So… Why Isn’t the Church Advancing?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, June 21, 2005
- Viewed 56
- (13) comments so far
In 2002, Barna suggested that there are greater than 300,000 Protestant and 20,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. He contrasts this with the 50,000 post offices and 15,000 McDonald's that serve our nation. He writes, "the church has less impact on our culture than any of those less prolific entities, despite missions that are much less significant or compelling."
...When your franchise's performance is benchmarked against the U.S. postal service and your outfit comes out on the short-end, perhaps it?s time for a change.
At one point the article says that churches have "changed the ambiance, the music, the lighting, added video screens, pastors, elders, and websites, embraced bigger buildings with different architectural features, turned to new delivery systems, serving up their products via seminars, books cds, dvds, live television and training by subscription satellite broadcasts," and yet none of it seems to work.
If it's really as bad as that (is it?) what is the church to do? Marketing alone isn't the answer, but it seems marketing should help us get to the answer (good marketing won't save a crappy product, it'll send you back to the drawing board).
FOR DISCUSSION: What do you think? Let me start with my own personal observations. It seems to me that the churches that HAVE implemented some of the things mentioned above ARE the ones that are growing. How many churches in your community have really changed? Now compare that to which churches are growing in your community. Are they the same ones? I'm interested in hearing your take. 
(NOTE: This comes from a site that deals with marketing; so let's not confuse the marketing with the message).
Kevin D. Hendricks has a great ‘thinking’ piece at the ChurchMarketingSucks.com website on reasons why the church isn’t taking hold and growing exponentially. Kevin writes:…
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michael lee on Tue, June 21, 2005
two thoughts. The first is generational shift - the changes and adaptations that Kevin is talking about, the shifts in content delivery, are all large geared toward a generation that is already saturated with church. The congregations that have grown under that model have largely done so among boomers (or incubator kids, who grew up in the church). This is not a negative thing; it’s been very effective at reaching into that community. But that community has been saturated with that model, and may have reached the point of diminishing returns. Content repackaging isn’t hitting generations younger than 35 with the same kind of impact that it did 10 years ago.
The second thought is this. The churches that are growing like wildfire, reaching emerging generations and splitting off to replant almost as quickly as they are started, are churches that don’t show up in a barna-like study. They meet in homes, in clubs, in bars, in the basements of other more established churches. They don’t have a spot in the yellow pages, or membership in a denomination, and they are notoriously hard to count.
I wonder how Barna’s assessment of the state church would change if he had a way of taking into account the new emerging communities?
M Jackson on Tue, June 21, 2005
I agree with & think Pastor Lee may have touched upon an area that may be effecting church growth in SOME ways but not all.With 30 years experience in the church, the last six in church planting, I too see quite a large gravitation to cell group churches or gatherings. I have seen healthy groups that have gone on to birth churches but many church plants with large amounts of funding go under or stop services. In our 10 mile radius (in central florida) we have seen 19 church plants, YES 19!! in the last five years.One is still going, one absorbed another and then merged with a church that had been here for 70 years & two are still running under 30 in services after three years. With the exception of the pastors and their families getting new paid ministry postions, most of the people that attended these churches are no longer attending at all. Church planting is healthy and can be a positive thing. It can also be very harmful when it is undertaken by new ministers or planters with no real leadership abilites. Many of the plant churches I have studied, been part of,or worked with, tried to model after one or more of the larger popular churches (Willow, Saddle or Texas) and failed because of it. They were not being the church:
1. God ordained it to be.
2. Met the needs of their church or community just that of a church far, far away.
I am in no way bashing planting or the people who are called to do it;
I have just seen this community harmed and it has decreased the number of people actively serving in the church. Familes try the new churches for the up-to-date media and music and trade the youth groups and large church programs only to get a few years down the road and find that their children and family are not part of anything any more because the church is simply gone. I know of five families, nearly twenty people, that were part of a plant church who still get together on Sunday but have all refused to be a small group; they boat, ski,picnic or go to the beach but said that they “get more out of getting together than they got out of a church that left them high & dry.”...Sad isn’t it?!?It is not every case…just what our community has experienced and is still dealing with.
Steve on Tue, June 21, 2005
I think that one very serious problem in the church’s not impacting our society like it once did is sin. The world has crept into the church. For many Christians, the only difference between their lifestyle and that of the unsaved is that they go to church on Sunday. (What kind of image does that present of the church?) They talk the talk around other Christians, but they do not walk the walk around the unsaved. If the churches are full of people like this, think of how it robs the church of God’s power. The solution doesn’t lie in changing the churches “system” but in living a passionate life for Jesus Christ. Believe me, I think growth is of utmost importance. But so is impact. We can have large numbers inside the church, and absolutely no impact in our community. I certainly believe that along with repentance and developing a heart after God, we should also examine our methods and discard any that are outdated and ineffective. We should always ask the Holy Spirit to scrutinize any and everything we do! But let’s get hot for God again!
BeHim on Tue, June 21, 2005
Could it be we are too focused on “growth” and “reaching” that we’ve forgotten… (fill in the blank)
If we were in sales I would be looking at my sales budget and wondering why our sales are down.
But we are not in sales. We are in “saves” and not of us lest we WOULD boast.
Preach The Gospel in and out of season (and it is definately out of season right now) and remain faithful to Him. We don’t do good for people we do good because He asked us to. We love Him because He first loved us.
The real issue is when “we” think we need to “reach” the people (in marketing that’s called “penetration” or “market reach or segment”), we change the message to get our “close”. Like we would an advertisement.
