We're Killing Our Churches

One of the things that attracts me to people is how they deal with others. I like people that help other people and enjoy doing it. I hope I am that way and I am absolutely certain my fiancé is like that, after all that’s what got my attention to begin with. There is something special about the kind of person that would stop and talk with others at a time they need it most. They would be the ones to help the person at the grocery store that’s a buck or two short. There are a lot of people in my church that would do that.

There are a lot of people in most churches that would do that. For Christians the Greatest Commandments are written in Matthew 22:36-40. Jesus is asked “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” When I read this I wondered why many churches don’t go by these commandments first and foremost. It ultimately kills a church when they don’t follow the word of Jesus Christ, especially the two Greatest Commandments. We are the ones making the decisions.

In Autopsy of a Deceased Church, Thom Rainer studies the death of fourteen churches and the results are not all that surprising. Every church had one symptom that slowly and steadily strangled it. It was the leadership of the church having made a transition from outreach to pleasing the members that were already inside. It is such a simple formula! Love thy neighbor before we remodel the coffee shop. Love thy neighbor before we build an addition. And the list goes on.

 There are many reasons churches end up going the route of pleasing their members before doing outreach programs. One of them is money and another is inside politics. For instance, as a church has to make budget cuts do they cut outreach programs or the things that make staff and elders comfortable? As Rainer has proven, the churches that cut their outreach programs have injected themselves with a sickness that can’t be reversed. These churches have forgotten Jesus words and have chosen to love themselves before their neighbor. It IS that simple.

Churches don’t just die. We kill them. We do it so subtly we don’t know when it’s happening. Nobody intends for it to happen. Nobody goes to church and says “hey, let’s kill this place today.” Like our society, the influence of the ‘me first’ generation created such a paradigm shift we think of our own comfort before we do anything else. We kill our churches by ignoring the reason Christians go to church, Jesus Christ. The same thing that attracts me to certain people is the same thing that attracted me to my church. It is the honest attempt to help others and make a difference in our community. After reading Rainer’s book I’ll be watching for a shift in our church as well as every other one. If outreach ministries are cut to afford remodeling the nursery I’ll know where we’re headed.