The Most Common Factor in Declining Churches

I thought this was a good post by Dr. Thom Rainer about the church.

In Wednesday’s post, I focused on seven very practical habits of churches that have an outward focus. I am honored and humbled to be in a place where I get to hear from and study about thousands of churches. The leaders and congregants in those churches provide me with incredible information and data. I am grateful, because I’m not smart enough to understand these issues on my own.
As God has allowed me to study congregations for more than 25 years, I began to see a common pattern in churches that had become outwardly focused. You read some of the practical steps these churches have taken in the earlier post.

The Most Common Factor

Conversely, though, I also can see a simple but profound pattern among the declining churches.

Stated simply, the most common factor in declining churches is an inward focus.

The ministries are only for the members. The budgetary funds are used almost exclusively to meet the needs of the members. The times of worship and worship styles are geared primarily for the members. Conflict takes place when members don’t get things their way. You get the picture.

Warning Symptoms

After studying and consulting with thousands of churches, I began to see clearly this pattern. Even more, I began to recognize symptoms of an inward focus. See if you recognize a few of these.

• There are very few attempts to minister to those in the community.
• Church business meetings become arguments over preferences and desires.
• Numbers of members in the congregation are openly critical of the pastor, other church staff, and lay leaders in the church.
• Any change necessary to become a Great Commission church is met with anger and resistance.
• The past becomes the hero.
• Culture is seen as the enemy instead of an opportunity for believers to become salt and light.
• Pastors and other leaders in the church become discouraged and withdraw from effective leadership.
• If the churches are a part of a denomination or similar affiliation, meetings of those denominations mirror the churches in lost focus and divisiveness.

There is Hope

For those of us in Christ, however, there is always hope—His hope.
I have written in recent years about the dire straits of most of our churches. I have felt it necessary to do so in order to face the facts. Indeed, I have written in my most recent book about the deaths of many churches.
In the weeks and months ahead, however, you will be hearing from me about churches that are defying the negative trends. You will hear more about church leaders who are dreaming again. You will hear about revitalized churches. This fall, I will deliver to your computers a multi-hour video conference about these exciting times.
I don’t have my head in the sand. I know times are tough in many churches. I know congregations are dying every day. I know many church leaders are discouraged.
But we serve the God of hope.
Decline in our churches does not have to be a reality.
I hope you will join me as I share what God is doing in so many congregations. And I always look forward to your comments and thoughts in these blog posts.

This article was originally published at Thom Rainer.com on May 31, 2014. Thom S. Rainer serves as president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Among his greatest joys are his family: his wife Nellie Jo; three sons, Sam,  Art, and Jess; and seven grandchildren. Dr. Rainer can be found on Twitter @ThomRainer and at facebook.com/Thom.S.Rainer.

Good & Best

I know it has been awhile since I posted anything. It's been quite a busy time in my life with studies, preaching, family, and oh yes, life. However, I will try to get back into it at least begin to try.

What I have noticed lately, especially in the last 5 years, is that one of the greatest issues facing many families is all the good stuff they are doing. Spending time with family on one, two and even three vacations, along with several "get aways" in order to build up and have a good family time building memories. Then there is all the good that comes with all sports. It's not just baseball, basketball, and football anymore, oh no, we have so much more good stuff to do. Now we have soccer, cheer-leading, gymnastics, karate, swimming, and on and on I could go. There is never a break between any of them and they probably even overlap in most cases. There is no longer just a couple of channels on TV, there is now so many good channels and good movies that are good and wholesome for the whole family to watch no matter what time they come on because we can always watch them no matter what time, we've got DVR's!

Right now most of you think you know where I might be going, right? This of course leaves no time for the church. But hold on a minute because the church has followed the culture and now you can go online and look at what church offers the most good stuff for your family. They have ministries for this and ministries for that, they have sports ministries, and exercise ministries, and video ministry and on and on we could go.

All of this stuff if good! Don't we believe that more is always good? The problem, as I see it, is that we are so consumed with the good that we have not had time to even contemplate and ask the question "What is best?

