At the heart of the decline of the American church is a devastating failure of leadership. This is especially true in traditional churches (smaller, established churches characterized by older members and older leadership; traditional hymns with few musical instruments; and more formal dress and service structures).
The vast majority of these churches that still survive are experiencing attendance decline, particularly among young people, dwindling influence in their communities, and constant conflict and infighting, all under the watchful eye of their pastors.
Leadership failure does not have to continue, however. The errors that have led to the current condition of these churches can be identified and corrected.
This article will review five of the most significant leadership failures of pastors of these types of churches.
*Please note, though I am critical of pastors in this article, having experienced many of the trials they have, I have a deep love and respect for them. My comments here, and in other places on this site, are given in the spirit of Proverbs 27:6, "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." Please receive them as such.
Leadership Failures of Traditional Church Pastors
Failure 1: Never changing anything (significant).
It is astonishing how many men who pastor traditional churches never implement a single substantive change. Many think of leadership as having a title (being called "pastor") or standing in the pulpit every Sunday to preach.
But this is not biblical leadership at all.
The essence of pastoral leadership is found in Titus 1:5. There, Paul tells Titus he had sent him to Crete to "set in order the things that are lacking."
The word for "set in order" is epidiorthoo, which comes from two Greek words, epi and orthos. Epi means "to position" and orthos means "straight, not crooked" (we get "orthodontics" from this word, the act of straightening teeth).
This means a central work of pastors is to "position things straight" or "make straight that which is now crooked" in their churches. Fixing things, then, is not an optional part of the job; it is the job.
We must stop thinking that only minor things are wrong in our churches and see things more as J.I. Packer suggested, that, in the Lord's eyes, nothing is right. Learn more about Packer's excellent book on change leadership at Amazon.
Paul then identifies what is to be made straight, the things that are "lacking." The underlying Greek word used here is leipo, meaning "to lag, be inferior, or to fail." Whatever things we find in our churches that are lagging, inferior, or failing, then, we are to fix.
But how do we know what falls into these categories? We must compare what we see going on in our churches to a standard of some type. That standard is the Bible.
I have served in ministry in five traditional churches (mostly in a Baptist context), many of them as pastor or elder, and have studied their decline in great detail. Here are some of the primary errors I have seen in nearly every one of them.
Biblical Error | Description/Resources |
Fleshly, Immature, Self-centered Seniors | There are definitely some good, mature older believers in traditional churches. But most of them think and act like spiritual infants. They bicker, complain, and fight like spoiled children, though they should know better, given their years with the Lord. For more on this, watch my lectures "Correcting the Sins of Seniors" and "Seniors and the Lust for Power." |
Organizational Structure (Polity) | These churches' authority structures are completely unbiblical. In general, they have a single pastor, deacons or some kind of church board in authority over the pastor, and decisions by some form of congregational vote. For more on this, watch my lectures "Church Power Structure and Revival" and "Congregational Voting and Revival" or read my extensive article on the subject, "Church Polity 101: The Biblical Way to Organize a Church." |
Failure to Evangelize | Most members of traditional churches have not shared the gospel with anyone in decades. Furthermore, their churches have few, if any, organized, ongoing evangelistic activities to promote the gospel to the lost (other than a vacation Bible school or the like). For more on this, watch my lecture "Evangelism, Outreach, and Revival." |
Failure to Care for the Poor | Outside of a drive for school supplies or an occasional fund raiser or donation to a local homeless shelter, traditional churches conduct very little ongoing, aggressive, sacrificial work to support the poor, oppressed, and needy. For more on this, watch my lecture "Serving the Poor and Revival." |
Failure to Stand for the Truth | The culture is swirling with lies that destroy lives, undermine the Bible, and turn people away from the gospel. But you wouldn't know it if you attend a traditional church. The pulpits preach the same thing over and over; there are no events or seminars to address critical issues, like evolution, LGBTQ, or socialism[1]; and no effort is made to protect and defend the truth of God from the attacks of the enemy at that time. For more on this, watch my lecture "The 7 Pillars (or Purposes) of the Church," which includes this topic. |
Conflict | Traditional churches are famous for their fights in business meetings, cliques, and church splits. Countless thousands have been mistreated, traumatized, and turned away from the church for good by the brutal battles that rage in traditional churches. For more on this, check out Peacemaker Ministries, a thoroughly biblical ministry offering resources to help believers and churches deal with conflict. |
Pastoral Abuse | The conflict-centric culture in traditional churches is most severely focused on the pastors, especially if they dare attempt change. They are attacked in public and in private, their salaries and benefits are cut, and they are fired without cause. For more on enduring a long trial as a pastor, watch my lecture "Long Suffering Servants." |
Failure 2: Leading based on a worldly standard.
