At meeting a few days ago there a pastor who had been serving at a church for a year and was “bragging” about how bad his church was. He went on for fifteen minutes cataloguing how bad it was. Some of his claims were ridiculous, e.g. “No one at church knows why it exists!” Really, so you are saying that 70 people come to church each week and in an interview asking why the church exists, there would be 70 blank stares? But they faithfully keep coming each week? Come on!
When pressed for something positive, the pastor did mention that several had been involved in missions and were committed to local ministry. Why didn’t he initially mention these qualities? Really, why didn’t he only mention these qualities?
People don’t want to join a losing team or get on a sinking ship. Camping out on the negative qualities of a church isn’t going to make it healthy. Pastor, you’ve been there a year! Don’t criticize your church to lower expectations of its health among your peers so that you don’t get the blame if the church closes. You’ve been there a year. Own the responsibility you have, find and leverage its strengths, ask visitors to join you in these strengths, and redirect where the church is currently weak.
Pastor, if you continue the way you are, I think we have found the most obvious weakness of the church.
