Pastors

Planting Without Reaping

Three experts offer help for a church that has worked hard without harvest.

Leadership Journal August 8, 2007
Endless field in bright daylight

It may be the most common frustration among pastors today: "I'm doing everything I know, but I don't see the church growing. What's wrong?" Here a pastor explains his situation, then three respected observers offer their analysis.

I was a former pastor working a secular job when my wife and I sensed God's call back into pastoral work. We moved to Faith Baptist (names have been changed), a traditional Southern Baptist church in Michigan, in a town of 40,000. Two decades before we arrived, a band of pioneering members from a church on the other side of town started a mission, meeting in a tent on what would become the front lawn of our property.

With evangelistic preaching and lots of follow-up visits to guests, the growing group graduated to a rented "trailer church" until the first building was constructed five years later. The church's culture was strongly influenced by the southern "chicken and grits" subculture of transplanted autoworkers who had moved north for the relatively high paying, blue-collar jobs.

Year 1: Sensing the Sickness

Our small church culture was seasoned by rural America, complete with a strong-willed patriarchal deacon and a "we've always done it this way" mentality. After a year of heartfelt preaching and a couple hundred home visits, I concluded the church's culture was largely responsible for inhibiting growth beyond the 80 regular attenders.

I listened, learned, loved the people, and increasingly sensed that loving confrontation would be necessary for some who were standing in the way of progress. My saying to newcomers, "You're welcome here," wasn't convincing when some families looked offended if a newcomer sat in their pew.

A major conflict arose just after our first anniversary when the senior deacon, an outspoken auto worker approaching his retirement, decided it was time for another pastor. I would have been number five in a line of pastors who had come and gone.

As the deacon said, "There are plenty of other churches with that modern music and namby-pamby preaching. All these new people can go there if that's what they want."

My wife and I chose to surround ourselves with mature Christians, hunker down to pray in our living room, and hold on for dear life.

A few months later when the smoke had cleared, only two families had left the church, the leading deacon's family and one other. We were left with 70 shaky saints to heal the wounds and write a kinder and gentler chapter in the congregation's history.

Shortly afterward, groups in our church began studying Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. That changed the way we do church. Rather than dreaming huge dreams for God, we started listening for him to tell us what we were supposed to do. Instead of expecting every member to make evangelistic visits, we started looking for those who felt God was leading them to make those visits. God raised up three men with a heart for evangelism and the willingness to visit.

Not everyone appreciated the changes. They didn't like giving up their favorite hymn in "the red book" or putting up with noisy children in church, as God was bringing in new young families. Our church had begun a radical transformation, however, and with a new mindset, we felt the anchor lifted. We sailed with the wind of the Spirit. Newcomers felt more welcomed, the services felt less harsh, more celebrative, and people smiled more.

Year 2: Agree on Vision

One Sunday evening an older member described how God was working through two of our members in the prison ministry.

Wanting more people to hear stories of God at work, we turned several Sunday nights into "town meetings"—to hear what people sensed God wanted for our church. After teaching on the subject of hearing from God, we held a leadership retreat, where we listed and prioritized all that we felt God was leading us to do.

Our honest and prayerful evaluation of our program was like a dental check-up. Some programs appeared as decay. They weren't terribly painful to our church, but they were sapping energy from those who could serve more effectively elsewhere.

Wednesday night missions classes fell in that category, yet for two years we ignored the cavity. I felt this program occupied key leaders who could've invested in evangelism or home Bible studies. But they seemed committed to missions, so I didn't push change.

We struggled along with a traditional Sunday night program, reaching a dozen adults, with a half-dozen children. I felt we had too many programs that fed the faithful flock and not enough that reached out to lost sheep.

Nevertheless most felt the church was moving closer to God's vision for us, which included an openness to change and a more contemporary style of worship.

That word style began to appear more often in our vision meetings, and I realized the problems people had with our church had more to do with style than substance. We agreed on most of the whys; it was the hows that caused consternation.

Many people expressed relief that we were listening more intently to what God wanted rather than just "doing church." We were working free from program expectations, and we were growing in our awareness that relationships matter more than ritual.

By the end of year two, most of the families who had been the backbone of the former culture had left. For years they had fostered an attitude that church growth was the pastor's job. Unfortunately, even with their departure, that attitude lingered. Folks didn't mind showing their support on Sunday morning, but I failed to see many willing to take responsibility for others' spiritual growth.

I wrote a prescription for year three: Develop a new backbone, a new core of leadership.

Year 3: Backbone Exercises

Our congregation's culture was now quite different from when we arrived. People trusted each other more, and our business meetings, now quarterly instead of monthly—and much less stressful—focused more on vision and outreach than on maintaining programs and who was spending money. Our services blended styles of music, accommodating many tastes.