The Gospel isn’t something we change to reach a certain “segment” of people. We proclaim The Truth and pray for certain segment of people to be changed.
Jeff C on Tue, June 21, 2005
The church must be culturally relevant, but not culturally driven. The days of giant crusades to reach the lost are gone and relational evangelism is in. (Actually it was always here - we just ignored it). America is a post-Christian nation and we have to act like it if we are going to have an impact; yet most of the church at large still thinks this is a Christian country.
There are growing movements of “flat” or de-centralized churches and these are encouraging. Believe it or not, according to Barna, 50% of all Christians now attend less than 18% of all churches. Meaning, 1/2 of everyone who claims to velong to God are ignoring 82% of existing churches. Why? The new American paradigm of consumerism as life. Our church saw nearly 2,000 people join last year, but only 200 of those were through conversions. We aren’t doing our part to reach this new culture - but we are blessed to have a Senior Pastor who is changing the church to meet this new cultural need.
If a mission-minded church flew to Africa and met a tribe of people whose every whim was easily met, whose attention span was 30 minutes and who had no real concept of God, but instead, valued “spirituality”, then this church would adopt a strategy to reach them. We need to do the same in America today.
IAMTOO7 on Tue, June 21, 2005
If there are any negative characteristics to point to as to why the church isn’t growing and being effective, it is all under the heading of “culture”. Culture is simply not the same as it used to be in regards to spirituality, morality, integrity, etc. So, the methods by which we attempt to uphold the principles of the Word must also be remodeled to reach those who are outside of the faith. This is not always an easy thing to do, but it is the very thing the Holy Spirit will enable us to do when our hearts really care about reachaing lives.
Celeste Davis on Tue, June 21, 2005
Jesus said “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me”.
For the most part the church has become man-centered instead of God-centered. For instance, a recent message I heard about David and Goliath talked about David’s character, etc instead of the fact that God can do ANYTHING!
We have become preachers of behavior modification instead of sanctification. Try it - and you will see how purposeful you must be to make something God-centered. Take a passage and write some thoughts about it, then review it and see how much is about the character and nature of God and how much is centered around Man’s character or nature. You will be shocked.
When something is man-centered and not God-centered, it becomes passionless. History had proven that passion is what draws the masses, especially the younger ones.
When we become God-centered in our own lives and then in our preaching, passion will return, we will lift up Jeus and people will once again be drawn in; both believers and unbelievers.
Ricky on Tue, June 21, 2005
Quote:
“churches have ‘changed the ambiance, the music, the lighting, added video screens, pastors, elders, and websites, embraced bigger buildings with different architectural features, turned to new delivery systems, serving up their products via seminars, books cds, dvds, live television and training by subscription satellite broadcasts,’ and yet none of it seems to work.”
Maybe it’s because the above have little or NOTHING at all to do with the New Testament! The list is nothing more than “window dressing,” and we all know that while mannequins may be life-like, they have no life in them at all.
It’s sad that the world, which is starving for the Life, knows better than the church folks that the emperor has no clothes on.
Ricky on Tue, June 21, 2005
Quote:
“The world has crept into the church.”
They haven’t “crept in” they’ve been welcomed with open arms so they can be counted as “members” and added to the bottom line of the “growth chart.”
The reason why the “church” in America is faltering is that there is NO difference between the society and the “church.”
BeHim on Wed, June 22, 2005
Why isn’t church advancing?
The title explains it all. We’ve decided somehow that church is the gospel or church is jesus. church is a building. programs a place to fellowship.
better question, why isn’t Christ advancing?
Because men like the darkness and do not like the light.
Are we ashamed? No. I don’t think we are ashamed of anything in our church, we make excuses for it.
Christ is not advancing in the hearts of men because they do not seek Him. They seek to serve themselves:
and in the last days men will be seekers of themselves.
Derrick on Wed, June 22, 2005
Wow! As I sit and read the comments it appears as though noone is doing “church” right or, maybe most of you are simply hard to please. Are you really so down on men and women who are trying any model or method to reach people for Christ? I get the impression that if a church is too big and can’t be figured out, they must be doing something wrong. Do really believe the church is faltering…the world has crept in? Is your outlook on the church that shallow? Come on…stop the bangin’ Go develop relationships with your neighbors and people in the marketplace and get a taste of how God can still change lives…right in front of your eyes!
Ricky on Wed, June 22, 2005
Derrick:
“Is your outlook on the church that shallow?”
If you’re referring to THE Church of Jesus Christ, then there is no shallowness.
However, if you mean the institutionalized organizations wrongly called “church,” then absolutely. It’s as shallow as a thimble.
Gary Sellars on Wed, June 22, 2005
Why is the church not advancing?
Could part of the reason be that the church loves the world and ignores the New Testament commandment to not love the world?
Could part of the reason be that the two commandments on which all the Law & the prophets hang is being substituted with the world’s self-help philosophies that claim the *real* first commandment is “love yourself” because if you don’t love yourself, you can’t love anyone else and the result is a “church” full of people focusing on the “right” priority - “fixing myself”.
Could part of the reason be strife and division in the body of Christ? Too many believers walking in such pride that they find it terribly easy to criticize and condemn their brethren rather than accept, love and encourage them… and then build websites and “ministries” based on warning everyone how heretical everyone *else* is?
Could part of the reason be that we don’t see the Lord Jesus formed in our leadership but instead see a leadership that has not taken to heart the command, “beware and be on your guard against *every* form of greed”?
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