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10 Temptations of Church

Why Churches Decline & What to Do About It

Abingdon Press

The Temptation to Accrue Power

The leadership or nominating committee of any local church is a place where we pastors can do our most productive work. In a best-case scenario, committee members put their heads together, draw their inspiration from the various New Testament listings of spiritual gifts, and pool their knowledge of the membership. They then pray for God's guidance with the firm belief that through spiritual discernment they will be able to identify the right leader for the available church office or ministry. They will weave both new and established leaders together to guide the church as the Holy Spirit directs.

However, in churches filled with members who experience increasing influence as their church grows smaller, the nominating process rarely results in leadership capable of navigating the waters of change. Even when available, new leaders are rarely identified unless they fit into and support the congregation's existing power structures. Most leaders in declining churches have been holding given offices for decades or have rotated through key leadership positions over time. Declining churches resist changing their structure, and their leaders have roles mapped out in order to maintain the church's status quo, even amid decline. If the church was once large, with a complex structure, long-standing leaders typically agree to take on more than one office, rather than reducing congregational structure. Over time, this results in power being compounded by a select group of individuals who hold multiple offices. For example, the finance chairperson also heads the stewardship committee, counts the offering, and is on an additional administrative committee as well. Or the choir member is on the worship committee, the personnel committee, and the church council. The work of ministry becomes reduced to the known circle of leaders. The leaders may feel overworked, burdened, and even burned out, saying, "No one else will do it."

Imagine such a declining church has a sudden spurt of growth, with many new people in attendance. The power equations begin to shift. The responsibilities are shared among many, and the overworked members can take a needed rest, right? If this were to happen, long-time leaders' personal sense of power would decline, which is a "double whammy" of bad news to older adult members of a declining congregation. As they struggle to adapt to feelings of lesser value in society, they face the same prospect of a decreasing role in their church community. If the pastor is the person leading the change, the leaders complain, "The pastor doesn't care about us."

In teaching local church revitalization with pastors and lay leaders, we often ask for and receive a list of current church officers. What follows is a discussion like this:

"I see Bill is listed as a member of the finance committee, memorial committee, and the trustees, and is your head usher. How long has Bill been a member of the finance committee?"

"As long as I can remember."

"What is the defined 'term of office' or length of term for this committee?"

"I don't believe we have a term limitation."

"Why do you keep electing Bill to be a member of the finance committee?"

"Bill is up at the church every time the doors are open. Bill is devoted to the church and he is willing to serve, so we keep electing him. We don't have any folks stepping up for leadership here so we are grateful to Bill. He attends every meeting and he is always willing to share his opinion."

"And the trustees?" we ask. "Bill serves there as well?"

"Yes," one member explains. "He is handy and can fix things. He heads up our spring work day. He calls a couple of his buddies, and they work under his direction all Saturday fixing what needs repair."

"Same story with the memorial committee?" we ask.

"That's right," comes the quick response. "His family has donated all the artwork hanging in our church building. That generosity spans three generations!"

"No different for the ushers?" we assumed.

"Correct again," replied the church member. "It is amazing how much Bill does at this church! He gets all his family members and his friends to serve as ushers. Mostly they hand out bulletins in the back and then visit together until the offering rolls around. Bill is the face of our church; nothing gets past him. It's been that way as long as long as I can remember!"

"And how long has this church been in decline?"

"As long as I can remember," responds one member, who may be making some new connections about what has been happening to her church.

We don't tell this story to question the common belief in this local church that Bill is a Christian saint. He may very well be a deeply disciplined Christian and generous beyond measure with his volunteer time. Church growth will be hard on Bill because the existing situation has produced for him a hidden payoff in decline. It's as if he now has tenure in multiple church roles.

Bill probably started out serving in only one committee office. As the church began to decline, he was asked to serve two offices at the same time. As the decline continued, he was asked to continue serving his offices longer than was customary for this local church. Over time, no new persons came forward who were both gifted and available to serve the offices Bill had occupied for several years.

Eventually Bill picked up the trustee role as well as inheriting the head usher duties once covered by his cousin. As the pond shrank, Bill became a bigger fish. People called him "Mister Methodist." Other members commented, "This place would fall apart without you, Bill." The smaller the church became, the more power, honor, and praise Bill received from his congregation, and the more Bill developed an unspoken personal incentive for the decline to continue.

The polity of many denominations specifies term limits for certain offices. The United Methodist Church requires that trustees, personnel, and nominating committees serve only three years. Many of our churches, though, have one or more members who rotate in and out of these committees. Often in the name of continuity, keeping "institutional memory," and not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, churches will ignore or circumvent the intention of such term limitations with a conversation like this:

"Carol's term of office ends with the trustees this year, but she told me she'd like to continue. Let's nominate her to a new three year term."

"That makes sense. Every year since I can remember she has been on the trustees and led the kitchen brigade."

"We used to have all kinds of complaints from women who said the kitchen was filthy after some outside group used it. Carol has put a stop to that!"

"You're right! No one can use the church kitchen now without checking in with her and following the rules she set up. We hardly ever have complaints about the kitchen's availability or about cleanliness!"

Problem solved. Write down Carol's name and move on. Carol will get more accolades for her selfless service and the leadership committee gets to check off the "office now filled" box. Carol enjoys sustaining her strong position of power. Her declining congregation will have an increasing need for her to serve this office and several others in the near future as the local church's labor pool continues to shrink.

