The story of the man at the Pool of Bethesda in John 5 amazes me. For 38 years he was there hoping to be the first in the water when the angel came to stir it that he might be healed of his affliction. Jesus appeared there one day and asked him a question, "Do you want to be healed?" On the surface it seems like a silly question. Who would not want to be healed? Why did Jesus think he had spent so much time near the pool? But, what is really amazing is that the man never answered the question. Instead, he offered an excuse: He had no one to put him in the pool.
I served 14 years as a judicatory leader in our denomination. When I retired I served over 130 churches. Many of them were unhealthy and some near death. Talking to church leaders I would often hear the same stories about how the church was getting older, young people left when they completed their education, they couldn't get young families to attend the church, their finances were dwindling, it was hard to find a pastor who would stay and numerous other excuses why their church was in the shape it was in. Frankly, in 14 years I found very few of these churches that wanted to be healed. They were more interested in offering excuses than in making the hard decisions to become a healthy, growing church again.
The reason I said that was because virtually none of them were willing to do anything that might help them heal. One pastor, recognizing the situation the church was in, called to tell me he felt the church had maybe 10 years left if it didn't do something. He asked me to speak to the church about a visioning process I could lead them in. I did speak to the church and explained a little about the process I would take them through. During that process they might identify some new things God was wanting to do in their church, but this would require change and change sometimes led people to leave. After the service we had a Q&A time where I tried to answer some questions. One older lady finally spoke up and admitted she had been in favor of what I was proposing until I said the church might lose some people in the process. She said, "As soon as I heard that I looked around and realized there wasn't anyone here I wanted to lose." That ended any further discussion, and the pastor resigned a few months later.
What this lady didn't understand was that she was saying that she was willing to lose entire generations of people in order to maintain the friendships she had in the church. She was willing to see her church die and close down in a few years just so she could visit with some friends once a week. Had Jesus asked her if she wanted to see her church healed, she would have been forced to say no, or like the man in the text, avoid the question and begin offering excuses why their church couldn't be healthy.
Healthy, growing churches look nothing like churches did in the 1950s. If this is the ideal that your church is striving towards, you need to understand that you are forsaking the Great Commission's mandate to take the gospel to the lost in 2020. Every generation is responsible for reaching its generation of unbelievers.
Perhaps you see your church as currently unhealthy. The question needs to be asked: Do you want be made well? If the answer is yes, then you need to identify the things that will help you become healthy and take the necessary stops to achieve that health.
My book The Healthy Small Church: Diagnosis and Treatment for the Big Issues has helped hundreds of smaller churches that wanted to become healthier. Some judicatory ministers have bought copies for every pastor in their region. Churches have bought copies for every family in their church and used it in their mid-week studies. Other churches have bought copies for their leadership and studied it together during their regular meetings. I've been invited to speak at a number of these churches who told me it helped change their church.
Whether you use my book or some other resource, it's vital that every church identify anything that keeps it from being healthy and growing and address it. Millions of unchurched people need us to share the gospel message so that they might experience the forgiveness and salvation of God as we have.
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