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The Growing Disconnect Between Spiritual Hunger and Church Attendance
Doing church together is an essential aspect of what it means to be a Christian. But church attendance rates keep dropping in most of the developed world.
Why? I often hear it’s because people aren’t as spiritually-minded as they used to be. After all, if it’s not their fault, then some of it might be our fault. And that can’t be.
But the evidence doesn’t support that. In fact, it suggests that people’s spiritual hunger may be growing, not shrinking. Spiritually-themed books, movies, TV shows and blogs are having a major resurgence. Alternative spirituality is booming.
Spiritual hunger isn’t a cultural thing. That God-shaped hole is hard-wired into every one of us. Church attendance isn’t down because people have stopped caring about spiritual things. It’s because we haven’t done such a great job at showing them how church attendance will help them answer that longing.
Transition Without Relocation: 8 Ways to Stay Fresh In a Long-Term Pastorate
Behind every great church, large or small, is at least one pastor who has been there long enough to outlast the bad times and build on the good times.
It is the most common thread for great churches. Pastors who stick around.
But pastoral longevity has its dark side too. The tendency to become stale.
Every time I talk about the value of long-term pastorates, as I did in last week’s post, Small Church Ministry: A Stepping Stone Or a Place to Stand?, people remind me of horror stories about churches that withered into ineffectiveness because a pastor stayed too long.
That’s a reality which can’t be ignored, so today’s post is about that dark side – and how to overcome it.
I Don’t Like the Way You Do Church
I don’t like the way you do church.
The music is too loud or too soft
The preaching is too emotional or too academic
The pastor is too unavailable or too nosy
The building is too ornate or too plain
The liturgy is too old or too new
The ethnic mix is too homogenous or too diverse
The congregation is too big or too small
The sermons are too long or… no that’s it – they’re too long
That’s OK.
You feel the same about my church. For the same reasons.
There’s no style of church that everyone likes.
Small Church Ministry: A Stepping-Stone Or a Place to Stand?
You know that pastor you run in to at church conferences who’s always looking over your shoulder to see if there’s someone better to talk to?
A lot of us may be doing that to the church we’re pastoring.
In a recent comment on NewSmallChurch.com, a reader named Tom Burkholder wrote this: “As a bi-vocational pastor for over 23 years there are very few fellow ministers who do not see small churches as stepping stones instead of real long-term ministries.”
I responded to him this way:
“That’s a great point about stepping-stones, Tom. I think one of the big reasons many Small Churches stay unhealthy when they don’t need to, is that too many pastors aren’t putting their heart into the Small Church ministry they have.
“Instead, they’re looking for something bigger – or they put all their energy into making their Small Church bigger, instead of healthier. This makes the church they are supposed to be pastoring feel overlooked and neglected. That’s not a great recipe for a healthy ministry or a healthy church.”
Please Stop Writing “Here’s Why Your Church Isn’t Growing” Lists – They Don’t Help
When an already-discouraged pastor reads a list telling them their church isn’t growing because they’re visionless, self-serving and petty, it doesn’t lift them up, it beats them down.
Guilt doesn’t motivate, it discourages. Besides, those petty attitudes aren’t true for us. Pastors who don’t care, don’t read church leadership blogs!
Don’t slap our hands, put tools in them. Tools that will work for us now, while we’re small. Tools that promote health and growth. Tools that encourage and inspire us. Slapping the hands of your readers for not caring is like yelling at the people who did show up to church because you’re mad at the people who didn’t show up.
We need a moratorium on “Why Your Church Isn’t Growing” lists for one simple reason: they don’t work!
Don’t Try To Be Successful – Try To Do Good Work
I’ve always tried to live my life and do ministry by this rule: Don’t try to be successful. Try to do good work. Not people-pleasing work, God-honoring work Not self-promoting work, Christ-magnifying work Not numbers-driven work, Spirit-led work The one time in my ministry that I abandoned this principle and did things for the numbers, I
Only In a Small Church: One-On-One With the Pastor
I had another one of those “only in a Small Church” moments last Sunday. The positive kind. As I was shaking hands at the door after the service, I chatted with a man who’s been attending for a few weeks. He told me he was thinking about making us his permanent church home, but he had
For Those Who Are Struggling With How the Church Is Changing
The church is changing. For many church leaders, that change isn’t happening fast enough. For others, the changes are happening too fast. For yet another group, the pace isn’t the problem – they believe the church is changing in all the wrong ways. Last Sunday I read a blog post by an author who would
Mean Christians and the Importance of Likability
The #1 factor that determines whether-or-not someone comes to faith in Jesus has nothing to do with the size of our church. It has nothing to do with our denominational preference. And it has less to do with our theology than I wish it did. It’s this. Do they like the Christians they know? After all,
