What every pastor should know 3

Today concludes a three-day look at the book What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn. If you missed the two previous posts I recommend you go back and read them. This is an excellent resource book that can benefit almost any pastor. In these three posts I've only presented some teasers to give the reader a sense of what they will find in the book. Today I want to focus on what they have to say about church renewal or revitalization.

In my opinion, a high percentage of smaller churches are candidates for revitalization. How does a church know when it needs to be revitalized? The authors write that the churches with the greatest need are those who have declined by more than 5 percent over the past ten years and how have fewer than fifty members.

The longer a church is declining the more likely it will eventually close. In the United States between 3,000 to 5,000 churches close each year. Most of these will be smaller churches who, in my opinion, lost their vision for ministry and lacked the resources to remain open.

Sometimes people will ask if their church should merge with another church. My answer is that such mergers usually do not work. As the authors write, consolidating two sick churches does not bring life, it simply prolongs death. They go on to list ten reasons why most church mergers do not succeed. There are exceptions to this, which they also address, but a merger is usually not be best choice for declining churches. Revitalization is a better option.

It is important to recognize that revitalization is not a quick process. The authors point out it takes on average four to seven years to completely renew a church. This means that a pastor serious about leading such revitalization must be willing to commit to the church for at least seven years. It also means that both the pastor and congregation must be patient and not expect a quick turn-around.

Like the other topics covered in this series, renewing a church requires that the church take some intentional actions. It needs to identify what is causing the lack of growth in the church. The authors point to five common barriers that limit growth in most churches. After identifying which ones are creating problems in your church, you must then be willing to address them. Some of these barriers may have become sacred cows in your church and addressing them won't be easy. Again, the authors provide some recommendations that the reader can implement.

This concludes this brief look at this book and some of the topics it covers. Much of what you'll find here is applicable to churches of any size. I'm still reading through the book, but I've found so many things I wish I had known when I pastored our small church. We would have done some things differently that I believe would have greatly benefited our church and the community we served.

What every pastor should know 2

Yesterday I posted some information that comes from a book I highly recommend every pastor reads, What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn. In that article I focused on some of their findings about visitor retention and how to close the back door of your church. Today, I want to look at some recommendations they have about a church's education program.

Many churches report declining Sunday school attendance figures, and this decline has been occurring for several years. Some smaller churches have nearly abandoned their education programs while others continue to limp alone with only a handful of faithful people attending each week. This problem is not limited to smaller churches. One denominational leaders told me a few years ago that some of their fastest growing churches were seeing their Sunday school attendance decline at almost the same rate as their church was growing. He was very concerned about what this meant for church leadership in the future.

The authors begin this section of the book by stating that one of every five adult education classes should have been started within the last two years. Why? Because new classes grow. The tendency in churches with declining Sunday school programs is to merge their classes. Merged classes usually inhibit growth while creating new classes encourages growth.

Many years ago before beginning my pastoral ministry we became members of a church. The young adult Sunday school class had about 40 people attending, most of them had been in the class for many years. As new members in the church it was very difficult for us to feel comfortable in that class. We didn't have the relationships the others in the class had with one another.

A year or so went by and our pastor asked me to help him start a new young adult class. We didn't ask anyone to leave the existing class although people could if they chose to. Anyone in that age range who came into the church would automatically be directed to our new class. Because it was a new class, new people felt much more comfortable coming there, and it soon grew.

The problem in many smaller churches is that it can be difficult to find a qualified teacher for its existing classes much less for a new class. However, this problem can be overcome by a church being intentional about planning to add classes and identifying persons to train to teach them. Train your teachers and leaders first and then begin to add new classes.

In the book the authors recommend that both short-term and long-term classes be offered to adults. The long-term classes would be a more traditional approach and gives people an opportunity to forge long-lasting relationships. The short-term classes may only meet for a quarter or an even shorter period of time and focus on a specific topic that is of interest to the class. At the end of the time period the class can be asked if they would like to continue meeting and study another topic. If they agree you can offer another short-term class with perhaps a different teaching leading it.

The short-term classes have some advantages. It can be a safe place for people who are not used to attending Sunday school classes. They are not making a long-term commitment and there are other new people in the class. It may be easier to get teachers who only have to commit for a short-term. This can appeal to a lot of people with the busy lifestyles many have today. It also provides an opportunity for persons to study subjects that meet their needs at that time in their life. This is especially true when the class has input into the subject matter that will be studied.

Again, the authors of this book provide a lot of practical information to help a church improve its education program. If you grow your education program you will grow both your people and your church.

