Recently, an online magazine sent me an article on "5 signs you're
part of an unhealthy church," I eagerly opened it. This subject is dear
to my heart.
I am passionate about strong, healthy churches but now,im deciding to write on the signs to know whether you are in a dead church.
The writer's 5 signs were good, as far as they went. No argument with
her. I did not leave a comment one way or the other in response.
What I felt, however, is that my experience seems to be of another nature from hers because she was talking from the physical aspect..
Here are 6 signs (evidences, indications) that the church to which you belong is dead.
1. Prayer, if offered at all, is a formality, an afterthought, a burden.
Recently, while spending a long weekend with a group of pastors and
their wives at a retreat in Italy, I was struck by something strange. By
the time I got up to speak, the service--by then a half-hour long--had
experienced at least five prayers. The worship leader had followed a
couple of songs with prayer, the presiding leader had prayed, and at
least two more people with roles in the service had prayed. Each prayer
had been spontaneous, heartfelt, and a joy. I knew then we were in for a
rich time of Christian fellowship.
On the other hand, it pains me to remember the Sunday morning worship
services where I was the guest preacher and noticed that by the time I
stood to preach, not a single prayer--not one!--had been offered.
There is no more accurate indicator of a Christian's spirituality or a church's health than the vitality of our prayer life.
2. Giving stems from duty and is never a joy.
"God loves a hilarious giver," we're told in II Corinthians 9:7.
When David was receiving the offering to build the original temple, he
was so impressed by the joyful spirit of the givers. Scripture says,
"Then the people rejoiced for they had offered willingly, because with a
loyal heart they had offered willingly to the Lord, and King David also
rejoiced greatly" (I Chronicles 29:9).
....not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. (II Cor. 9:7)
3. Laughter is rare, and when present at all, forced and quickly stifled.
Someone asked a friend of mine, "Do you think Jesus ever laughed? The Bible doesn't say He did." My buddy's answer is as good as it gets: "I don't
know whether he laughed or not. But He sure fixed me up so I could!"
We are "fixed up to laugh," Christian. Joy is the very atmosphere of
the Throne room of Heaven (Psalm 16:11) and laughter is nothing but
audible joy.
The preacher who thinks he has to tell jokes to elicit laughter from
his people is missing the point. The difference in that kind of provoked
joy and the natural joy that arises from the hearts of happy worshipers
is the difference in night and day.
4. When church ends, everyone scatters.
I said to a pastor where I had just preached, "Close your eyes and
listen. That's the sound of fellowship." By then, the service had been
over a full half-hour, but his people had hung around, visiting with one
another.
There are fewer greater compliments to give to a church than that: the
members love each other and cannot wait to get together. "By this all
men will know you are my disciples," our Lord said, "that you love one
another" (John 13:34-35).
5. No one hears about salvation, no one gets saved, the baptistry is dry.
Growing up on our Alabama farm, we had a pear orchard in the back yard.
Across on the next ridge, my grandfather had a large apple orchard.
Scattered throughout were peach trees. They all had one big thing in
common: healthy trees were always producing delicious and abundant
fruit. Healthy fruit.
If the tree was barren or the fruit diseased, it was a dead giveaway that the tree was in trouble.
This is not to say that all churches taking in large numbers of new
members and baptizing many hundreds are automatically proven healthy.
Unfortunately, one can use gimmicks to get people to join a church and
manipulate them to be baptized. I say to our shame that many churches
resort to this rather than trod the hard road of building a healthy
church.
I chose and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.... (John 15:16).
6. Neither the members nor the leaders are willing to pay the price to make the church healthy.
Going from death-bed to health requires sacrifice, commitment, work,
and often pain. It will require the patient to make wholesale changes,
to submit to the oversight of medical professionals who know more than
the diseased patient and know what to prescribe. It will require a
willingness to die to self.
That's why a truly sick-unto-death church would rather die than live.
In order to be healthy, they would have to stop their self-destructive
ways, retire some unhealthy leaders, and become a kind of church they
have not been in years, if ever.
Right at this moment, I can take you to a half-dozen churches that are
dying and which have rejected the good counsel of friends who told them
what it would take to be well. It was for good reason our Lord asked the
man at the pool of Bethesda, "Do you want to be well?" (John 5:6). Not
everyone does
Written by Joe McKeever
Joe McKeever has written dozens of books, 1,000+ articles on various subjects (prayers,leadership, church,pastors)
that can be found on his website -- joemckeever.com -- and which are
reprinted by online publications everywhere. His articles appear in a
number of textbooks and other collections.
Over a 42 year period, McKeever pastored 6 churches Followed by 5 years as Director of Missions for the 135 SBC
churches of metro New Orleans, during which hurricane katrina devastated
the city and destroyed many churches.
Joe is married to Margaret, the father of three adults, and the proud
grandfather of eight terrific young people. He holds degrees from
Birmingham-Southern College (History, 1962), and New Orleans Baptist
Theological Seminary (Masters in Church History, 1967, and Doctorate of
Ministry in Evangelism, 1973)
