Monday, July 13, 2015
How About Their Churches Fail?
Thom Rainer writes a pretty good list of "Symptoms of Toxic Church Leaders." My fav:
Now, churches are funny things. Failure does not necessarily mean that they dry up and go away, although eventually that happens. Churches "fail in place" every day. Is the church cliquish? Do people come and go rapidly? Is the church producing disciples or just attenders? These are signs of failure even if the church some how manages to take in money and pay staff and therefore keep operating.
The purpose of the church is not to survive. The purpose of the church is not even to thrive. The purpose of the church is to grow, and not merely in adherents, but in maturity. Anything less is failure.
church failure success
They say one thing to some people, but different things to others. This is a soft way of saying they lie.Yet this list ignores the most obvious symptom - toxic leaders at best produce toxic churches, which will eventually fail.
Now, churches are funny things. Failure does not necessarily mean that they dry up and go away, although eventually that happens. Churches "fail in place" every day. Is the church cliquish? Do people come and go rapidly? Is the church producing disciples or just attenders? These are signs of failure even if the church some how manages to take in money and pay staff and therefore keep operating.
The purpose of the church is not to survive. The purpose of the church is not even to thrive. The purpose of the church is to grow, and not merely in adherents, but in maturity. Anything less is failure.
church failure success
