Written by In a recent blog post, Patrick Mead made the following statement concerning churches that die:
“While they wanted things to change, they were not willing to change. they held to their traditions and programs, answering questions the culture was no longer asking.”
I can’t seem to get that sentence out of my mind. It is just so true. And it needs to be heard.
I preach for a church that is rather traditional — not overly so, but more traditional than we should be (we are considered liberal by some other churches in the vicinity). There are certainly some folks in our church who don’t want things to change. They couldn’t care less if we impact our community, reach young families, or make a difference in the lives of hurting people. As long as we sing the songs they like, do church like we’ve always done it, and have a preacher who keeps them interested (and finishes on time) — they are happy and content. They just want to go on to their mansion on the hilltop in relative comfort.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic, but I firmly believe that most of the folks in our church want things to change — i.e. they would like for us to reach some young families and make a difference in our community. The problem is, they don’t want anything at church to change in order to make that happen. The want to sing their songs, do church in the old familiar ways, and remain in their nice, warm, secure comfort zones. These are good people and I dearly love them. But they are overly attached to a certain way of doing church.
Don’t get me wrong — I understand the need to be sensitive. Change can be difficult and should never be shoved down people’s throats. And I have certainly been guilty of doing that very thing (to disasterous results). For change to take place, it must be handled correctly and done slowly.
But how do you get people to see that if things are going to change, they must change? That if we’re going to reach out, grow and make a difference in our community, that we simply can’t just stay the course and keep doing what we’ve always done? How do we help them to understand that if we don’t wake up and make some needed changes, our days are numbered?
I’m open to any and all suggestions.
We are currently building a new church building. I would hate to see a “For Sale” sign in front of that building in a few years because we were more interested in our own comfort than doing the work of Jesus and having an impact on our community.
The seven words of a dying church are: “We’ve Never Done It That Way Before.”
so many people on the same page. It helps that as the minister you are open to and embracing change. You may have to help people step out of their comfort zones. I think the hardest thing is making the decision that you will lose some people if you do change. But I guess I am living in the reality that you will also lose people if you fail to change….and you certainly won’t be drawing in those that you desire to attract.
Absolutely no helpful words….but I know where you are coming from, and I will pray for your efforts
Yeah, let me know if you come up with any solutions
Jeff, your questions are the ones that have been prayed over and have caused MUSH nashing of teeth for several years now. I don’t think there is a simple answer. I will say this. I think when people learn to embrace the cross and love discipleship as much as they love “the church”, a lot of these problems seem to somehow go away. The institutional folks are the ones who will always hold you back. Great questions, and great post!
DU
or maybe even MUCH! Sorry!
DU
That was exactly my point in my lesson on wed night you were gone. We have to take the mask or facade of christianity off and start putting on true christianity. We have to stop living in a way that we worship our father in such a way as that we have to read or hymnals or want don’t know how to sing praises to God. We have to stop pretending everything is ok in our lives and start sharing our lives with our christian family. There is strength in commitment to each other and each others needs. We should have such a close relationship with each other that we don’t even have to ask if something is wrong we should just be able to ask what can we do knowing something is wrong. Lastly we should be able to look in a mirror and see Jesus if we don’t we need to take of the mask of christianity and but on Jesus. Be bold be strong be faithful and God will lead us the path he so desires for us at the speed he desires for us. Thanks again for all the work you do and we love and appreciate your whole family and all our leaders in the church.
By the way I challenge all of you to sit in a quite room with only a single candle light and look into a mirror for about a half hour to hour and just stare into a mirror. What soul searching will take place what true worship with the lord will commince as you go further and further into the time you allot. Have fun and enjoy your time alone with God.
I could comment but have nothing to say that you don’t already know. My heart and spirit are being stopmed all over here. And being there – where we should be able to go for renewal and strength and hope – only makes it worse.
Dear blogging friend,
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve added a link to your blog on the blogroll at The Spiritual Oasis. This is a new web site that I will, the Lord willing, be unveiling in a low key manner over the next few weeks. If you have other blogs that you would recommed, please let me know.
Blessings to you and yours,
-bill
I think a big part of any change is actually having a reason for it. I’m not speaking of having communion after the sermon instead of before as those things are changes, yes, but they are more to get out a rut than anything. I am talking of doing things out of the comfort zone. One thing I really enjoy at our church is that we have something called “Celebrate Recovery” that meets with not only members but reaches out to the community and deals with personal issues such as addiction, depression and other. This has bled over to personal testmonies on Sunday Morning as part of the sermon series in August. What started as just an evening project on Thursday has blossomed to something great.
It is things like that in which I feel churches need to change. Is singing newer songs or changing the order of worship or having instruments really THAT important in the over all scheme of things? Sure, it’s nice and all but is that really changing hearts and attitudes and bringing people closer to God? I don’t think so (IMHO). I don’t think we will “save” more young people simply by singing “Our God is an Awesome God” more than “How Great Thou Art.”. A 20 year old has usually made their mind up to leave and new songs or a guitar is not going to fix it. We need more programs that can reach hearts and minds. Once that is started, the personal preferences will come as well.
I also think that small groups is really key to a lot of change. I cannot imagine attending our church without our life group. It is thru these groups that more people can be brought to Christ. I will post some more on what we are doing after this Sunday (since we plan to do something that I can’t spill yet).
