Church advice from a successful consultant

Paul Borden has led a remarkable regional transformation of American Baptist Churches (ABC). ABC of the West was in sharp numeric decline for years. I forget the exact statistic but about 95% of the churches were in decline. (I should note that this is not unusual for an established US Denominational region. In fact, ABC of the West might not have been as desperate as most situations.) But in any terms 95% in decline is a problem. Then Paul Borden stepped in. Within a decade most of the churches are now growing in number and lots of new churches have been started. In Assaulting the Gates, he writes about his consulting process. He's written other books targeted at the individual church or pastor. I recommend Hit the Bullseye. But for now I'm going to share some quotes from Assaulting the Gates.

I'm not endorsing everything here, but it's all provocative. Just think for a moment about the emphasis on numbers. Should the church be this focused on numbers? (I'm going to do a follow up post on this next week.)

* The economic teachings of capitalism, which have done so much to produce such a strong nation, have at the same time contributed to the decline of the church. The result is a church filled with people who are proud to be identified with Jesus Christ, yet who in their behaviors are far more concerned with having their needs and those of their families met than reaching those who are spiritually lost and separated fro$m  God.

* Time after time I and many others have taught that the turnaround in the congregations of our region only happened as we began to focus more on others than on ourselves. Every time I teach  this truth, I hear, "But what about us? What about our needs? What  are you doing to help the Christians?" I have come to learn that we  American Christians will reflexively make sure our needs are met, because after all, at our very core we are all consumers.

* the church  of Jesus Christ is to be militant against sin, the forces of evil, and  unrighteous systems; we have forgotten that the church is called to  convert those who use such systems to create injustice, war, and  the great inequities of civilization.

* [one problem in many of our churches is that] peace is a higher value in God's church than mission.

* The groups of congregations most resistant to change are the ones that still have dollars or assets they can use....

* We believe God did not design the church of Jesus Christ for  Christians. Rather, we believe that God designed the church to  mobilize Christians to attack the gates of hell.

* the vision and all behaviors of  the congregation must be evaluated in relation to how well the Great  Commission is being implemented in the life of the congregation.

* I always begin with …basic assumptions that are foundational to teaching and communicating about change. The first comes from creation: everything that is healthy grows.

* Growth does not prove health, but the lack  of growth clearly proves unhealthiness.

* The assumption is that small congregations of two hundred or less in worship (which is the large  majority of all congregations in our nation) are small because they  are designed to be small. Large congregations (more than two hundred in worship) are larger because they are designed to be large.  We have learned that the only way small congregations can become larger is to act like large congregations while they are small. In  other words they must act the size they want to become.

One key question for Intl Church is what does that larger congregation that we are called to become look like.

* every ministry in the congregation must demonstrate how they  are actually helping make new disciples.

* All congregations, regardless of size, must act like they are functioning with  hundreds or thousands of people in attendance.