being equal to or surpassing biblical doctrine is a very sick church.
Churches that view “having” a church but are not interested in “being” a church are sick churches.
Methodology of worship and ministry may vary from church to church. It isn’t the methodology that weakens, it the fruits produced in that church that indicate the health of the church.
Some additional examples:
1. Removing Hymnals from the Sanctuary, using mega sized TV’s instead
2. Removing the pews and installing theater seats with numbers
3. Redesignating the Sanctuary as the Worship Center
4. Amping up the noise level
5. Adding drum set behind a plexiglass enclosure by the pulpit
6. Renting musicians when the choir cannot attract volunteers
7. Replacing hymns with 7-11 music
Another sign of a sick church
1. Ministers having affairs with other ministers wives
We recently lost the High Powered young guitar playing Worship Leader because he and the wife of an associate pastor had an affair while they were on a retreat. The spouses were also on the retreat. The worship leader’s wife was 8 months pregnant. Then the associate pastor was forced to leave though he was not involved. He is now selling cars. His wife had the affair not him. I knew the worship leader was a problem.
Typical and not very insightful…
How about “rise in divorce rates where those that stay are the men (good ol’ boy’s club) and the women are left out in the cold because the only leadership in the church is male and the male elders aren’t allowed to meet with the females who are the victims of mistreatment”… yeeeaaahhhhh…
I would add: Having a church who tries to save them with the message of Hell, rather than the uplifting promises God gave us. Someone being “saved” to avoid hell is not in it for the right reasons and isn’t being educated correctly. Also, if a youth movement occurs in the church, the rest of the congregation must embrace them and nurture them rather than marvel at the spectacle of all these new young believers. They won’t stay if they feel like a freak show.
My church has 7 out of 10. Including the pastor We are a small congregation of about 18 member on a good Sunday. There are no young families or young children. Our congregation is average age 60 and up who has been there for 25years or longer. My husband and I are the youngest 54 & 58. I have prayed for spiritual guidance to stay or leave. I love the members but I dislike the pastor, who is rude, hurtful, and has no filter, loves to spend 30% of worship time talking about themselves and things in their personal life that don’t concern the church. No one has joined our church in 3 years, and no one invites friends or family, yet everyone is pretending things are fine just the way they are. We haven’t had a church meeting in over 3 years. Before. After the passing of our pastor 15 years ago, our church chose the wrong pastor who ended up resigning. Then they voted for this pastor, and it’s been all down hill. The church turned into a dead church, with no motivation, no inspiration, and no vision. If I bring my concerns to the pastor or the church I will be ostracized, and publicly ridiculed. My husband will not leave.
My church has 10 out 10! We share a pastor with another church that is mainly age 60 & up. Unfortunately, our pastor spends the majority of his time there as they have more monetary benefits. We are on a timed basis to accodomate both churches, which means no interaction with the pastor after service. His wife & another child are never at our church but always at the 2nd church. Our pastors sermon does not come from God or the heart but from a newsletter published by the Methodist council. How do you revive a church that used to be splitting at the seams and now will have to close because our congregation can not afford to keep it open? How do you demolish the cliques that run the church & only allow what they want? I love my church & I have prayed, but I need help!
My church has the following characteristics :
1) respect and favouritism is based position , influence, background , and value of contribution
2) church staff who resigned , moved to other churches instead of staying back in the church.
3) People are used as tools for the purpose instead as part of the purpose.
4) People talk about people rather than talk to them.
5) There are 2 groupings in the church, those favoured and those not favoured
6) People are passive , sometimes respond and sometimes not. They rarely talk to people they dont know well. Cold in some way.
7) Conflict is solved not very professionally as they try to avoid conflicts at all cost and
would view people as troublemakers when conflict arises.
8) Respect needs to be earned and not given.
9) Greetings rarely given.
10) Obedience and follow the flow is expected.
There are churches that people feel that they are not being fed the Word of God enough.
Nice explanation
So blessed sir
I was interim pastor of a Baptist church for 3 months. The church had 9 of these symptoms and the previous pastor never addressed it. In a short time 2/3 of the members left, most without telling anyone. They just stopped showing up and the church never received letters from their new churches. Many did not return the pastor’s phone calls but the few who did would not disclose what their new church was. The deacons are in control of the church. They do not meet the scriptural qualifications and I am sure they are not saved. They are actually opposed to having any kind of outreach; instead they want to rule the church and monitor everyone’s behavior. By the time I stepped in to pastor (for free), the church had a deficit of hundreds of dollars each month with about 20 attending on Sunday. And my own tithe was about 40% of the total receipts. The people came only to the main Sunday morning service. The only people who would come to Sunday school and the evening services were myself and 2 deacons. I started going to door door to try to get more people in but the deacons said I should not do that “without church approval”. I did teach them from the Bible that the very purpose of the church is to produce disciples. They did not know that. When I showed the church from the scriptures that deacons are servants, not a ruling body, the deacons went behind my back and had my name taken off the legal corporation (I was also treasurer, song leader and pianist) and they had the locks changed on the building so that I could not get in. How sad for this church. It is on its way to going bankrupt. But it has been spiritually bankrupt for quite some time.
It’s scary, my church is going through all. My Pastor spend all the time telling same stories. It’s so bad we can’t invite any one from the community to church…..I don’t know what to do to help my church.
Hi, I know this is an old post, but I would be grateful of a reply.
I’m not in the US, my church has 14 people, over half from the same family. And half of them are kids. Most others are over 50. No decernable leadership, just the oldest person there doing all the teaching. Women not allowed to speak, must cover heads. No fellowship meeting that are not church services, no socialising encouraged after meetings, people leave right away. One section of the main family wants to leave and is haphazard in attendance, putting sporting events before attendance. As only men speak, it can come down to one man doing every prayer, every hymn choice. Women are allowed to do nothing but sit in silent prayer.
All those things you mentioned, hymnals, pews, the word “sanctuary” were probably hi tech at one stage or another.