So I knew this pastor in northeast Texas named Jack. Jack had served his church faithfully for several years. Unfortunately these were not the most fruitful in this congregation’s history. Despite Jack’s biblical preaching and faithful leadership, the church was in decline. Since Jack began serving ten years prior, the church lost just over half of its worshippers, mostly among the young and older working age adults, and had gone several years without any baptisms.
Eventually the church brought in a consultant, in the hope of developing a plan for revitalization. The consultant and his team surveyed remaining members, along with a few of those who had left, and observed several services and ministry events. Finally they presented their report to the congregation.
The report began with some positive points before noting two areas of concern. First, everything from the music to the décor and scheduling indicated it was a great place for senior citizens, but there was no clear way for younger families to connect. As the consultant noted, “You don’t progress out of the young adult Bible class until retirement.”
The second concern was an appearance that the church was more interested in the satisfaction of the members than engagement with unbelievers. With this observation no one disagreed.
The consultant’s report concluded with a list of general recommendations of how the church might resolve these issues, which Jack in turn brought to the church council. He asked, “What are we willing to change to make our church more welcoming to younger families and to become more outwardly focused?” Nobody said a word. Jack offered a few suggestions, but with each suggestion, someone would say how they loved this aspect of their church, or how impossible such a change would be.
Eventually the church did nothing, at least nothing different from what they had been doing. And nothing changed. Today Jack is no longer pastor, and this church counts its final days.
And the moral of my story: If nothing changes, nothing changes.
Blessings,
Jim