Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Church in Trouble

I thought these were thought-provoking from Perry Noble...

15 signs your church is in trouble...

#1 ? When excuses are made about the way things are instead of embracing a willingness to roll up the sleeves and fix the problem.

#2 ? When the church becomes content with merely receiving people that come rather than actually going out and finding them?in other words, they lose their passion for evangelism!

#3 ? The focus of the church is to build a great church (complete with the pastors picture?and his wife?s?on everything) and not the Kingdom of God.

#4 ? The leadership begins to settle for the natural rather than rely on the supernatural.

#5 ? The church begins to view success/failure in regards to how they are viewed in the church world rather than whether or not they are actually fulfilling the Great Commission!

#6 ? The leaders within the church cease to be coachable.

#7 ? There is a loss of a sense of urgency! (Hell is no longer hot, sin is no longer wrong and the cross is no longer important!)

#8 ? Scripture isn?t central in every decision that is made!

#9 ? The church is reactive rather than proactive.

#10 ? The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don?t understand ?those young people.?

#11 ? The goal of the church is to simply maintain the way things are?to NOT rock the boat and/or upset anyone?especially the big givers!

#12 ? The church is no longer willing to take steps of faith because ?there is just to much to lose.?

#13 ? The church simply does not care about the obvious and immediate needs that exist in the community.

#14 ? The people learn how to depend on one man to minister to everyone rather than everyone embracing their role in the body, thus allowing the body to care for itself.

#15 ? When the leaders/staff refuse to go the extra mile in leading and serving because of how ?inconvenient? doing so would be.