10 STUPID THINGS that keep churches from growing

Geoff Surratt, pastor of ministries at Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, wrote  Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches from Growing: How Leaders Can Overcome Costly Mistakes. Here are the 10 stupid things, according to Surratt, that keep churches from growing:

1. Leaders do it all
2. Establishing wrong role for the pastor’s family
3. Second rate worship experiences
4. Low quality children’s ministry
5. Promoting talent over integrity
6. Clinging to bad location
7. Copying another successful church
8. Favor discipline over reconciliation
9. Mixing ministry and business
10. Letting committees steer the ship

The Christian Post wrote this about #1 on the list (“Leaders do it all”):

Out of the 10 mistakes he covers, the most common and the first to be addressed in the book is “Trying to Do it All.”

A comical quote at the bottom of the chapter page cleverly conveys the problem that pastors often find themselves in: “Just because I’m the janitor doesn’t mean I can’t perform your wedding.”

“Pastors tend to default to doing everything themselves rather than working through people in the congregation,” Surratt explained to The Christian Post. “They take on a lot of different hats and wind up overworked and underproductive because of that.”

When Surratt was the pastor at Church on the Lake in Texas, a small church with less than 50 people when he took over, he was simultaneously the head pastor, Sunday school teacher, bookkeeper, worship director, administrative assistant, groundskeeper, maintenance man, and janitor for a time.

“As I look back on my time at Church on the Lake, I can’t help but wonder what I was thinking,” Surratt confesses. “Trying to do all (or most) of the work themselves is the number one stupid thing pastors and leaders do that inhibits their church from growing.”

Listen to Geoff Surratt and his wife Sherry discuss the book on Leadership Network’s The Show:

Rockbridge Seminary students may also benefit from:

• Ed Stetzer’s interview with Goeff Surratt
• Reading Goeff Surratt’s blog

Will the economy push churches to a “new normal” in resource allocation?

How are churches responding to the economy? Listen to the church bull session with Dave Travis, Reggie McNeal, and Chris Willard that appeared on Leadership Network’s The Show on May 12, 2009.

Highlights:

1. Scarcity leads to clarity
2. Some churches seeing largest offerings ever for community needs
3. Great opportunity to show the community you are not in the church but in the people business
4. Churches are reallocating resources in ways that may be permanent even after the recession is over.

Tim Stevens on his Leading Smart blog points out these highlights from a recently released study on the economy’s impact on nonprofits:

• 48% reported that their first quarter donations were down from the previous year.
• 44% froze salaries and 28% of the organizations had to reduce full-time positions.
• 32% believe this recession is unique and has caused permanent economic damage that is taking us into an undefined era of a “new normal.”

Download “The Recession’s Impact on Christian Nonprofit Organizations” produced by J. David Schmidt and Associates

Learning from leaders

The learning moments stand out in my mind.

Seminary. Chapel speakers. Guest lecturers. Leaders God was using. Ministries God was blessing.

Listening for clues. Trying to find the leadership model. Q & A. The leader glimpse. The ministry snapshot. Understanding ministry better.

More insights into my SHAPE. More focus in my journey.  

Today, in the digital world, Rockbridge Seminary students have many more opportunities to learn from leaders. For instance, Leadership Network is launching a 15 minute conversation with a different ministry leader every week. They call it “The Show: Strategic Conversations on the Church.” 

Their first guest will be Pastor Dino Rizzo. Read this brief bio. Is this someone you can learn from if you get to hang out with him for 15 minutes and ask a few questions? 

Dino is the founding pastor of Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana – a church with over 7,000 people in 11 campuses and 18 weekend services. HPC has been named one of America’s Top 25 Most Innovative Churches – a reflection of his overwhelming drive to reach the unreachable and to engage with others to show God’s love to the poor and hurting – wherever they are. His book, SERVOLUTION, exposes his passion to see believers join together in a revolution of serving others – Jesus style. Dino will be talking about the necessity of ‘reaching the one’ and the importance of ministering to people who are different than us.

Leadership Network is offering you an incredible opportunity to get a “leader glimpse” each week. An opportunity to learn about what God is doing in the Kindom. How He is using servant leaders. How He may want to use you. 

The Show website

Hat tip Mary Beth Stockdale