Thousands of churches are losing members at an alarming rate, even in the Bible Belt.
Thom Rainer, writing for the Christian Post offers 8 reasons why churches are in trouble:
First, They don’t recognize the decline in cultural Christianity. They are often angered when someone suggests they make methodological and stylistic changes.
Next, They have many “church rules” such as attire worn on Sunday, or times of worship, or inconsequential polity issues.
Third, They have leaders who have never led in a highly unchurched mission field. Birmingham and Nashville, in that regard, are looking more like Spokane and Boston.
Another reason, They confuse traditions with truth. When our churches equate biblical teachings with some of the bylaws and processes of the church, the congregation is in big trouble.
Fifth, They do outreach the way they’ve always done it. Rainer notes, these churches think if Tuesday night visitation was effective in 1975, it should be effective in 2016.
Sixth, They have significant conflict due to frustration. They want their old church back, but it’s not coming back.
Next, They are very slow to respond. Their internal culture moves at a much slower pace than the community around them.
And finally, they have significant facility challenges. Many of these churches were built for one big crowd one day a week, one hour a week.