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What’s it Going to Take?
Ideas for Re-energizing Local
Churches
Presented by Bobby Braswell, Jr.
Middle Baptist Association
[email protected]
(912) 657-5889 (cell ph.)
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
• Declining attendance
– Culture is indifferent, if not hostile to the church.
• It’s easy to make the culture a bogeyman.
• “We are the salt of the earth; we are the light of the
world” (Matthew 5:13-14).
• Beware of justifying apathy with theology. E.g.,
"The Bible says in the last days things will be
worse and worse." Yes, but the church is
flourishing outside North America.
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Current generation is the most unreached in
US history
• “If the trends continue, ‘the Millennial
generation will see churches closing as
quickly as GM dealerships,’ says Thom
Rainer” (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2010-04-271Amillfaith27 _ST_N.htm).
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Current generation is the most unreached in
US history
• “The Southern Baptist Convention is rapidly dying and
resistance to change could kill more than half of the
denomination’s churches by 2030. Many Southern Baptist
churches are small groups of white people who are holding
on until the end. Not only have we not reached out to
younger generations, but we have failed to reach out to
ethnic minorities who are all around us. Rather than
embracing a ‘whatever it takes’ mentality to change and
restore a local church to health, many pastors and churches
have chosen to die rather than change, and they are doing it”
(Dr. Frank Page, Executive Director, CEO of SBC Executive Committee,
http://sbcimpact.org/2008/05/18/quotable-frank-page-2/).
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Mormonism and Islam are the fastest
growing religions in US (http://times247.com/timesnews/islam-mormonism-among-fastest-growing-religions-in-america).
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Shrinking resources and associated issues
• How can churches meet the needs in their own
communities and still maintain Acts 1:8 priorities?
• SBC churches are averaging giving 6% to the
Cooperative Program
(http://www.sbclife.org/Articles/2010/02/SLA9.asp, Cooperative Program Facing
Economic Challenges by Roger S. (Sing) Oldham)
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
–Aging congregations
(Coming to Grips With an Aging Church, by Frank Hutchinson,
http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=853.)
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Resistant to change
• Do we value people more than our
preferences?
• Family chapel models
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Inwardly focused -Ten warning signs of an inwardly obsessed
church (Thom Rainer)
1. Worship wars
2. Prolonged minutia meetings
3. Facility focus - facilities have iconic status
4. Program driven - programs are an end rather than a means
5. Inwardly focused budget
6. Inordinate demands for pastoral care
7. Attitudes of entitlement 8. Greater concern about change than the Gospel - more passion
about maintaining the status quo than reaching the lost
9. Anger and hostility
10. Evangelistic apathy
Rainer, Facts and Trends, Summer 2012
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Churches are ill-equipped to handle
“seismic, discontinuous change”
(Eddie Miller, Associational Missionary at Sierra Baptist Association
Location Reno, Nevada).
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Postmodernism
• “Postmodernism is the idea that individuals have
both the intelligence and the right to decide for
themselves what truth is. [They] base their
conclusions on their own research, individual
experiences, and personal relationships instead of
the truth accepted by their parents, government or
church” (Mission possible: Reaching the Next Generation through the Small
Church, Dr. Terry Dorsett.)
• “[Postmodern thinkers] will not accept the church’s
traditional brand of spirituality without personal
exploration, experiences, and relationships”
(Dorsett).
I. Challenges facing struggling
churches
– Postmodernism
Traits that embody Postmodernism, Dr. Earl Creps, Assemblies of God Theological
Seminary:
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Centrality of community
Primacy of experience - "Been there, done that ..."
Subjectivity of truth
Complexity of human perception
Fragility of progress
Unreality of absolutes
Enormity of the spiritual
Plurality of worldviews (eclectic religious views)
II. Things we can learn from
churches which no longer exist …
Revelation 2 and 3 based on The Message,
Eugene Peterson
• Problems
 Left first love (2:4, Ephesus)
 Tolerance of teaching and behavior that undermine holy
community (vv.14-14, Pergamos)
 Hedonism (2:20-22, Thyatira)
 "Dead, stone dead" (3:1, Sardis)
 Busyness, but not with God's business (3:2, Sardis)
 Apathetic, careless (3:3, Sardis)
 Lukewarm, stale, stagnant, sickening (3:15, 16, Laodicea)
 Self-sufficient (3:17, Laodicea)
II. Things we can learn from
churches which no longer exist …
Remedies
– "Turn back! Recover your dear early love"
(2:5).
