Friday, February 15, 2013

 

Danger Signs

Ed Stetzer links to a piece from Thom Rainer who encapsulates stats from Christianity Today and comes up with "Eight Warning Signs for Forced Terminations of Pastors":
  • If the church had a recent church fight.
  • If the church is declining in attendance.
  • If the pastor’s sermon lasts between 11 and 20 minutes.
  • If your church has almost no men.
  • If the pastor is a woman.
  • If the pastor is young.
  • If the congregation is old.
  • If a slight majority of the congregation is poor.
Boy, fascinating stuff that - lots of analysis could go into such a list. But note that all the concerns are organizational, none are spiritual in nature. It would be fascinating to study churches where young or female pastors thrive and determine what the difference is. How do they buck the odds? See, I think it is only there that we will begin to really understand things.

Of course, I have a hypothesis.The churches that buck these odds do so because there are forces at play greater than the statistics. The only such force I know of is the Holy Spirit. Which tell me that if we spent less time focused on statistics and more time trying to achieve Christian maturity....
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# posted by John Schroeder @ 2/15/2013 06:00:00 AM
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