Questions Churches Must Ask Themselves

Rev 3:1  And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 

I am afraid that there are many churches in this situation. Growing up people would have said that they are dead and too dumb to drop over. They keep holding on to the last man hoping there will be a revival of Acts 2 proportion that will grow their church.

I recently interviewed at a church that has a good history and a good plant, but are down to about 30-40 people with a mean age of 75 or more. They had a young man for four years and nothing changed. They will dwindle down to where they can no longer pay the bills and then close. If it were a business, the business people would have declared bankruptcy long ago. That does not benefit the people or the Kingdom. It is just a waste of manpower and resources. They live in sadness over the the past and are not being used in the present where they have no future.

Do not be a Sardis. There is no future in the past. Seek a vibrant church and merge.

Questions that Churches must ask themselves.

Why is this church here or what really is our mission?

Are we truly fulfilling our mission?

How did we get here?

Were we a split or the first of our faith?

If a split, was it because of doctrine or something/someone else?

If we are the first, have we fallen from our first love position or is our written statement of faith different from what we are doing and is that why we are no longer the only one of our faith in the area?

What makes us so fundamentally different than other churches in town especially those of like faith?

What do we have to offer community and believer that the other churches do not offer?

Do we really have anything to offer?

What have we done in the last five years that was significant?

How many pastors have we had in the last five years?

Have we actually seen any growth in the last five years or just turnover of personnel (sheep stealing and wandering)?

If nothing changes will we even exist in five years?

How many of us will be living with children in another area, in a nursing home or the grave in the next five years?

If all the churches mentioned in Revelation are gone is this one meant to last or can it be gone though it has a 100 years of history? Will it be missed? Has it already died, but we refuse to turn off the life support machines?

These are hard questions. I believe that if many churches would take a hard look at themselves and answer these questions honestly many would close and seek to merge with a group that has a more positive set of answers. If there are five churches in the area that honestly see they should close, but there is no thriving church of like faith then maybe they should consider merging because maybe God would bless them together whereas He is not doing so because they are apart. Apart they are dead, but together He may bring about their resurrection.

Imagine what could be done with the funds raised by selling needless buildings and lands that suck up all our financial resources and manpower so that we cannot do missions locally or foreign.I am not talking about one ecumenical 1st Cathabaptapentalutherpiscopal Church of Christ. I am talking about the numerous of the same faith or doctrine. From a Baptist standpoint, there should be no more than one SBTC, BGTC or IFB Baptist church in a 20 mile radius. If the doctrine is the same then more than one is a game. We are not called to play games. We are called to be Christians and even Christ merged two folds, Jews and Gentiles, into one. Surely, we can cut down on the number of folds if we can't be one large one.

We are in perilous times and we need to make spiritually mature, doctrinally sound and good stewardship decisions. Even the world says that united we stand and divided we fall. I would rather we stand. Maranatha!