Ministers, believe it or not, do have their faults. And some of those faults can have serious consequences on church growth. Put them all together in one pastor and they spell "How to Lose Out."
If you recognize yourself in more than one or two of the following situations, chances are you're right up there in the spelling bee—and right down there in church growth!
1. Tom, a prospective church member, is, in your opinion, a grouch. Even if he joined your congregation, St. Luke's, you are convinced that his influence would be negative.
(Tom joined St. Andrew's church, where he became the jovial superintendent of the Sunday school. Maybe Tom was never a grouch at all.)
2. Sam is a tightwad. When he does attend St. Luke's—rarely—he drops a dollar into the offering plate. You're sure nobody but nobody could get him to make a substantial contribution.
(But Sam contributed a generous $2,000 to the hospital drive.)
3. Ray, you conclude, is not yet ready to join the church. So you won't make the mistake of rushing him. You'll try him on Christmas or Easter, when the psychology of the season will be working for you.
(Oops! Ray joined St. John's just down the block last Sunday. Said some thing about being impressed he shouldn't delay his commitment to Christ any longer.) .
4. Soon after you became pastor of St. Luke's, you visited old Mrs. Palmerson, a widow, and sized her up as a nonentity so far as the church is concerned. Her house and neighborhood indicated that she really didn't belong at St. Luke's—though her name had been on the books for forty years.
(Mrs. Palmerson proved to be far more influential than her surroundings indicated, with a wide circle of friends and more than enough money for a new home, had she not preferred her old neighborhood.)
5. You really didn't try very hard to interest Oswald in St. Luke's when he transferred to your city. As vice-president of a manufacturing company, he would undoubtedly want to join a more fashionable congregation.
(But Oswald's father is pastor of a small congregation in Hicksville. Oswald likes small churches, as you found when you learned he had joined a small church of your denomination in a nearby suburb. Oswald explained to his new pastor that he liked both St. Matthew's and St. Luke's, because they were so much like his father's church, but that St. Luke's didn't really seem interested in him.)
6. Laura was a good prospective member. You determined to call on her next time you were in her area.
(And you did—a month later—only to find that the pastor of Faith Church had gotten there first.)
7. Your colleague Jonathan, of Grace church, is a very fortunate fellow. He has a big church, and it is growing. People just naturally seem to join Grace.
(Truth is, things don't just happen naturally at Grace. Jonathan is a worker, planner, enabler, and fulfiller. He comes through.)
Maybe there's a message here that should come through, too. Monday mornings are a good time for a pastor to evaluate his performance. I'm typing this on a Monday morning—early!