You will not find a single traditional pastor who will say he leads based on anything but the word of God (if you do, run). But when you compare their actual leadership to what we find in the New Testament, you quickly realize the Bible is secondary for many.
Without realizing it, most pastors use a combination of religious traditions, human wisdom, and business success to guide their leadership. Let me briefly define each of these.
Religious traditions: Things they've heard the Bible says but have never investigated themselves to be sure it actually does. Examples include assuming a church should be run by a single pastor, that deacons are leaders, or that a board of elders should be made up of influential people in the church.
Human wisdom: Things that make sense, seem logical, or come from life experience. Examples would be voting to make church decisions, placing women in leadership roles, or using the "slow and steady" or "give a little, get a little" approaches to change (see failure 3 and 4).
Business success: Things that work well in the marketplace. Many books have been written by pastors espousing the wisdom of successful business leaders. Examples include John Maxwell's leadership philosophy or Jim Collin's approach to organizational excellence.[2]
The problem with each of these is that they seldom line up with the Bible and are, in fact, often contrary to it. Christian leaders must gauge every decision, every policy, and every strategy on the actual teachings of the Bible, not what tradition, human wisdom, or business success suggest, no matter how wise they might sound.
Failure 3: Using the "slow and steady" approach to change.
Many pastors believe the best way to get a church from point A to point B is to make changes a little bit at a time over an extended period. While this strategy sounds wise, it fails on two counts.
First, the Bible does not allow it when the people are in total rebellion, as they are today.[3] God never gives his people the option to make slow and steady changes when they are sinning against him. He always demands change now.
When God sent Jeremiah to rebellious Judah during the Old Covenant, would he have been satisfied with one minor change at a time? And when he said, "Today, if you will hear His voice: 'Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion'" (Ps. 95:11), did he mean the only change he required on that day was a small, incremental change?
And when Jesus came on the scene, did he present his gospel as a little-here, little-there opportunity? "Hey, if you believe in me, you can keep most of your sin. Just repent of something small each day. All good." No, again. He demanded the people change right then, right there (Matt. 16:24, Mark 1:15). He, like the prophets before him, declared the Word and said, "Obey...now."
The second problem with this strategy is that it doesn't actually work. This is the great irony of this thinking. It sounds so wise, and in many areas of life, it is. But when you are dealing with fleshly, hard-hearted, self-centered people (which is most of the people in the church), you will get resistance to every change you suggest, no matter how small it is.
Trying to implement change slowly, therefore, only draws out the pain of implementing it and provides the enemy with more opportunities to derail it.
This does not mean, however, that we do not use wisdom in deciding which changes to make or how to go about making them. It also does not mean we have to be unnecessarily harsh or hurtful in what we say and do as we carry out these changes (see 2 Timothy 2:24-26 for admonitions in these areas).
But, once we have determined which change to make—significant, biblical change, mind you—we do not waiver from leading the people to make that change.
Failure 4: Using the "give a little, get a little" approach to change.
This failure is similar to 3 above. Here, in order to get one change implemented, the leader compromises on something else. The pastor wants to reduce the items on which the church votes, so, when he is resisted on that proposition, he offers to let a woman continue to teach a coed Sunday school class.
As before, the problem is twofold. First, the Bible does not allow a compromise. God's commands are what they are, and we cannot negotiate one form of obedience by allowing a separate form of disobedience to continue.
Second, it won't work in the long run. What we must realize is that those who resist change in the church don't want a slice of the pie—they want the whole thing. Therefore, giving in to them does not pacify them; it only gives them a greater foothold from which to fight you in the future.