What every pastor should know

Every writer comes across a book now and then that makes him or her wish they had written that book.  That's the way I feel about What Every Pastor Should Know: 101 Indispensable Rules of Thumb for Leading Your Church by Gary McIntosh and Charles Arn. Even more than wishing I had written the book, I wish the book had been available when I served as a pastor.

One of the great things about this book is that it is not necessarily one you want to sit down and read from front to back. The 101 rules of thumb are grouped together in sections which makes it a convenient guidebook. If you have a church leadership question you can turn to the chapter that covers your question and quickly get the information you need. My recommendation is that you do read the book so you'll know what's covered and so you'll begin to gather information that will help you more effectively lead your church.

For the next few days, I want to share with my readers some teasers from the book so you'll begin to see some of the material covered in this book. The authors go into much more detail about each of these issues than I will cover, but I want to simply demonstrate some of the information that pastors need to know that is discussed in the book.

Many smaller church pastors tell me they have a problem closing the back doors of their churches. They bring new people into the church, but within a matter of months these folks seem to disappear. The book explains that of all the people who drop out of church, 82 percent leave in the first year. Further research has found that many of them leave at the six-month mark and at the twelve-month mark. The authors provide some clear steps the church needs to take to ensure that their new members want to continue to be a part of the church.

The most important reason new members remain at the church is that they have made friends with people in the congregation. It is vital that newcomers have at least seven friends in the church within the first six months. Those who have two or less friends in the church are more likely to drop out at the six month mark.

I know that many smaller churches pride themselves on being the "friendliest church in town." From attending a different church nearly every week I can tell you that many are not. They may be friendly to their fellow members, but I've been in many churches in which my wife and I were totally ignored. If you are seeing a lot of people slipping out the back door there's a good chance that your church is not doing a good job of developing friendships with your newcomers.

Declining churches will only retain about 9 percent of their visitors. Growing churches will average about 21 percent retention, and those churches who make it a high priority to follow-up with their visitors will see more than 30 percent of their visitors become involved in the life of their church.

At this point, it is simple math to determine your visitor retention rate. If it's less than it should be, then you need to determine the causes for that and correct them. Again, this book will provide you with some information to help you increase those figures and close that back door.

Worship services in the smaller church

Many of the churches I visit in my role as a judicatory minister are smaller churches. One of the things I am noticing is the number of these churches who are changing their worship services to reflect a more contemporary style of worship. Another thing I have noticed is that many of them are struggling and the services seem disjointed as a result.

Much has been said about worship services in the past few decades. The worship wars continue in some churches as they transition from singing hymns to singing more contemporary songs and from having choirs to having praise teams lead the worship. I enjoy both good contemporary music and praise teams if they are good, but I find that in many smaller churches the talent is just not there for these to be good experiences.

I also find that when these churches blend their music with both contemporary and hymns there is a noticeable difference in the singing. Many in the congregation (often older in many smaller churches) simply do not sing the contemporary songs, but the volume noticeably increases when the music shifts to more traditional hymns.

In some cases it may be that the congregation does not know the contemporary songs well enough to sing them. I was recently in one church and had never heard a single song they used in the worship service before in my life. Apparently, neither had many of the others in attendance because few people were singing despite the best efforts of the praise team to get people to sing.

For some time now we've been told that if churches want to grow they need to change their worship services to appeal to younger people. We are told that we need to change our music styles and we need to make use of technology. Get rid of the hymnbooks and get a projector. I'm fine with using a projector to put the words on a screen if someone in the church knows how to use a projector and the church can afford decent technology. I was recently in a small church that had problems with its computer/projector. Midway through the songs the computer kept shutting down. They would quickly reboot, but by then the song was about over, and it would shut down again in the next song. The worship service was a mess.

The worship service should be a time when we can connect with God in a meaningful way. We want people leaving the service talking about how God spoke to them through the message or through a song or a prayer. We don't want them leaving frustrated with technology glitches or other distractions that made it difficult to worship God. Some smaller churches can and have made the transition to more contemporary worship styles, but for many smaller churches it may be best to continue to use the hymnbooks and sing the great songs of the faith that continue to mean so much to so many Christians.

Shepherds should not beat the sheep

A few days ago I was talking with an individual I have known for many years. She is an outstanding Christian and a faithful worker in her church. She was telling me why she had left a church she had attended for several years.

This was a strong church that had been growing for the past few years, but something has changed in the pastor. Sunday after Sunday he beats up on the congregation. He publicly calls out the lay leadership of the church and speaks critically of them during his sermons. He refuses to visit people even if they are in the hospital. One of the saints was in hospice care for a couple of months before she passed, and the pastor never took the time to visit her and her family. Not surprisingly, a number of people have now left the church. Unfortunately, this individual is not the only one who has told me this is occurring in this church.

