Five Ways to Kill Your Church

1. Don’t Come.  One of the biggest killers of local churches is when its very own members don’t attend.  They find excuse after excuse as to why they can’t come to church on the Lord’s Day. 

Just miss church weeks at a time and then expect it to be there when you decide to come back – as if others are supposed to carry the load and keep it going. (See Hebrews 10:25 to see what God expects of you).

2.  Only Show Up When the Weather is Good.  You go to work on Monday when it’s raining. Right?  So, why do you skip worship services when it rains on Sunday?  And why do you miss when the sun is shining?  To go to the beach and work on your tan?  Try telling that to God at the Judgment Bar.

We have produced a culture of “fair weather” Christians who only show up when everything is going right in their lives.  The moment a storm hits their life, they get mad at God, the pastor, or the church.  They actually believe (and brazenly so) that church services are “about them” and what they can “get out of it” when they “need it” rather than what they can consistently give the Lord.

3.  Find Fault with Everyone and Everything.  Most homicide investigations begin by researching those who had something negative to say about the victim. Similarly, when a church dies, you can be sure that the fault-finders are prime suspects. These are the folks who sit “in the seat of the scornful” (Psalm 1:1).

Fault-finders can always SPOT a problem, but they never SOLVE a problem. They are definitely church killers.

4.  Hold Back on your Giving to the Lord.  It takes money to do ministry – especially to do mercy ministries to the unchurched and the undeserved in our community.

Don’t punish the Body of Christ (and the work it is able to accomplish) because of your own lack of financial support.

Some people say, “All the church wants is your money.”  Yea, so what?  The same could be said of WalMart or the movie theater (or any other place), yet you keep spending your money there.  You spend your money at the places that are important enough.  Plain and simple.

It boils down to a choice of priories.  Do you want to see your church survive or go under?  Do you want to lay up treasures in heaven for yourself, or spend your money on things that rust away?

5. Don’t Reach Out to Unchurched People.  The first half of the Great Commission is to reach those who are far from God.  The people in the pews must take ownership of that duty and become “mini-churches” that witness to the unchurched every day of the week and bring them to the Lord’s House to be discipled.

New people bring a new life and vibrancy.  They ensure the church doesn’t get stuck in the old way of doing things.  It helps keep a church alive and moving forward.