We have a serious problem; the church is in deep trouble

I recently encountered a man wearing a T-shirt that stated, in bold letters, “Worn by someone who doesn’t like the church.” I had never seen something like that before, but I did know that there are many people in our country who are down on the church.

Many of the law enforcement officers today do not go to church and are not very happy with the church. Nevertheless, they strongly believe in God. It sounds like a paradox, but it isn’t. A lot of the people they have to deal with are church members — people who are not doing a very good job of representing their Christian beliefs in the world. For law enforcement officers, they are no better than anyone else. Frankly, that’s a sad commentary on the church.

It gets worse. According to a doctoral student (also a minister) working on his doctoral project (Nate Marsh, associate executive minister of American Baptists Churches of the Central Region: Vol. 113, No. 10), the statistics gathered from Focus on the Family, Barna, Pastor to Pastor, and Ministry Today reveal the church is in deep trouble. Here are his most recent statistics regarding pastors:

• 1,500 pastors leave the ministry each month due to moral failure, spiritual burnout or contention with other churches.

• 50 percent of pastors’ marriages will end in divorce.

• 80 percent of pastors and 84 percent of their spouses feel unqualified and discouraged in their role as pastors.

• 50 percent of pastors are so discouraged that they would leave the ministry if they could but have no other way of making a living.

• 80 percent of seminary and Bible school graduates who enter the ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.

• 90 percent of pastors said their seminary or

Bible School training did only a fair to poor job preparing them for ministry.

• 90 percent said the ministry was completely different than what they thought it would be before they entered the ministry.

• 70 percent felt God called them to pastoral ministry before their ministry began, but after three years of ministry, only 50 percent still felt called.

• 85 percent of pastors said their greatest problem is they are sick and tired of dealing with problem people, such as disgruntled elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors.

• 90 percent said the hardest thing about ministry is dealing with uncooperative people.

• 70 percent of pastors feel grossly underpaid.

In addition to the above statistics, Marsh states that his research shows that there is an average of 94 percent of the churches today that are in a steady decline with around 7,000 churches closing their doors each year.

Obviously, we have a serious problem here. Most of us also know of churches that are well and growing. So, why is this? Why are some churches declining and others growing? I’m sure each church member has his or her own explanation, but there are several major groups that seriously study these things and regularly report on their findings.

Churches that are growing espouse a specific vision that originates with the pastor and is affirmed by the congregation. It used to be that most evangelical churches clearly felt the need to reach people for salvation through Jesus Christ was that vision. However, today there are a great many visions that churches have that are vastly different. Some proclaim themselves as strong adherents of the Bible (not necessarily the same as reaching people for Jesus Christ), and their pastors spend most of their time elaborating upon biblical teachings but not upon how they apply to life today. Others focus upon helping others, expressing God’s love, supporting one another in fellowship, and doing mission (e.g. having someone else do the outreach of the church).

Regardless, the Bible is specific when it says that without a vision the people perish.

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