I know for smaller churches this is much harder to do than a large one like we attend however, it can be done.
Anyway, those are my two cents from a very progressive, change minded person.
Also, I might add that Celebrate Recovery has really done things that many only dream of. People, members, have come to this and shared issues of sexuality, drugs, depression and other very person things. They have a comfort zone that they would not have elsewhere. So often we cannot imagine someone struggling with pornography or drugs yet these struggles go on in our churches and it can be the person sitting next to you. We have managed to help people who won’t take the step out to the front pew. Why do we make that walk to the front so difficult anyway?
Ok, that is my plug for a great program.
It’s certainly no magic pill, but Charles Arn has some interesting insight on how people respond to new ideas at the following link… http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=10064
It was especially intriguing to see that 20% of the group will not support any change until AFTER it has been implimented and has proven to be a success/beneficial [and 2% of that group will not even give their approval even at that point!]
In light of this human dynamic, we must stop waiting for consensus before initiating change… and we CANNOT continually reverse our course based purely on whether or not “we’ve had some complaints”.
Not surprisingly, age will frequently be a contributing factor in whether someone fits into that 20% group known as the “Late Adapter” or “Never Adapter” categories. Gee, I wonder how that will affect a fellowship like ours who invest all authority and control into the hands of “elders”?
Other contributing factors for an unwillingness to change is fear of the unknown and a misplaced faith. When faith has been placed in the ’5 Step Plans’ [salvation/worship] of the Restoration Movement instead of the Redeemer, any change threatens salvation itself and must be resisted and decried as heresy.
May God continue to bless us with the gentle & loving spirit of our Savior as we serve His people… especially when the inclinations of our flesh are so strong in what we’d really rather do and say!
I mentioned that I would post what our Lifegroup decided to do and here it is. We all, as a group went forward this morning. I am sure it really got our preacher to do a doubletake when down come 20 people during the invitation. Here is our letter we wrote to the church:
“Dear Church Family,
Recently our Life Group spent several weeks talking about our church and its future. These discussions included everyone’s thoughts and opinions about subjects such as Vision 2010, the recent budget shortfall and lingering feelings about the difficult departure of one of our Life Group families, the Prewitts.
It became clear to us all that we as a group have attitudes and actions that call for us to repent to our church family. We confess that at times we have approached church with a consumer attitude, asking what church could give to us instead of how we could serve. We confess that we at times have complained about our needs not being met instead of seeking to honor God and meet the needs of others. We confess that some of us have even been tempted to abandon our commitment to our church family and ride the wave of churches, looking for the next church on a high. We confess that we have not always given sacrificially or always with a joyful heart. And, we confess that at times we have given Satan a foothold in our apathy or inaction.
For these reasons, we ask for the prayers of the church, and we recommit ourselves to this faith community. We pledge our commitment to our church family, in times of excess and times of famine, times of growth and times of difficult pruning, in times of joy and in times of lamenting. Most of all, we commit to honor God by continuing our covenant relationship with our Life Group family, sharing life together with honesty and accountability. We praise God for the gift He has given us in our Life Group, our group has truly sustained each other as we laugh, cry and serve our community together. We pray that every person in our church family will experience this precious gift.”
I think this was great. Too often, I feel that many of us are looking for that change and when we don’t get it or see it we want to jump to the next high wave as mentioned in our letter. We fail to understand that all churches go thru highs and lows which is why we wanted to let the congregation know that we are commited to our church even during the low times. Even during the times when we might be craving for a change. Anyway, it was very well received and made a pretty big impact. It was quite an experience for me as I have never gone foward before but at least for my first time I had 19 other people with me.
Patrick Meads blog on act or react is very good! We all need to get and stay positive, adjust our attitudes to I’m in this to serve the most awesome and living God,and no one can take that away unless I let them. We all need to remember the devil who is sitting back enjoying the ride, thinking I don’t have to do anything they are doing it themselves. Change for the better is always a good thing, whether people want it or not. I agree with most, people don’t like it or feel the need for it but the ones that want it are the workers and the servers of the church mostly. They want to come together as a body and do the reaching out,(not the “hi” “I’m fine” “goodbye” way)anymore.This past Sunday was a wonderful day, I felt God smiling on me on my way home,and overall it was a productive day for the Lord. Started when we went to first service, Ah the woes of waking up 2 hours sooner, walking into church where mostly older members are, and I like to say nicely if I can, very reserved and sitting as far away from the front as they can. Not any came to speak to us, maybe they thought we were a visiting,Oh well most scrambled out the door as soon as the prayer said amen, their loss of fellowship with the body of believers. Who should take the blame them or us or the church as a whole? Went to class on the way I heard, man I could still be sleeping, or I left them asleep,we’ve been busy work,xmas to do lists,I don’t get much out of church services, don’t uplift me anymore, etc etc, It is sad that so many things can so easily take us away from serving others and our God. Have you told anyone lately how much it means to you to see them each and every time at church times? Have you told anyone that they have a beautiful voice and you love to hear them praise God in that way? Or thank you by just being here today with your family you are encouraging me? Our God deserves so much more from us, we need to leave our “comfort zones” and respond with powerful prayers,genuine and sincere heartfelt emotional worship and praise that our God deseves and all the rest will fall into place. Back to Sunday we fellowship all day with our brother and sisters, we laughed, cried and prayed together. We made a commitment to each other to pray for our church. Again, it was an awesome day.