Church Growth "Ailments"

Church Growth “Ailments”
Several years ago the well known church growth specialist, author and Professor C. Peter Wagner identified several congregational characteristics that were barriers to church growth. His list contains eleven, however, I’m going to talk about only five today.  Next week I will peruse the remaining six. As you read through these church “ailments” see if you recognize your congregation among them and think about what you can do to overcome them.

Ailment #1 - Comfortitus
This church is very comfortable with who it is, who attends and its programs.  The members like being together and everything goes from week to week smoothly.  The problem is there is a history of non-growth.  It is not fulfilling its mandate to go into the world to make disciples.

Ailment #2 – Participatory Democracy
Yes, even in a democratic country like America you can have too much democracy.  This is especially true in the church.  While input and participation are vital to growing churches, if everything is voted on before action is taken nothing gets done.  Both spiritual growth and numerical is stymied.  There must be a structure in place to allow decisions and actions to be handled in a timely manner.

Ailment #3 – Power Groupitis
The opposite of Participatory democracy church with Power Groupitis seemed to be owned by a small group of people who make the decisions without any participation by others.  They are normally incommunicado about plans and future.  They hold the power whether they are in a position for this or not.  In every organization there is a power group, positional or de-facto. This is not necessarily bad depending on how the power is wielded.  Do they solicit input and take into account the needs and ideas of others or do they act like a steam roller, unconcerned about anyone else?

Ailment #4 – Not-Like-Us-Malady
This church has a large number of people who see and filter others from only their own perspective.  You might hear them complain that visitors don’t fit in with them.  They may say that those people are “just not like us.”  “They don’t dress like us, or talk like us, or speak the same language as us, to believe like us, may be used as an excuse to not fellowship or accept new people into the church. Evangelism doesn’t take place unless it is with people “just like them.”  It would be one thing if only a small amount of people were guilty of “Not-like-us-malady,” but prejudice comes in all sizes, shapes, ages, color and ethnicity.

Ailment # 5 – Ministry Misplacement
This congregation expects all ministry to be done by the pastor.  They must likely have ready Ephesians chapter 4, but somehow passed right over verse 11 which says, “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (NIV) Or they have not resisted the catholic model in which only those with formal training and “official sanction” are allowed to minister.  BTW- this is not the New Testament model.

So, how does your congregation stack up?  Did you find yourself among these common church “Ailments”?  If so, what are you going to do about it?  You may not be able to change your church overnight, but you are able to change yourself (with the help of the Holy Spirit).  And, that’s where real church change starts....with yourself...and then another, and another until...

Dr. Max High
Healthy Church Solutions