The Aubrey Malphurs Group posted the following list in their Church Revitalization Podcast, Episode 175: "Five Lies Churches Tell Themselves."
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1."We are known for being friendly." Are you a church that is friendly towards guests, or are you just friendly towards each other? I've sat in many a pew and chair as a guest on a Sunday morning and witnessed lots of friendly people enjoying the company of one another. For some reason I was invisible. Thirty seconds of "stand and greet those around you" doesn't count unless you're trying to impress me with your congregation's ability to follow orders.
2. "We are a church where people come to heal." This is one we hear when there's a lack of volunteers to help ministries thrive and prevent burnout of a few committed people. Church hurts are a real thing for a lot of people, but allowing people to be anonymous or even encouraging it is not a universal best-practice of healing. Encouraging them to engage with healthy people and serving in healthy ministries, however, is a great way to show people that not every church is unhealthy and that fellowshipping with other believers can be a wonderful way to work through our problems.
3. "We are good at maturing disciples." Jesus said (commanded), "Go and make disciples of all nations." He followed that with, "Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you." If the disciples in your church aren't becoming disciples-makers themselves, then you cannot brag about building mature disciples. What the phrase usually means is that the church is good at increasing bible knowledge in people. That's not unimportant by any means! But, we're to teach people to obey Christ's commands, not just know them. It requires a lot more intentionality, hard work, evaluation, and changes to ministries to move people toward obedience and not just knowledge.
4. "We can't grow because of our demographics or location." Very few churches really get to claim that. Ninety-nine percent are avoiding the reality that they have likely retreated into themselves instead of seeking to reach the world around them with the Gospel. Maybe you are in a bad location, but work first on alignment with healthy, biblical principles for discipleship and evangelism, and then decide if a move is in order. Otherwise, you could end up being the same unhealthy church with a new address on your website.
5. "We would lose half our church if we changed." Funny how the number is always exactly "half." This is an uninformed and fear-based response to change. It's uninformed because it's a knee-jerk response to an idea, not a logical conclusion after consideration of facts. It's fear-based because change can be scary for a lot of people. Telling a Methodist congregation that the plan is to become Pentecostal would certainly yield far more than half the church leaving. Telling any bible-believing church that you're making a change to a worship service or Sunday School class in order to come into greater alignment with Scripture and work towards a great vision for the future in making disciples of Jesus might turn a few people off, but you'll weather that non-event just fine.
I have heard all these in a variety of congregations, but would also add a couple of my own.
6. We are a healthy church. The reality is, 80% or more of all churches in North America are not healthy, in fact, they are either plateauing in growth or declining in attendance. It is our tendency to just assume our church is healthy if the gospel is preached and the "right" programs are offered. Many of us are in denial about our church being on the downward side of the church life cycle. Most churches need to undergo a church health checkup to see how healthy or unhealthy they really are. Instead of assuming your church is healthy, find out what about your church needs to be improved or eliminated in order to become what God wants it to be and do.
7. We are a mission-minded church. A mission-minded church does more than just send or support a handful of missionaries to do missions or missional work. And its members and leaders do more than just point to the percentage of their budget it uses to support missionaries, even if that budget number is 20% of the total operating budget. Holding a great annual missions conference doesn't even prove that your church is mission-minded. A true mission-minded church has the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) and the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:34-40) at the heart of what it is and does. All of its members are on mission 24/7/365, and all of its ministries are missional, that is, they send their members out to show the love and message of Christ to their own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). That's a mission-minded church!
What else can you add to what you've heard about your church or other churches that cannot be proven to be true?
[Photo by Taras Chernus on Unsplash]