Our offerings had increased. We paid off our building debt, and our members seemed excited about future plans for growth, including an expanded parking lot, a new wing for classrooms, and eventually a new sanctuary. Then we diligently developed a team of lay ministers, each taking different aspects of pastoral ministry and outreach.

It seemed as though someone poked a hole in our balloon and all the energy leaked out. Attendance at our monthly lay ministry meetings diminished; enthusiasm for new tasks waned. We had lived through several ups and downs, but as the offerings diminished and attendance shrank, and as two more key families moved (this time for new jobs), I began asking myself a nagging question: What if I am the one holding these people back from accomplishing God's plan?

I knew I wasn't the most capable administrator, yet I had worked hard to compensate for this by developing my skills and surrounding myself with the administratively talented. I pushed the question aside.

We inventoried our current ministries. Assessing where we saw God at work, we realized we were doing quite a bit for a small church, including Bible studies for all ages, missions education, a women's group, a food pantry, ministries to two nearby prisons and a nursing home, ongoing discipleship courses, and a creative worship team.

Still, we didn't see lasting numerical growth. We had tried to prune excess programs and meetings and to focus on those tasks where we felt God was working. But we still seemed to be inching along, watching new members hop on at the same rate the old ones jumped off. We reached new people for Christ, but others became dissatisfied and moved on.

Year 4: Flat-out but Inching Along

Early in our fourth year I spent two weeks putting our vision on paper. I had involved as many in our congregation as possible beforehand, getting their input, asking, "Where do you see God at work in our church? Where do you believe he is leading us?"

I knew I had to take the lead in communicating the vision, but I purposely avoided making the vision my vision. I trusted that God would reveal his plan to all of us, speaking just as strongly through other members as he did through me.

We continued to see personal growth in our leaders, including two young couples who began an upbeat evangelism and an introductory Bible study on Sunday nights.

Year 5: Tighten the Vision Focus

Last year was our best. We added four families to the congregation, two of them being baby Christians. My confidence grew, both in my preaching and leadership.

Administration still nagged me like a weak ankle. Each time I took my eyes off the call, I began to feel inadequate, wondering if I was holding the church back.

We were doing all the right things, I thought. Our Sunday school was well organized. Marriages were being saved and strengthened. People with serious emotional scars were finding healing. We weren't growing, but it was obvious God was at work.

Year 6: What's Next?

This is year six. We're still plodding along with the same eight to ten baptisms per year, the same 70 or so in Bible studies, the same 100 on Easter and Christmas.

Though we've seen some people grow tremendously, we haven't seen a net gain in attendance, membership, or overall giving. We are still raising funds for the expanded parking lot, and are no closer to realizing our dream for a new sanctuary. The revolving door keeps turning with folks looking for a church with a bigger this or a better that.

Looking back at all the strategies we've implemented, the vision meetings we've held, the conferences our leaders have attended, it still appears that in size, we are just about where we were when I arrived.

A major reengineering of a church culture takes four to six years, unless a crisis fast-forwards the process, so this case is fairly typical. In the transition process, people in the church will go through four stages: denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment. Certain leadership actions are appropriate for each stage, and leadership will determine the outcome.

The congregation proceeded normally coming out of denial (characterized by business-as-usual, commitment to the past, withdrawal) into resistance (marked by anger, anxiety, loss of members). A significant breakthrough occurred with the big Sunday night meeting.

The congregation may be stuck in the exploration phase. This phase is typified by a lack of focus, an outbreak of the "crazies" (both people and ideas), and a need to quit doing some things. In the exploration period, the congregation needs some quick wins under their belt to build confidence that their future dreams are realizable. Inserting a vision retreat here may have prematurely pushed the horizon too far ahead.

It's time for the next chapter to become evident. The church needs to distill how it will carry out the Great Commission.

Other questions emerge surrounding the pastor. I cannot tell if he is ambivalent about his own life mission. He has a strong sense of call, but does he know what to do with it? What are his strengths, gifts, and passions? The pastor needs sufficient self-understanding to lead this church into its next chapter.

My hunch is his workaholic tendencies impact his ministry in several ways. Workaholics tend to entwine themselves into too much, and it does appear that most of the lines in the church run to him. His enmeshment seems normal to him, but it is one way that leaders stunt growth. The key question is not how to get administrative help; it is how to release ministry.

Second, workaholics create work to feed their addiction. His people may be flat out exhausted. Less usually would mean more.

Third, the workaholic personality can also be a micromanager or control personality. The key shift that must occur is for the pastor not to be in the spotlight as the ministry hero, but to assume the coaching role to make winners out of others.