Remember, the enemies of the kingdom didn't just want to defeat one of Jesus's teachings; they were hell-bent on defeating them all. And those who stand against biblical change in your church will do the same to you.
The key is to focus on faith in God in these situations. It may seem like everything is falling down around you. You are standing firmly on what the Bible says, requiring the people to submit to God's Word, but they are fighting you at every turn. You think there's no way you could ever make it through this, that the only outcome is a complete trainwreck.
But do not forget the power of God! He can and does work in incredible ways in what appears to us to be impossible situations. But nothing is impossible with him. Take your stand on what is right before him, and let him decide how and where the chips fall. He will work this out for your good (even if you are rejected by your people). Trust him with your life, and your ministry.
Failure 5: Allowing decisions to be influenced by what will happen to his job.
Many traditional pastors would like to implement the changes needed in their churches, but they are afraid if they do they might lose their jobs. This is a legitimate concern because pastors who buck the status quo often end up on the street.
But this is no excuse for not doing what you know to be right. Every man in the Bible who resisted the wickedness among the people was rejected, shunned, and persecuted. Jesus Christ himself was tortured and executed.
One of the reasons this is such an issue is that men rely on the church for their income. When the people you are trying to correct control your livelihood, it is much more difficult to say what you need to say and do what you need to do.
To overcome this, pastors must develop a secular career that will support them and their families.[4] This will not only provide better for them overall, but it will also take away one of Satan's tools used to prevent them from speaking out.
Also, keep in mind that faithfulness to Christ is the number one thing, not "success" in ministry. If we do what is right before the Lord and lose our job for it, the Lord will use that loss to develop us further and eventually give us a ministry we never could have dreamed of before.
(My own experience bears this out. The article you are reading right now, and this very site itself, is the result of many years of trying to be faithful even when it cost me dearly. If you want to hear more about what I have experienced in ministry, watch my message, "Long Suffering Servants.")
Summary
Leadership failure has led traditional churches to the brink of collapse. But those failures can be overcome. Use the points in this article to improve your leadership. Even if the church at large does not respond, you can, and God will reward that response by using you to make a lasting difference in your church.
OTHER RESOURCES:
*Please use these in your preaching and teaching ministry.
Saving the Traditional Southern Baptist Church: The Biblical Solution to the Crisis of Dying SBC Churches. By Wes Moore. Amazon.
Saving the American Church: 21 Keys to Reviving the Dying American Church. By Wes Moore. Amazon.
A Passion for Faithfulness: Wisdom from the Book of Nehemiah, 1995, by J.I. Packer. Amazon.
NOTES:
[1] Why would I mention socialism as a topic churches should address? Because socialism leads to poverty and oppression, and, as believers, we have a responsibility to care for the poor and protect the oppressed (James 1:27, Isaiah 58:-7). For more on why socialism creates both of these, see my article "An Introduction to Socialism."
[2] Thom Rainer on the inspiration for his book Breakout Churches: "The power of seeking to be great rather than good became clear when I read Jim Collins’ book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t..." With the encouragement of my publisher I elected to write a book on churches, modeled on the Good to Great framework.” (From Breakout Churches, 2005, pages 15-16.)
Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson on where a supposedly great church leader received his leadership influence: "Seneca explained that leadership expert John Maxwell was a key influence in his life. He stated, 'The Twenty-One Irrefutable Laws of Leadership helped mold me into the leader I am today.'" (From Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can, Too, 2007, 37.)
[3] The rebellion of Christians in traditional churches is really not debatable. See my list of biblical errors in an earlier section of this article.
[4] Full-time ministry has become an idol for some American preachers. They will sacrifice nearly anything to be in ministry as a full-time occupation. They will put their families in poverty and rely on government assistance to pay their bills, buy their food, and provide their family's medical care. This is unnecessary and extremely harmful to them and their families long-term. And it does not always guarantee an effective ministry, as many have seen.
God is destroying this idol as we speak. More and more churches have absolutely no way to support a pastor full time, so more men are having to look outside of the ministry for their income, which they should have been doing all along. While the Lord is pleased when we sacrifice for his kingdom, putting our families in abject poverty so we can "give our full time to the Lord" can be a sacrifice based more on our own desires than the Lord's.