I made a mistake recently. I attended a church meeting at a dying church where a denominational “consultant” came in and gave a report to the 20 remaining church members about how to change their status. Honestly the consultant who gave the report was so rude and intense, I thought she knew the group of people who she was addressing. But alas, she spent a half hour with each church member (before this meeting) and as far as a few of the members knew, she had never attended a service. She was a consultant for the a particular denomination, and if you know anything about that denominations, you probably already know that a church growth consultant for denominations can be a oxymoron.
So the consultant began the meeting with prayer, then asking the congregations to pray for their “saints” of the past. For whatever reason, maybe because I sat off to the side, the consultant chose not to ask me if I had a saint. Sad, really. Then the church growth consultant for the denomination that has had 6 decades of steady decline in their membership charged into the reasons she found the congregation struggled to grow, all of which I agreed with. High on the list sat Blaming and complaining about others, seeking quick fixes, cliquish behavior, and emotional reactivity.
Then she blasted the members (also maybe she was right to do so) by telling them she found everyone of them at fault regarding the problems within the church. In a dying congregation, it is in fact true that most of the remaining congregation is in fact at fault, along with many who left, including the previous or present church leadership. She told them they needed to be willing to change of they were going to continue on. At this point, I believe she knew they would continue on, but there was a hint in a few of the things she said that she didn’t want them to continue on. I began to suspect a denominational desire for the church to die, sell off their assets, and give the proceeds to the denomination.
Finally, she gave the congregations the routes that she sees them taking in the future. First, they could choose to ignore the report. Second, they could decide to be a “legacy” congregation that allows them to be who they are. I wasn’t entirely sure how those two were different, other than the first one maybe the denomination would break free of them, and the second one they could go on and be who they are with some sort of denominational oversight. Maybe this would lead to some sort of merger in the future. Lastly, and she made it sound like she would really have to think about this: They would enter a time of a 5-10 year redevelopment process that she said would probably cause the congregation “much anxiety” and she doubted they were ready for it.
She mentioned they had tried this twice before with pastors the denomination had sent their way, and those failed miserably. Her only problem was that I knew those others pastoral situations. She then asked if anyone had questions. Most had none, but a few people asked questions, and for the most part, she shut the questions down quite rudely.
After everyone asked away, I raised my hand. I mentioned she had talked about two times the denomination had sent the pastors and it didn’t work out. I asked her why one of those pastors lived an hour and a half away from where the church was, and the other pastor only gave the allotted amount of time that she was paid for. I asked her if she felt that only working the exact amount of time you’ve been paid for or not living anywhere near the congregation your pastoring is a recipe for success when it comes to turning a congregation around.
I’m pretty sure she was put off by my questions, but I felt they needed to be asked. I preached there that morning, and with one facebook post I doubled the attendance of the congregation, so I wondered if the denomination really had any clue about how to grow a church or at least even to make sure a church is shepherded in a Biblical manner. In a world where people are looking for entertainment at their churches, the best way to counteract that is to ensure that disciples were being evangelized and discipled to become mature in Christ, and Biblical unity in the body of Christ is a focus.
Here’s where I’ve come to regarding multi site and denominations: When the body of Christ is spread out and the leadership of local churches are delegated to those outside of those local congregations, it is impossible for that leadership, either from a denominational office or a center location, to truly care for the individuals in those local congregations. That leadership will begin to do what’s best for the organization or denomination as a whole and make decision for the vision or mission of the organization, and neglect the vision or mission of the church, which is to go and make disciples of all the nations and to baptize them, and then to do the very very hard work of teaching them the things Jesus commanded us.
Did you hear that last part? That’s the part that gets ignored, no matter the denomination or the organization. And the reason is that part means life to life and person to person discipleship. The way a rabbi in a middle eastern country would train his proteges, or a recovering Pharisee in prison would train a runaway slave who would one day become a church leader.
If you’re a Christian in the wilderness, don’t look for the next big thing in regards to churches or a strong financial backed denomination. Look for a church that appears healthy and life-giving but is also going to stick someone with you who will challenge you spiritually to change your life to look like our Savior, “who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage: rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-even death on a cross!”
At the end of the meeting, the church growth consultant whose denomination declined a whopping 26% in the last 10 years boldly proclaimed the name of Jesus to the church members….Just kidding. She actually told them if they called her in again to clarify the report or if they chose to ignore her and eventually changed their minds “they would have to pay her and she does not come cheap.”