That's the question that I leave you with. Oops, one more good best thing I want to mention. A guy by the name of Solomon did a lot of good stuff and he talked a little bit about that in a book he wrote - Ecclesiastes.

What is a Disciple?

Here is an article on discipleship written by Dr. Dempsey, professor at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary on discipleship. 

Great Commission/Great Commandment/New Commandment/Acts 1 and 2/ Eph. 4:11-16/ Col. 1:28

Characteristics of a disciple-making church:

1.      Intentional- The Great Commandment. The New Commandment. Acts 2:42-47. These passages make it clear that the early church had a clear strategy. That strategy revolved around love (love for God, love for people and love for believers). This type of love has the ability to crush arguments, confuse enemies and convince skeptics. In the book of Revelation the church of Ephesus left its first love. God gave the church a very specific prescription: “Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent.” A church that has lost its love for God won’t move forward with love for the lost. The gates of hades will not be pushed back. Instead the church will be afflicted with the paralysis of analysis. Maintenance becomes the goal while a movement is what is needed. When the church does not move forward it must move backward in retreat. The solution for reaching the world has always been simple. People transformed by the grace of God has always been God’s method. The church must become intentional to develop people who genuinely love God, love people and love believers. This is not a program. This is a pursuit. After all, love motivated God to send Jesus in the first place. Love is God’s plan for God’s people.

2.      Individual- Ephesians 4:11-16. Colossians 1:28. The focus in this series of verses is for pastors to equip the saints to spiritual maturity and for the saints to do the works of service. We are saved to serve. In the Ephesians passage, the emphasis is on every person “being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causing the growth of the body.” The body of Christ will grow as each individual part does its unique specific function in the body. The converse is true as well… if each part of the body is not functioning properly then the body will not grow. Church growth is really a matter of growing and developing disciples. The body will grow in quantity as it intentionally develops each individual to reach their full potential in Christ- quality. Because as the church grows in quantity it is going to need quality disciples to lead the people in the church by example. Remember, “Christianity is more caught than taught.”

3.      Missional- Matthew 28:18-20. This is perhaps the most difficult one to address because the church seems to be stuck in a maintenance mindset. Pastors are viewed as shepherds who feed and care for difficult sheep instead of generals preparing soldiers for battle.  The Great Commission makes it clear that we are to make disciples “of all the nations.” Yet every year we seem to get further and further behind. Why would God give us a mandate that is impossible to accomplish? The answer is that He didn’t. It is possible to reach the world with the Gospel if we understand that the full development of every person is critical to reaching the world. As the person grows in Christ likeness and maturity we intentionally create opportunities for them to engage directly in the mission of the master. We cannot reach the world if we do not equip the saints to reach their full potential. Based upon these principles here is my definition of discipleship:

Discipleship is the process of guiding individual disciples to grow in spiritual maturity and to discover and use their gifts, talents and abilities in fulfillment of Christ’s mission.

On Being a Disciple Based on the Word

This is an article I read written by Dr. Matt Wilmington that I thought I would share:

1.      Someone who is willing to deny himself and take up his own cross–Luke 14:26

2.      Someone who is willing to prioritize his relationship to Christ ahead of all other relationships–Luke 14:27/ Matt. 6:33

3.      Someone who seriously counts the cost of following Christ–Luke 14:28-32

4.      Someone who is willing to give up their possessions–Luke 14:33

5.      Someone who remains in God’s word–John 8:31-32/ Acts 17:10-12

6.      Someone who is walking in freedom and victory–John 8:32,36 / Gal. 5:1

7.      Someone who loves other Christians–John 13:35

8.      Someone who realizes that they can do nothing apart from Christ, remains in the Vine, prays, bears much fruit, and glorifies God–John 15:1-8

9.      Someone who will become like his Master–Matt. 10:24

10.  Someone who is obedient to Jesus–Matt. 26:19

11.  Someone who is continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit–Acts 13:52

From these PASSAGES we can extract three principles: sacrificial, relational and transformational.  We can begin to develop a definition that will help de-mystify what a disciple looks like; once the fog is lifted, only then can we begin to design an organic process for disciple-making. Here is my definition for a person, who would follow Jesus:

A disciple is a person who has trusted Christ for salvation and has surrendered completely to Him.  He or she is committed to practicing the spiritual disciplines in community and developing to their full potential for Christ and His mission.

