This week cover symptoms often found in dysfunctional churches. The list is not meant to be critical but eye-opening. There is hope for our churches, and that hope is found in Christ. Some highlights:
- If there are severe theological errors in a church, it may no longer be a true church.
- Force-terminated pastors are too common.
- The average tenure of a pastor is about 3.5 years.
- There is a misperception that unchurched people are not receptive to invites to church. That is simply not true.
- Churches that are “family-owned and operated” are often among the ones that close each year.
- If you ever look for a perfect church, you will not find it.
The six symptoms of a dysfunctional church that we cover are:
- Severe theological errors are pervasive in the church.
- The church is known as a “pastor-eater.”
- The congregation experiences severe conflict.
- Hardly anyone in the community knows the church exists.
- The church is declining while the community is growing.
- The church is “family owned and family operated.”
Seen many of those closing indeed Terry Wiles
close them down !
How about relating this to the truth of making disciples, not converts?
tell us the difference disciples vs converts
I believe the are different in many ways but the difference is mainly in the relationship to the leader/trainer. From Bible Camp to Bible College and beyond the emphasis in those circles has always seemed to be making converts as opposed to disciples. Here are two references that I believe illustrates the difference between disciples and converts: Matthew 23:15 and 1John 2:27. I don’t want to be pulling a Titus 3:9, not trying to cause an argument but I believe there is a specific reason that Jesus said to go into all the World and make disciples as opposed to converts.
Michael D Wayne The list is not meant to be critical but eye-opening. There is hope for our churches, and that hope is found in Christ.
I agree that our hope is in Jesus, our everything is only in Jesus. Churches seem to come and go, groups come and go. In my opinion, I have seen over my 40 plus years if there is a biblical focus of the church, it has seemed to be on making converts, not developing disciples. Don’t want to cause problems here but I believe the difference is important to personal and corporate growth. From what I have studied, the early church focused on discipleship first and the converts came after. I believe it has been reversed in favour of a numbers game – much like the comment to the Pharisees and their far flung travel mentioned by Jesus.