The following lists of what constitutes a Declining Church and a Healthy Church was published in a recent Town Hall book for delegates. At first glance you might say, yeah, that's right, however there is some things that concern me to say that they are indications of a healthy or a declining church. Or, is it crazy for me to be concerned?
According to the Conference's published booklet:
"A Declining Church . . .
*Program Based *Behavior driven *Decision by committee *Limited view of membership *Permission based *Lack of Vision *Doesn't like change *Inactive members *Inward focusd/self centered *Pastor as chaplain *Worship about head not heart *Controlling *Policy orienting *Pride in friendliness, but isn't really friendly *Distrust of management *Waiting for people to come *Spends resources primarily on youth/children, not adults"
"A Healthy Church . . .
*Spirit Filled *Open to change *Small group social *Grace driven *Finances spent on disciplining adults *Member - defined by involvement *Enable, empower *Freedom to implement rapidly *Empowered board/leaders *Outward focus *Mission concept/mission driven *Spiritual gifts used *Pastor as leader *Worship about the heart/dynamic *Christ centered *Accepting, inclusive *Diverse leadership *Giving *Boundaries *Grace driven"
One concern: An assumption can be made that a healthy church spends no resources on it's youth only on disciplining adults? What about our youth? Doesn't this go against research over the years of a healthy churches longevity.
Does that bother anyone? What about anything else with the above description of healthy and declining churches? There are a couple other things, but I'm not sure if I just am overly sensitive to something that really might not be there because of what has happened over the last year.
hmmm?
2 comments:
Sounds like somebody has a real agenda here. Valuegenesis would not support this conclusion. I doubt very many church growth studies would. Some of it sounds like it's paraphrased from Natural Church Development, but I'm not sure that this verbage is clear enough.
Did they really mean "disciplining adults, or discipling adults?"
umm, I thought I copied it word for word, but you might be right. Hehe on discipling . . .
Spell-checker wasn't my friend this time ;).
Post a Comment