From this point your church must develop effective, measurable practices that will produce “Dangerous Disciples” who will be in love with both the person and mission of Christ!

Theonomy?

There are all kinds of theologically rich language that has been lost in the church. Somehow we thought it would be best if we watered down or dumbed down our rich Bible heritage. A word that is probably foreign to many believers is the word "theonomy."

According to John Frame a "Theonomy can be defined simply as adherence to God's law, which would make all Christians, especially Reformed Christians, into theonomists. Here I define the term more narrowly as a school of thought within Reformed theology which prefers literal, specific, and detailed applications of Mosaic civil laws to modern civil government. The word "prefers" gives us some leeway. At points, the theonomists, like the rest of us, apply the law only in general and non-literal ways. But they tend more than the rest of us to prefer the specific and the literal. - John Frame from Penulitimate Thoughts on Theonomy

"Reform is no answer for a culture like ours. Redemption is what is needed, and that occurs at the individual, not societal level. The church needs to get back to the real task to which we are called: evangelizing the lost. Only when multitudes of individuals in our society turn to Christ will society itself experience any significant transformation." - John MacArthur

Dr. Van Till taught that "There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy" (Christian Theistic Ethics, p. 134). Every ethical decision assumes some final authority or standard, and that will either be self-law (autonomy) or God's law (theonomy). While unbelievers consider themselves the ultimate authority in determining moral right or wrong, believers acknowledge that God alone has that position and prerogative. The position which has come to be labeled "theonomy" today so this holds that the word of The Lord is sole, supreme, and unchallengeable standard for the actions and attitudes of all men in all areas of life. Our obligation to keep God's commands cannot be judged by any extrascriptural standard, such as whether its specific requirement (when properly interpreted) are congenial to past traditions or modern feelings and practices." - Greg Bahnsen from "What is Theonomy?"

There is Much in a Name

Concerning the use of the name “Trinity” and other technical terms we often employ such as essence, ontos, ousia, substantia, persona, hypostasis and the like, the great theologian of the sixteenth century John Calvin writes:

“Where names have not been invented rashly, we must beware lest we become chargeable with arrogance and rashness in rejecting them. I wish, indeed, that such names were buried, provided all would concur in the belief that the Father, Son, and Spirit, are one God, and yet that the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but that each has his particular subsistence. I am not so minutely precise as to fight furiously for mere words. For I observe, that the writers of the ancient Church, while they uniformly spoke with great reverence on these matters, neither agreed with each other, nor were always consistent with themselves” (Institutes, 1.13.5).

No Christian understands the doctrine of the Trinity fully. In fact, if people are not confused to some degree by this doctrine, it probably means that they have slipped into heresy in their thinking. If we think about it too long, try to solve it, or nuance it according to our desire to comprehend things, we will find ourselves refusing the hand of God who has given the mysterious Trinity to us a description of Himself. While it is impossible that finite beings can fully comprehend an infinite God, we can understand him truly. The doctrine of the Trinity does not give us the full understanding of God, but it does give us a true understanding of God.

 

As Evangelicals we Confess the Trinity

We believe in one God (monotheism vs. polytheism) who is one in essence, yet three in person. All three members of the Trinity are eternally God, all of whom are equal.  

Wow! What's that all about? Stay tuned as we continue to look at God as Trinity.

Where's the Help?

Trusting God to help us is stated often in church but what does that really mean? Much of the NT deals with all kinds of crises. Several of these NT letters were written specifically to deal with all sorts of issues from sickness, divisions, relations, to death itself. There is scarcely an issue today that Christians will deal with that is not referenced in the Word of God. If you and I really want to know God’s will for our lives in dealing with particular problems we may be facing, the Scriptures will direct and help us to the right answer or course to follow.

