Excerpt from “Resurrecting the Dead Church”

The following is an excerpt from Frank Fears’ Resurrecting the Dead Church.  It is a quick read that is well worth the short amount of time that it takes to work through.  You can find the book at www.thedeadchurch.com.

It is no mystery why “harvested” Christians are rare.  For decades, most churches have settled for transfer increase rather than growth.  We have augmented that “increase”, by reaching a percentage of our biological issue.  Numerical increase by “sheep swapping” does nothing to extend the kingdom.  Actual conversion grown churches are virtually non-existent.  And reaching our own children is scarcely working the fields which Jesus described as white unto harvest.  While training our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord is our responsibility, the gospel was never meant to be kept a family secret.  We have hoarded what we were told to share.  Refusal to obey the Great Commission is a blatant and shameful denial of our Lord and Savior.  Peter’s denial of Christ was rooted in fear; ours is rooted in apathy.  The pain that our denial causes Christ is no less.  The sin of silence is a cancer that has corrupted our communion with God.  It quenches the Spirit, as perhaps nothing else can.  And we have embraced it.  It has permeated our churches by default, and by open acceptance.  Dead churches are the poisonous fruit of that sin.

Ultimately, the state of any church is the responsibility of the leadership.  “Swapping sheep” and dunking children too small to cross the street unattended is what passes for leadership in most churches.  The “consumer Christianity” mindset has as its priority the entertainment and attraction of members from other churches.  The growth of one congregation is at the expense of others; we redistribute instead of multiply.  The definition of a growing church is one that is attracting more members than are currently wandering off.  Success is measured by how many attend,  how much is collected, and how enthused most are about the “awesome” music, “awesome” building, “awesome” programs, and “awesome” friendliness found at one’s church.

Christ’s priority of seeking and saving the lost is only given lip service.  Feeding the sheep is secondary to entertaining the goats.  Long forgotten is the overarching responsibility of pastor-teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles.  All those offices had a common function, in addition to their individual roles.  Ephesians 4:12 tells us that they are to jointly, and in tandem, do something essential to the life of the church, and to the extension of the kingdom.  They are instructed to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.  After equipping it falls to leadership to mobilize, encourage, and to lead by example.  Church leaders were never meant to be the “professional” Christians; to do all the sharing and all the caring.  The instruction was to equip; to perfect, as in bring to reproductive maturity.  Only then is it possible to lead by example.

~ by Zane Officer on October 25, 2008.