OK. You think I am out of touch with that title for the article? Well, stop and think with me for a moment. I scratch my head daily and wonder, “How in the world can I be a catalyst for growth/change in our churches?” More than 80% of our SBC churches are on plateau or are declining. We are in big trouble. So I ask, “What is the cause?” “How did we get here?” And the more sobering question, “What did I do to help us get here?”
The local church is a huge system with all of its variables interrelated. Doing one thing to the system can have an impact on other parts of the system. And, it is often hard to anticipate the impact that changing one variable has on all other variables in the church. But system analysis (a good thing) helps us to evaluate what we are doing. If the offerings are down, there is a reason. It may be the economy is bad, but more likely, something has happened in the church to cause offerings to be down. The cause could be anything: the church spent some money foolishly (in the eyes of some members). The pastor started investing church money in the commodity market!! Spending is out of control. Attendance is down….. But, something is the cause of the decline in giving.
So, back to the issue: 80% of our churches are on plateau or are declining. What is the cause? I don’t think it is something that we did, I think it is something that we haven’t done well. Discipleship. Now, please understand, I am not talking about needing another “book study”. I am talking about training people how to live like Jesus, or if you prefer, I am talking about living like a missionary. I don’t know about churches in your association, but, I don’t have many churches that have a strong program that teaches believers what God expects of us as followers of Christ.
My wife, Sandra, and I were talking about this the other night and she made the observation that when she was growing up in church, all those who professed Christ as Savior were considered disciples. We concluded that thought to be far from the truth. New professing believers are not disciples, at least not yet. But our lack of training in the Christian lifestyle makes me wonder if churches still equate a salvation experience with being a (mature) disciple.
I had another thought. Many of our churches are into practicing religion but not into practicing much Christianity. You can in fact go through the motions and not really follow Jesus. I think it might even be relatively easy for churches to get in that predicament. It makes me wonder how obedient we really are. There are legions who think that being a Christian means you go to church on Sunday morning and who think that being a disciple is the same as being a convert. I don’t think so.
I know that we are really comfortable in our inward church culture. But, what would Jesus say to us if He showed up in church this coming Sunday? I don’t think He would cheer on our committee work, nor our pot-lucks, nor business meeting agendas, etc., all focused on keeping the goldfish happy that are swimming in our tank.
He said He came to seek and to save those who were lost. He told us to go (that is the operative word) and be his ambassadors of reconciliation to a lost world. He told us to make disciples. But here is the problem: those in our churches who are true believers (?) might be so spiritually malnourished that we don’t understand what He told us to do. I guess that gets to the core of the matter: it is spiritual, and I think brought on by a great lack of building up believers into spiritual maturity.
What can we do as Directors of Missions? At least, we need to be raising the issue with our plateaued or declining churches. I just started a process with one of our churches to teach, through the Sunday School, what a Christian is really to be about. The first Sunday, the church had a 27% increase in Sunday School attendance—and it was Labor Day weekend. I think at least the new believers are hungry. Is it possible that we have lost the understanding of what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus? What do you think?
Dr. Larry Richmond, DoM
Gateway Baptist Association
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