– "Listen!" (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22)
– "Resist evil" (2:16).
– "Hold on to truth" (2:25).
– "Focus on the Gospel" (3:3).
– Make God your sufficiency (3:18).
– "Run after God" (3:19).
III. Necessities to turn around
struggling churches
Authentic experiences with God
– Prayer revival, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire,
Jim Cymbala
– Fresh Encounter, Henry Blackaby and
Claude King
– Mark Mirza, Common Thread Ministries
(http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Co
mmon-ThreadMinistries/141546075899655)
III. Necessities to turn around
struggling churches
• Honesty – Admit the church’s situation
(Romans 13:11-14).
• Energy – Turn Around Churches, George
Barna: “40 hours a week won’t cut it.”
• Intentional, systematic investment in
potential leaders (2 Timothy 2:2)
• Biblical approaches to training
disciples
– New paradigm in discipleship, Real Life
Discipleship, Jim Putman, and Church is a
Team Sport, Putman.
III. Necessities to turn around
struggling churches
• Attractional and Missional evangelism
– Event evangelism
– Personal relationship evangelism
• Leaner programming - even if the most
dedicated people were inclined to be
intentional witnesses, many are so
consumed with church business they have
no time for building meaningful
relationships with lost people.
III. Necessities to turn around
struggling churches
Use facility as community center
(Dorsett). Be open to ways to connect
your community to your congregation:
–
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–
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Celebrations
Sports (Upward, etc.)
Civic servants
Disaster response
Meeting needs
III. Necessities to turn around
struggling churches
• Connect to younger generation via
technology
• Connect to younger generation via
relationships:
– "Len Hjalmarson, a Canadian pastor, author,
and church consultant, writes regularly about how
to reach postmodern young people. Hjalmarson
concludes that postmodern people 'reject
authority of position in favor of authority in
relationship.' Young people do not care who is in
charge; they care about the person with whom
they have a relationship" (Dr. Terry W. Dorsett (2012-03-31).
Mission Possible: Reaching the Next Generation through the Small Church (p. 20).
CrossBooks. Kindle Edition).
IV. Partnerships …
• If we are the Body of Christ, it makes sense for
stronger congregations to help struggling
congregations.
• Prolific author and United Methodist church
consultant, Lyle Schaller proposed that regional
judicatories (aka, Associations in Baptist life)
adopt these ministry priorities:
• "We are prepared to help aging and
numerically shrinking congregations founded
before 1980 identify a new constituency and
design a ministry plan to reach, attract, serve,
and assimilate newcomers. We also are
prepared to help those small congregations
eager to build a new future to find a large
church that will partner with them in
implementing that ministry plan."
IV. Partnerships …
"Rather than close or merge numerically
shrinking and weak congregations, we
will encourage and resource larger
churches to adopt them. The typical
relationship calls for the small
congregation to accept and carry full
responsibility for the care of its real
estate. That small church also will be
expected to design a ministry plan that
will evoke the interest of leaders in larger
congregations who are willing to become
partners in implementing that plan. We
believe that partnerships can be more
valuable than financial subsidies through
denominational agencies."
IV. Partnerships …
"One alternative scenario is for that missionary
church to enlist, train, and assign a husband-wife
couple or a team of lay volunteers who will
provide Sunday morning leadership for that
'wounded bird.' A common practice is for that
volunteer team to consist of a lay preacher, a
worship leader or musician and a visionary
leader. That team works with the indigenous
leadership in developing a ministry plan designed
to reach and serve a new constituency, not
simply to try to perpetuate yesterday. One by one
those volunteers from that missionary church will
be replaced by indigenous volunteer leaders and
or paid staff."
Lyle Schaller, The New Context for Ministry: Competing for the Charitable
Dollar (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002).