For almost five years I served an “Old First Church” downtown in the Capitol of Michigan. The Wallenda Factor describes what we faced and experienced at every turn. I didn’t know there was a name for it. The church is dead, most of the congregation is scattered and it took me over nine months to recover from the pastor abuse and devistation of trying to lift a Wallenda Church out of its free fall.
Now that the problem has been so succinctly described and labeled, can you offer any solutions?

I am a worship pastor in a small Church and we have recently been introduced to the searching for a senior pastor chore. I was nominated to the pilpit committee, and we have struggled for about 6 weeks just to put together a job description. This article (Help my Church is falling)really hit home for me. All the committee members are so worried we will miss one item or misrepresent one item that we are walking on egg shells with the whole process. I’m trying to tell them that God has already picked a pastor for our Church. He’s just waiting to see if we are obedient to Him in our prayers and faith to let Him work.

I am currently attending a church that I believe is experiencing this “Big Time”. We are in the process of trying to build and add more ministries to our church and the sad reality is that there isnt enough money or people to run those ministries. But the even sadder reality is the fact that the congregation is getting discouraged and not giving their all in {time, money, resources,ect.} because no building has went up and it has been a while since we first started trying to build. Many are complaining because they are giving and seeing no results and many are just complaining because they are seeing no results.I can tell that it is taking a toll on our Pastor who is trying so desperately to hang on to all he can, but fact is we will have to build with what we have and start from there. Please keep us in you prayers.

Funny you should mention it . . . we’re a small UCC “community” church in an upscale suburb of Cleveland.  We just lost a “beloved son”, a pastor of 22+ years to a west side congregational church,and we’re threatening to flounder instead of soar.  The pastor did us no service by handling virtually everything himself (including all the custodial work!), leaving us now like foals on very wobbly legs.  The good news?  We have an interim who loves to soar!  And she’s a strong advocate in “the priesthood of all believers” and will work tirelessly to see us equipped to soar when her interim ministry is finished here.  A caveat to all pastors everywhere:  don’t love your parishoners into wheel chairs.  Help them grow wings and then push them gently off the branches.........

Great article.  I think that most churches struggle with this in certain areas.  My ministry for the past 20 years has been that of restoring and rebuilding. Each church was once a strong and growing church, but when I arrived they had become weak and some nearly extinct.  Most of them got there through church splits and either pastor or board related abuse problems.  But the turn-around always involved overcoming the Wallenda affect.  It’s important that we as leaders learn to listen for these atttitudes in our leadership meetings and even in our own conversations.  Thanx for the article, it was helpful.

Wow! Our church is now going through a major hurdle right now…I’ve never heard of this factor however, the conditions are the same. Our church is dealing with this very issue with in our leadership capacity. Our Pastor is at his wits end in trying to hold this ministry together. We are hit by a strong Jezebel spirit. Although, its powers has been weakened because God allowed this entity to be exposed a couple of years ago, there were (those who left) and are wounded leaders who are there struggling, trying to hold on in various ministries. However, since this Jezebel spirit filled person is the pastor’s wife we have been pretty beat up in that we were/are told to “just over look some things for the kingdom sake.” As a leader myself I am constantly struggling to do as the pastor says but I am one who is being hit first hand directly from the hands of this person and I have no help. I am praise and worship leader and I know if the enemy can affect this ministry it will cause a major break with in the body. We are doing all we can as a body to defeat and bind this enemy through personal prayer, special prayer time and our intercessory team is diligent in prayer. However, I have spoken to our intercessory team leader in praying deliverance for the Ahab spirit as well. But because it is the pastor, no one wants to bring this up. I believe if we pray for the head (which is our pastor in his influential state) then God will give him courage and wisdom on to deal with this situation which will bring sure deliverance.  Don’t know what to do any more…

God moved my wife and I from one home to another home 6-8 blocks away, conveniently across the street from a denominational church, which we began attending (left one denom church for this one.) Wife & I were in agreement about these moves. I was then asked to supply the pulpit for another church (pastorless) in our small town.  The last Sun AM I preached the pastor at our new church tendered his resignation, and encouraged me to apply.  He had the decency and respect to pull me aside asx we walked into church that PM to tell me what he had done that AM - and even though Giod gave the same vision for chcurch growth to me and the “church controller"/pulpit committee chair, no-one has had the decency to keep mne “in the loop” - they are planning on interviewing 3 candidates in a week or so, and not one person has had the decency to tell me if I’m one of the three (obviously I’m not.) Three things are killing churches left and right across this country - 1)"we’ve never done it that way before”; 2)"our (by-laws/charter/insert whatever) won’t allow us to do it that way”; and 3)"our denomination won’t allow us to do it that way.” What unbeliever in his/her right mind would want to join a group of selfish, self-centered, callous people, unwilling to “think outside the box”, more interested in obeying their by-laws or the denomination than they are in obeying Christ?  And what pastor in his/her right mind would want to attempt to lead them?  I am now adamantly ANTI-denominational.  A good website, especially if you THINK you are called to ministry - http://www.woundedshepherd.org.  The American church is in a mess, unable to rise above the simplest challenge, because, like Gehazi, many are running WHO WERE NOT SENT. And the church is unable, or unwilling, to tell the difference. ###

Brother in Chirst,

Praise the Lord...!

I am Pastor Ramesh Timothy, living in Tamil Nadu, India. I doing Church Ministry.

My Church Believers, children are very poor. Please pray for them. If God talks with you to help and support us in India. God shall bless you.

Thankyou,

Your Brother In Christ,
Pr. Ramesh Timothy

Apostolic Glory Mission Trust
#337, Indira Nagar, Pudhu Manay,
Seduvalai, Vellore District - 632104
Tamil Nadu State, India.

Great article.

I too am a Pastor of a “W” church with a twist. I was called in Nov 2005 to this church with only seven active members. This church that has been in existence since 1932. The neighborhood has changed and the old congregation was uncomfortable with the new people who were moving in, so, they moved out.

However, they kept control of the church, and never went after the new people in the neighborhood.

When they called me, they said they wanted to grow the church. However, when we started to bring in the neighborhood kids for Sunday School and Bible Studies and had things for the neighborhood to come in, all of a sudden I heard, “Stop, what are you doing, don’t you know that we can’t afford this stuff. We are using up too many of our resources on these children, we are getting our fellowship hall dirty. We cant even talk to these people because they don’t speak English well”. Etc.

However they would not actually go on record and vote no on any of the outreach projects. They would just snipe and catcall when we had problems.

We finally had a real falling out, and all of the original members left. It seems as though they were just waiting for the church to finally fail so they could leave also.

I was very discouraged. However something has happened. People are coming in. The kids are bringing in their families. We are seeing God’s increase. I believe we are going to make it.

I believe Proverbs 14:4 “Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of the ox”. Is very true. We need to try, and then just let God.

And if God is truly in a project, get the people out of the way and let Him work

Blessings.

I have been involved for many years with revitalizing churches...this article is “right on” and describes so much of what ails established, traditional (not just worship style), and declining churches.

Thanks

thanks for sharing,