Sadly, that quote typifies many of our churches today. Stagnant! Recalcitrant! Reluctant to change methodologies because we have always done it that way and it is our preference and comfort zone, and as we age change becomes more difficult for a majority of adults. Take a look back at the last ten years in the church life cycle and see where you have been trending. How do your numbers relative to membership, baptisms, giving, mission projects, look over this ten year period? Has the community in which your church located changed dramatically demographically in the past ten years? If you continue trending in the same direction for the next decade what kind of shape spiritually and numerically will your church be in?
Church consultant, author, professor, and former small church pastor Gary L. McIntosh in his book Look Back, Leap Forward has noted:
We live life forward by understanding it backward. The past is for remembering, not reliving. If you keep thinking what you’ve always thought, you’ll keep getting what you’ve already got. We look back to find our values; we leap forward to find our methods.
While the gospel message cannot be compromised, how we present the message to effectively communicate the claims of Christ in a culture that is radically antigod, holds to the tenant that there are no absolute truths, in a pervasive media-crazed society with a Twitter mentality, must be open to reevaluation. Os Guinness, in his book Renaissance: The Power of the Gospel However Dark the Times defines “culture as a way of life lived in common.” (p. 58).
After attending hundreds of churches here in America over the past many decades I concur with Thom Rainer’s assessment that 3/4 of the churches in North America need both a divine intervention as well as the assistance of a church consultant. A consultant can evaluate through a fresh set of eyes and perspectives a local church to assist them in the process of getting from where they are to where they want and need to be. Please be willing to evaluate your church in light of this article. If your evaluation leaves much to be desired then perhaps it is time as Rainer notes for both a divine and human intervention i.e. a consultant to partner with your church to move it from where it is now to where it needs to be.