What is surprising is that the congregation has allowed this to happen. Something is seriously wrong when lay leadership in a Baptist church permits this kind of behavior from the pastor. As I told the deacons in another church, if you are not going to address the problem then learn to live with it, but don't expect anything to change or improve.

Pastors who abuse their people in this way are not shepherds. Jesus called them hirelings, people who cared nothing about the sheep but only about what the sheep could provide them.  In Exekiel 34 God says this about such shepherds.

You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool; you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock.  The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So they were scattered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.

God goes on to say in this passage that he will take the flock from such shepherds. In the New Testament, James warns that those of us who are teachers will face a stricter judgment, and I believe this applies to anyone in ministry.

If this pastor was confronted about his lack of pastoral care I'm sure he would defend his actions on the fact that he is bivocational and has a limited amount of time to devote to the church. Who cares? If God has called him to the ministry and to this church, then he has an obligation to be a shepherd to these people. A shepherd's obligation is to feed the sheep, not beat them.

Is there ever a time when a pastor needs to speak firmly to the congregation? Of course there is, but there is no need to pound the congregation week after week after week. Such behavior speaks more about the failures of the pastor's leadership than it does of the congregation.

If you have been called to serve as a pastor you have been given a high privilege from God. He is trusting you to feed and care for his people. Our call is to one of servant leadership. We are to teach them the truths of Scripture, we are to equip them to use the gifts God has given them for ministry, we are to love and care for them, and we are to lead them in a way that will nourish their souls and enable them to withstand the attacks from the enemy. Anything less than that means we have failed to live up to our calling.

Evangelistic preaching conference

How does one effectively preach evangelistic messages to the 21st century listener?  It can be a challenge, and yet such messages are desperately needed in today's culture. That's why I'm excited to recommend an upcoming evangelistic preaching conference hosted by Campbellsville University and featuring Dr. Robert Smith, Professor of Christian Preaching at Beeson Divinity School.  This two-day event will be held May 18-19 at the CU Louisville center and will feature workshops led by various speakers as well as messages from Dr. Smith.

I have heard Dr. Smith preach, and I can assure you he is an excellent communicator.  I have registered to attend and would like to invite you to do so as well. I think you will find it to be an excellent investment in your ministry.

You will find more information and a link to register online here.

Is atheism winning?

While traveling to a meeting yesterday I listened to a podcast from William Lane Craig, the well-known Christian philosopher and apologist. He was reviewing an article from a Christian publication that claimed that atheism is winning in today's culture. The reasons for that writer's conclusion was that many young people are leaving Christianity and that a large number of Christians are unable to effectively share their faith.

Craig did an excellent job of showing that the claim that atheism is winning is not correct. While he agreed that both of the writer's statements were true, Craig pointed to the growing number of Christians in China and elsewhere in the world. While it is true that many young people are abandoning their faith, it is also true that many others are coming to faith in Christ at the same time.  Despite the best efforts of "new age" atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and others, atheism is not winning.  Christianity is growing around the world.

One of the reasons for this growth is the excellent material now available in the area of Christian apologetics. The old method of evangelism, what I call the "Turn or burn!" method, simply does not work today. People are asking questions and demanding answers before making a faith commitment. Many struggle with Christianity because they have questions that no one has attempted to answer or failed to answer to their satisfaction. I recently spoke to a woman whose husband cannot believe in God due to the widespread evil in the world, and this is a major stumbling block for many.

When I began pastoring in 1981 there was very little material available in apologetics, or at least I wasn't aware of them. Today, there are many such resources, and pastors and other church leaders should take advantage of them.

William Lane Craig has written several such books, but I have to admit that some of them are over my head academically.  However, he recently published an excellent book, On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision, that he wrote for the non-scholar. I read it earlier this year and found it to be a wonderful resource.  I'm currently reading The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller. This is another excellent resource that addresses the questions and concerns people have about Christianity. Anything by Ravi Zacharias is also a great resource for the person who wants to effectively share his or her faith with others. I especially recommend his books Why Jesus?: Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality, Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message, and Why Suffering?: Finding Meaning and Comfort When Life Doesn't Make Sense.

I encourage pastors to study these resources and teach the material to your congregations. We must be able to respond to the questions people have about Christianity if we want to do effective evangelism in the 21st century, and this material will help you do that. Atheism isn't winning, and it won't win because it is not based on truth. We have the truth, and it is our responsibility to learn how to most effectively share that truth with others.