The key to dealing with our plethora of problems is to lean to lean on and trust what God says for us to do about it. Too many of us want to make our own decisions and then ask God to “bless” what they have already decided to do or not do. The alternative, we need to figure out what God would have us to do and do it with the confidence that He will bless it. Our obedience to His commands places us in a position to receive His blessings in our lives.

Our willingness to trust God in every circumstance of life depends on our confidence in his love. All indecision on our part is an expression of distrust in his love. It is a basic rejection of God’s character and nature. When we fail to trust him with our problems we are really distrusting his sincerity and integrity. Since God truly is all-loving with our best interests in mind, we must learn to trust His love for us in spite of our circumstances.

Whether we fully understand it or not, God is sovereign over the events in our lives. Jay Adams says, “No matter how bad the crisis may appear to be, it is never beyond His ability to resolve it.”  Every crisis in our lives is part of God’s sovereign purpose for us. We may not understand that purpose while we are going through the struggle, but we will eventually see how the circumstance was for our benefit.

In the above four paragraphs, is what you would find in any number of Christian counseling books or hear from your pastor. In those paragraphs, I have stated a whole lot about God and who he has revealed himself to be: His love, sovereignty, character, will, and nature and even our trusting in him. I stated that when we fail to trust God with our problems we are distrusting his character and nature. But here is the problem that I see in the landscape of Christianity…we don’t know or at the most know very little of God’s character, nature, sincerity and integrity. How are we to trust that which we don’t know?

Think about the last time you had a physical, emotional, or some other type of problem. In confronting the situation, you say, perhaps under your breath “Where’s the help?” You then think about all the possibilities of getting some kind of assistance. Yet how many go to God? How many of us think about his sovereignty in the situation? For that matter, what is his sovereignty? The reason we don’t go to God is because we don’t know God nor have we had much history in trusting him for anything. Why? We don’t know him.

When we go to church what do you hear mostly preached? How God can help ______. You know the answer that goes in the blank – “me.” How can God help me with my emotional, physical, financial, or relational problem? And so we have one series after series on our felt needs and how to get the most out of God.

When was the last time you had a series on who God is? Can you imagine a two month series on Sunday morning on the sovereignty of God? But pastor, how is that going to help me in my finances or marriage? Where would be the application on a message on the transcendence of God?

On the first page of his Institutes, Calvin observes that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self are interrelated. We might expect Calvin (as a good Calvinist!) to add that of the two, the knowledge of God “comes first.” Extraordinarily, however, Calvin says instead that he doesn’t know which comes first. This comment I take to be enormously perceptive. The best way to look at the matter is that neither knowledge of God nor knowledge of self is possible without knowledge of the other, and growth in one area is always accompanied by growth in the other. My perception is that we have focused entirely too much on self. My prayer is that we would regain the balance.

The question I asked myself is how? To be honest, I don’t think a two month series on the sovereignty of God or any number of series on his nature and being will work. I also don’t believe there is only one methodology that will work. So how do we bring the pendulum back on balance? Actually, the answer is not that profound. It’s through exegesis of the Scriptures. If we are faithful to preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God’s word, it will be in each and every one of our messages. Jesus came to make the Father known. The Holy Spirit was given to make the Son known. The apostles and disciples of Christ have the indwelling Spirit to continue to make the Son known.

The simple solution is to preach Christ and him crucified, buried, risen, and coming again. It’s the gospel that will change hearts and minds and by faithfully preaching and teaching God’s word, we will cry out as Paul did, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,” (Philippians 3:10). And so will you join me on the journey to know him? I believe the more we see him clearly as revealed in Scripture, we will have a greater hunger and desire for more of him versus this world. It truly will become strangely dim. He (God) has that effect on you. You can’t get close to him without his glory spilling out. Just ask Moses.