Podcast Episode #529
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Dying churches often exhibit symptoms of dying along the way. Today we cover seven of these symptoms and how to combat them.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- When a church is in “fight mode, it is inwardly focused and likely not reaching people for Christ.
- Meetings always seem to fill the time slot you give for them. Don’t give them more time than is actually needed to cover the business at hand.
- There is usually to be plenty of blame being thrown around in dying churches.
- Church vernacular can be off-putting to guests. It’s like hearing people speak in a foreign language.
The seven symptoms that we discuss are:
- Continuous battles
- Numerical declines of three or more years
- Rooms as idols
- Memorials and plaques
- Prolonged meetings
- Deflection of blame
- Methodological stability
Resources mentioned in today’s podcast
- Autopsy of a Deceased Church
- Autopsy of a Deceased Church Video Study Guide
- Church Answers
- Seven Warnings about Memorials and Plaques in Your Church
Rainer on Leadership is a member of the LifeWay Leadership Podcast Network
Episode Sponsors
Today’s episode is sponsored by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Midwestern offers more than 25 degrees at both undergraduate and masters level that are fully attainable online. From Business to Bible, Counseling to Christian education, prepare for your future at your own pace and in your own location.
Find out more at mbts.edu/online.
Vanderbloemen Search Group is the premier pastor search firm dedicated to helping churches and ministries build great teams. They’ve helped thousands of churches just like yours find their church staff and are uniquely geared to help you discern who God is calling to lead your church.
For more information, visit WeStaffTheChurch.com.
Feedback
If you have a question you would like answered on the show, fill out the form on the podcast page here at ThomRainer.com. If we use your question, you’ll receive a free copy of Becoming a Welcoming Church.
I’m curious where denial of truth come into play. If a church is marked by all or some of these, and they are brought to the attention of the church with clear evidence, yet the church still denies that there is a problem, is that a symptom in itself?
I think these issues are symptoms of denial. The disease is denial that the church is drifting or failing; the items identified (not an exhaustive list) are signs that denial is taking place.
Denial can be both a symptom of a problem but also a contributing factor to a problem. Denial is also multi-leveled. It may involve denial of a problem’s existence, the extent of the problem, its seriousness, and so on. Denial involves emotional and psychological dynamics as well as what is known as cognitive dissonance. Presenting the church with clear evidence is not necessarily the most effective way of confronting the denial. It depends how deep a level the denial is occurring. What may appear to be the level at which the congregation is denying the problem usually is not the level at which it really denying the problem.For example, you are not going to get a congregation to recognize the extent or severity of a problem if it does not recognize its existence.
Thanks Thom, great insight as usual. What do you make of a dying church that calls a new pastor, the church begins to grow, nearly doubles in size, and a power group then tries to…get rid of the pastor? This happened to me in my first full-time pastorate in 1993. We began with an average attendance of 40 or so, and within a year and a half was averaging 70-80, with upwards of 100 on special event Sundays. That’s when the trouble reached critical mass and the bloodshed began. I survived a vote to dismiss by around 40 to 20. Getting to that place was so ugly I nearly suffered a nervous breakdown. I was harassed, stalked, physically threatened, and slandered. After the vote, the power group left and I stayed on another year until things settled down. These days I am bi-vocational and loving it. One more thing; I am yet to serve in a church that has a parlor and I am compelled to think that’s a good thing 🙂
Thanks for these podcasts. They are a blessing.
God bless you, brother.
Thank you, Dan, for your faithfulness and service. Leaders like you are my heroes.
A majority of people in churches don’t really want to change. If the average attendance moves from 40 to 80, those who were there in the 40 “can’t know” everyone in the 80 – what the church has become is not the church they attended just a year ago.
Change is hard for some to process and accept.
If members are feeling that their Church is moving towards dying because of pastor, what they can do?
Pastor is just coming take 2 hrs church service, no youth meetings, no Sunday school for kids, no prayer meetings , no Bible study. Numbers are going down, no excitement among the church members. Pastor is not feeling that Church is dying. His thinking just come to Sunday and sing some songs and preach the word of God. His duty is over. In this case how can we help Church??