Carol is a recently retired bank executive who supervised one hundred employees. She went from a place of power in her business to retirement, and it was a difficult adjustment. Yet retirement offered her the opportunity to do more for her church. She will be ready for other opportunities to supervise others. She thinks, "I am available to serve the Lord wherever and whenever I am needed." As long as her local church cooperates with continuing decline, she'll have plenty to do. Her fellow congregants see her as faithful and selfless, which adds to the reward of doing the same tasks for the church year in and year out.

What incentives does Carol have to participate in behaviors that will grow her church into a thriving congregation? The church may have a mission statement to make new disciples, but there is a personal loss in working such an evangelical purpose, because new leaders carry a double danger. First, their very presence brings less power to established leaders. Second, new people have a pesky way of bringing new ideas—even more so for new converts. New ideas mean even more change, along with loss of recognition and power. Perhaps new people will think the old dishwasher needs replacing and offer to purchase one for the church. But unless Carol agrees, it won't happen. Besides, she's the only one who really knows how to work the old dishwasher and, in her opinion, others just don't understand the machine.

Compounding the problem, once leaders such as Carol find their way into elected church leadership, they will cling tenaciously to that position of power. Some have modest levels of self-awareness and know their leadership skills may be wanting or that they are not appropriately gifted. Yet this position of honor and respect feels good, and the misplaced leader is consequently reluctant, even openly resistant, to giving up the office. Leaders of this type lack the motivation, and sometimes the ability, to reverse the local church decline. Congregational growth will eventually lead to their replacement by someone who has leadership gifts appropriate to the ministry. We don't observe this as a conscious thought process in the church member; it is hidden and operates at a subconscious level.

In a combined sixty years of pastoral ministry, we have seen this dynamic again and again. Here are some examples:

A United Methodist men's president has explosive episodes of rage. This leader takes a group of twenty-five active men down to a group of three.

A United Methodist women's president is elected after six women turned down the nomination. Though there are only a dozen members in attendance, she is unable to conduct a business meeting in less than three and a half hours.

A chairwoman of the evangelism group has zero attendees for her meetings two months in a row. Rather than face difficult questions about her own leadership, she bemoans that women are "no longer committed to the church."

An education chair is unable to carry on an adult conversation.

Occasionally, a brave pastor will tactfully encourage the leader to step down, careful not to hurt anyone's feelings. Yet this is a hard and unrewarding task. No matter how tactfully done, stepping down after a long tenure produces questions, and depending on how the questions are answered, the pastor is often seen as insensitive or controlling. Other long-tenured leaders will be suspicious. To most pastors, it just seems like it isn't worth it. With too many other irons in the fire, it is easier to let it go. So these elected leaders continue to hold offices as the church spirals downward. They all have clear incentives for the continuation of their local church's decline.

LIMIT EVERY MEMBER TO ONE OFFICE

The New Testament is clear that all believers possess gifts that are given to strengthen the body of Christ. It is clear to the most casual church observer that spiritual gifts aren't evenly distributed. Some have many, but everyone has at least one. Consider what is said about spiritual gifts in various Scriptures:

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Sprit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Cor. 12:4-11)

We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness. (Romans 12:6-8)

And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16 RSV)

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, speakers in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? (1 Cor. 12:27-30 RSV)

Even though one person might have four or five gifts, she doesn't have the time to exercise all of them at once. Or, a church member could clearly have certain gifts, but he is not in a stage of faith development that allows him to hear and respond to God's call.

CLARIFY THE NOMINATING PROCESS

Three factors seem to cloud the leadership nomination process in declining churches. It is evident from the various listings of spiritual gifts that these gifts take many forms, and that some of these are gifts of supporting, financing, and encouraging the leadership of others.

1. Some People Have Support Gifts.

They don't have the gifts needed to recruit, motivate, and activate others. Those with support gifts are naturals at volunteering or agreeing to serve as a leader, even if they don't have the gifts needed. This is because they want to help! That is their gift— their willingness to say yes and support others. Too many nominations to church office are made as a reward for faithful service or because the potential nominee is a friend. Sometimes a nomination is made simply because the nominee is a nice lady, a gentle woman, and everyone likes her.

Couple this with a nominating committee comprised primarily of long-term members who have limited contact with new persons. They begin with a small pool of persons from which to select. They go easily and immediately to those who have helped them in the past with church activities.

We recommend that prior to the first leadership committee meeting, the local church advertise the nomination process via bulletin insert, allowing persons to self-nominate. The ad might read like this:

This is a more transparent process. If you want to serve, then write your name down to request it. This process eliminates people being coy about their desire to serve. This process communicates openness to new leadership. In this process, the leadership committee will identify some surprises in the self-nomination process. Often when we use this process, someone says, "I would never have thought Ruth would have any interest in that position."

It is critical that everyone who turns in a nomination request form be contacted when the proposed slate for office has been completed. This informs those who were nominated that their name will be presented before the church body for election, but more important, to inform others that they weren't nominated to their desired office. Let these folks know reason(s) why, such as:

"We had seventeen people wanting to serve and only three slots open."

"We needed to get some young adults involved in that area."

"We needed your gifts much more in another area of ministry."

Without divulging confidential conversations from the leadership committee deliberations, be honest and straightforward with your feedback. We must learn to speak the truth in love.

2. Too Much Responsibility in Too Many Church Offices Will Take More Time Than One Person Has Available.

Though someone may possess seven distinctive gifts, and even though one of those gifts might be juggling a schedule that you or I would find unmanageable, there are only twenty-four hours in any day.

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Excerpted from 10 Temptations of Church by John Flowers, Karen Vannoy. Copyright © 2012 John Flowers and Karen Vannoy. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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