DIAGNOSTICS

pastortimmaynard | March 7, 2011

The statistics are alarming, to say the least. They are “the crazy aunt that lives in the basement that nobody wants to talk about,” according to Ed Stetzer. They tells us that 8 in 10 American churches are declining, plateaued, or dead. That 3500 to 4000 churches close each year in the United States. That these numbers are increasing.
At the request of several people, I am publishing a list of diagnostic questions that should be asked to determine whether a church is in danger of  having a reputation of being alive but are dead.” (Rev 3:2).  These questions were not borrowed but internalized as a response to prayer and preparation for last Sunday’s message. They deserve special thought and consideration for our own diagnostic purposes.
A church is only pretending to be alive:

• When busy-ness passes for spiritual life
• When the focus of the church is more on the past than the future
• When the focus of the church is more toward caring for the members than in making the members missionaries to a lost world
• When attendance and budget numbers become the scorecard for success
• When emotional enthusiasm can’t be separated from spiritual passion
• When staying alive is more important than giving itself away
• When reproduction stops
• When the proclamation of the Word of God is replaced with political rhetoric, self-help and motivation, social commentary
• When sin is tolerated and our lifestyles become indistinguishable from the world around us
• When church becomes all about us, and not about Jesus

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”  (Rev 3:6)