A reason why churches don't grow! Part 1 "Lack of pastoral leadership"

A reason why churches don't grow! Part 1

Lack of pastoral leadership -- too little, too inadequate, too short, too limited!

A church cannot grow without a growth minded pastor.

There was this family which included father, mother and five-year-old son Joe, the parents decided to leave and go on vacation and left Joe at home alone.  The parents decide to stay away long time, for years, and Joe this five-year-old didn't go school, didn't really know how to go the restroom correctly, ran out of clean clothes, did not clean the house or after himself, and didn't go outside to play.  Joe did not know how to cook because he was too young, so he ate what was in the refrigerator, was able to open up the canned goods and package goods that were uncooked and he ate that.  Joe's main educator was the TV, and pictures in or magazines books.

After six years the neighbors called the police and social services came to the house and found that Joe was living alone.  The house was a mess, because Joe couldn’t pay bills, the cable TV had gone off years prior, the water was off as well the power.  When the police and social service try to communicate with Joe his communication skills were still as a five year old, he cursed a lot and couldn't complete full sentences.

Joe could not read or write because there is no one there to teach him, suffering from malnutrition his hair fell out, and his teeth were all rotten.  Having no social skills he bit the police officer and fought with the social worker trying not to leave the house where he lived.

Even though this is a fictitious story this is what happens when there is very little or no leadership in the church.  This makes you wonder if the pastor was truly called by God to pastor or just went.  

 Church growth through servant leadership is key to the success and growth of the church.  “It Takes Teamwork to Make a Dream Work,” just as a patriarchs of the Bible had leaders to help with their mission you two must have leadership skills starting with yourself and then disciple others.  The book of Ephesians states God has given us a fivefold Ministry for the equipping of the Saints. 

There was a church that worked with a while ago where the pastor never trained his leadership.  Would make changes at the drop of a hat and leadership would find out the same time the parishioners did.  In time, leaders began to fall off and left the church.  When that started to happen so did most of the members.

I have found in the urban church for some reason, pastors refuse to install an assistant pastor and/or leaders and give them authority to lead.  Moses had Aaron, Jesus had the disciples, and Paul had Timothy. 

 I did work with a church and the pastor told me in one of our consultation sessions that he was happy with his 25 members that he would pastor them until they die.  He was also a missionary and was gone for months at a time on mission trips not leaving someone in charge to carry on the work while he was absent.  With very little leadership, being gone all the time caused his parishioners to be stunted in their growth and were like retarded children.  As I tried to work with them, they would only eat out a pastor's hands and made my work virtually impossible.  They would say things like: “that's not how pastor does it,” and “when pastor is away instead of a full worship service we just have testimony service and go home.”

The subject “Lack of pastoral leadership -- too little, too inadequate, too short, too limited!” The excerpt is from “Strategies and Insights for Church Growth” our new book that was just released.  Strategies and Insights for Church Growth explains why churches don't grow and come up with strategies and gives readers the various insights on how to grow a healthy and holistic church.

 

Strategies And Insights For Church Growth Is Published by Gospel Worldwide and the websites is GWWI.com or Lulu.com

Dr. Brian Cochran is available for book signings, and pastor leadership conferences.  To contact him call 657-204-6249 or bishopbrian@gww1.com. To see other valuable resources go to gww1.com

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