It is significant, far beyond numbers, that through the pastor's leadership the church has had a shift in its values—which is the toughest work—and is reaching people for Christ. The pastor must keep in mind that God keeps score differently than we do.

Good news: Faith Baptist has a lot going for it. The pastor is a committed, godly leader who is serious about his faith, loves God, seeks the mind of Christ, has a heart for evangelism, works hard, and loves the people.

The church has a proven ability to do what many churches cannot do—change. There is one baptism each year for every ten members, which is high compared to most American churches. People are growing spiritually, and newcomers are regularly coming to the church and staying. It's about the median size of an American congregation.

The challenges are common. Most churches have a continuous flow of people going and coming. Smaller churches struggle to provide the services offered by larger churches. The battle to prioritize allocation of limited resources is constant.

Churches don't grow for a variety of reasons, so simple answers are usually wrong. However, one factor is worth considering. Faith started as a church to reach Southern Baptist migrants in Michigan. While much has changed, the church still has many typical Southern Baptist characteristics, including Sunday evening services, altar calls, the name Baptist, highly congregational polity with frequent business meetings, and study of the popular Southern Baptist Experiencing God curriculum.

All of this is very appealing to southerners and Baptists. Unfortunately there appears to be a shortage of both in this area of Michigan. It may be like trying to grow an English-speaking church in a primarily Spanish-speaking city. Most people think Catholic churches are for Catholics, Lutheran churches are for Lutherans, and Baptist churches are for Baptists. This works well for Catholics in Boston, Lutherans in Minnesota, and Baptists in Texas. But it's tough recruiting outside of a denomination's home territory. My guess is Faith Baptist Church looks, sounds, and feels pretty Southern Baptist to people in the area.

If the pastor and people are convinced God has called them to reach the kind of people they are currently reaching, they are on the right track and will have a long-term positive ministry. However, significant growth is unlikely.

If God's call is to reach northern-born, non-Baptist, native-Michiganders, more cultural changes may be necessary. Then the question becomes: What are these people like, and what kind of church will most effectively reach them? The wrong question: How can we get these people to like the way we've always done church?

To begin, (1) study the people to be reached as diligently as past studies have considered those already in the church, prayerfully seeking what it will take to reach them, and (2) find at least one other church with similar background that has effectively changed to reach northern-born, non-Baptist, native-Michiganders and visit that church to learn what it did. In other words, become a Michigan church that happens to be Southern Baptist rather than a Southern Baptist church that happens to be in Michigan.

Finally, I encourage this pastor to stay at Faith Baptist. He knows the church, and the church knows him. There is a high level of mutual trust. Many critical elements are already in place for future effectiveness. If he were to leave, Faith Baptist will have a difficult time finding as good a pastor, and he may go to another church with the same issues and have to start all over.

This sounds like an area with a highly mobile population. It is very difficult to build strong congregations in a transient environment.

But it appears to me the primary blocks to growth are deeper and more complex than a transient population. I wonder if the obstacles do not lie in the pastor's presuppositions. The pastor appears to be driven by a particular church growth model. Numerical growth is his goal; size is his indicator of success.

According to his model, the congregation needs to become fully responsive to people who are not members. The church is to proclaim the gospel in words nonmembers and "baby Christians" can understand. The pastor is to preach a theology of glory with an emphasis on success rather than a theology of the cross. Thinking of the church as a vendor of religious goods and services, the congregation is to provide programs of high quality to meet the self-defined "needs" and "wants" of the members. Using marketing methods, the primary targets for the congregation are nonmembers.

When the pastor imposed his model on the congregation, those who resisted or who had a different model were viewed as adversaries, and a power struggle ensued. Those who didn't share his vision gradually filtered out.

I wonder about a model that creates a competitive climate within a congregation, creates losers, and drives them out of the church. Such a model appears to be informed more by North American culture than by New Testament teaching about the unity of the church. Such approaches to church leadership leave a toxic residue in the congregation. The imposition of a growth model tends to dumb down the gospel. The result is a weak, thin, and unattractive version of Christianity and a congregation that reflects rather than challenges culture. When faithfully proclaimed by word and deed, the gospel is inherently attractive.

The congregation's growth in faith and faithfulness is the goal, not numerical growth. God, not the packaging of the gospel, will give the growth.

Case Study Responses

Create Quick Wins.

Reggie McNeal, director of leadership development, South Carolina Baptist Convention, Columbia, South Carolina

Whom to Reach?

Leith Anderson, pastor, Wooddale Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Better Presuppositions

Paul M. Dietterich, executive director, The Center for Parish Development, Chicago, Illinois

1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.

Copyright © 1998 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal. Summer 1998, Vol. XIX, No. 3, Page 60.

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