A few years ago, I became the lead pastor of a large, 65-year-old congregation that had gone through three years of turmoil and tension. There were arguments about pastoral leadership. The congregation was divided.
For a variety of reasons, Sunday morning attendance had dropped by 500, finances had declined $10,000 per Sunday in general fund offerings and $2,500 a Sunday in missions giving, and relationships within the church were severely strained. A church with a strong history of missionary support, congregational outreach and loving care, struggled to come to grips with the new realities.
There was disbelief. People were asking, “How could this happen to us?” They hesitated to bring outsiders to the services. Freedom in worship had been replaced by hesitation. A congregation with a legitimately proud history was suffering from an extremely low self-image.
Every church has a corporate self-image. And just as an individual’s behavior is deeply influenced by his self-image, so a congregation is deeply shaped and controlled by the way it views itself. Members of healthy churches feel good about themselves and this translates into commitment, care and outreach. When there is a negative self-image, worship is inhibited, care is limited and outreach is curtailed.
As I prayed and assessed the situation, I needed to know how to approach the situation. Denominational leaders told me I was crazy to become the pastor of this historic church. In such turmoil, I needed to know how to approach the situation.
Of course there is no quick fix to restoring a church’s self-image. Deep wounds don’t heal quickly. Restoration is a process of building confidence in leadership, restoring relationships and reshaping the mindset of the people. I knew my first job was to calm the waters and bring peace. I had to stop the hemorrhaging before we could turn things around and build a fresh momentum.
Here’s what the Lord directed me to do, how I proceeded and what I learned.
Refocus the thinking of the people. For nearly three years, “the problem” had dominated every private conversation and surfaced in most services. While dealing privately with many critical problem issues, I avoided the issue in public services.
Center all preaching on Jesus. In prayer, I was impressed to preach about Jesus for a full year. So I preached continually about Jesus’ character, promises, presence and provision. The last thing the congregation needed were sermons about theories of church growth or ministry. Services became a time to think about the Lord rather than the church. I’ve learned that most people really don’t care about the church structure and even cleverly designed mission statements. Talking about theories of church growth and approaches to church organization divides; talking about Jesus unites!
Love the people. In fact, spend an unusual amount of effort listening and loving the people. People in churches with a low self-image need to be heard. They need to know they matter to God and that someone cares about them. Our pastoral staff worked at accessibility. Gentleness became a watchword. We mingled freely with the people, a distinct change from the aloofness of some of the previous leaders in the church.
Delay new programs. When a congregation is divided and struggling to come to grips with itself is not the time to initiate a lot of change. That was hard for me. I wanted to get going towards the future, but I learned that until a congregation comes to grips with its past and present, it’s not ready to face the future. Spend time reaffirming your commitment to the time-tested values of the church.
Improve the quality of the services. While it was necessary to work behind the scenes mending fences and reestablishing lines of communication, Sunday services were the ultimate test of whether the church was going to make it. People are attracted to anointed excellence. We worked at putting strength in the pulpit and vitality in our worship. We featured our best musicians. We cut waste time out of services. People began to enjoy coming to church.
Celebrate. It’s important for people to see that God is at work and good things are happening. Have events that are winners, demonstrating that the good old days are not all in the past. Celebrate to demonstrate that with God’s help good days are a big part of the future. Interview recent converts. Recognize people who are serving faithfully.
Pray! Take prayer seriously. We mobilized 280 people and trained them to make home visits for the single purpose of praying with their families. During a three-week period, these people had prayer in more than 1100 homes. The visitors were strictly instructed to pray and not talk about issues in the church. The emphasis concluded with a Sunday evening Concert of Prayer with more than 1,600 people participating. The prayer was valuable. Also, positive feelings emerged as people began to have greater faith in their Lord and his plan for the church.
After about a year, people began asking me, “Pastor, what’s your vision for our church?” It was a signal that people were ready to leave the past and move forward. Confidence was returning. In retrospect, while hope was returning, I thought the positive feelings were deeper and more widespread than they really were.
I began to share the vision God was giving us. I was careful, at first, not to give the full master strategy or too many specifics. There was just enough to let the congregation know that God was still working through the church and this church was still part of his plan. This church had a future. Having a sense of purpose was essential in restoring self-image.
As with an individual, a congregation’s self-image cannot be revamped overnight. but it can be changed. But it can be changed with God’s help, patience and a refocusing of the vision.
Did the church’s self image change? Yes, but it took longer than I thought it would. Did we bring everyone along without further tension? No, but gradually people stopped focusing on the past.
One of the encouraging signs was the annual meeting. Previous annual meetings had lasted four hours. This meeting, including reports, elections and questions lasted just 58 minutes. People didn’t know what to do when the meeting concluded!
It was a sign that members were feeling good about their church again.
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