CHURCH GROWTH (11)

 Why Churches Die (4)

Lukewarmness/Unfaithfulness

Mike Johnson

There are many negative factors, which may exist in a congregation, which pertain to the spirituality of its members.  Over time, these factors will cause the congregation to die.  For example, a group may die because it does not receive sound preaching and teaching.  It may die because there is a leadership problem or because of a failure to evangelize.  Also, any congregation which consists of members who are lukewarm, spiritually weak, and unfaithful is doomed to failure.

The Bible teaches that Christians are to grow and mature spiritually (II Pet. 1:5-10, 3:18). Additionally, they are to serve God zealously.  In Romans 12:11, Paul admonished the early Christians, “Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord” (NRSV).  A lukewarm Christian is not acceptable to the Lord.  To the church at Laodicea, Jesus said, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”  (Rev. 3:16).

Many congregations, instead of experiencing the spiritual growth which the Bible requires (Heb. 5:11-12), will grow weaker and weaker.  Congregations may consist of a large number of people who have been Christians for many years and yet have never grown, as they should. The congregation will then typically be lacking in its dedication to God and will often dwindle with time.  Spiritual weakness is further seen by the number of members who do not faithfully attend services, as the Bible teaches, they should (Heb. 10:25).  For example, some may attend diligently the Sunday morning service, which has the serving of the Lord’s Supper but lack the conscientiousness to attend other services.  Then some occupy a pew at every service but do little else in serving God.

A congregation, which consists of many people who are not growing spiritually, will usually not grow very much numerically.  Christians who have become lukewarm add very little to the well-being of a congregation.  When members quit attending at all or attend sporadically, they negatively affect the spiritual health of the group.

Faithful Christians have the essential responsibility of trying to restore, with an attitude of meekness, the unfaithful member (Gal. 6:1, Jas. 5:19-20).  Sadly, most congregations have very few people who are willing to do this. Restoring the erring is typically an unpleasant task, as the erring may not appreciate the attempts made to restore them.  Sometimes, if efforts to restore them do not go well, critics within the congregation may surface.  Ironically, often these critics will not attempt to help in this endeavor themselves, but they will not hesitate to criticize others who try.  We ought to try to restore the erring simply because God says we ought to, but restoring the erring is also one way to make a congregation grow.  Most congregations have significant numbers of lukewarm or inactive members.  Our efforts toward these might result in some of them returning to the Lord.

Without a doubt, a congregation’s strength is impacted over time by members who are lukewarm and by those who have completely fallen away.  Those who are in this state need to repent and turn back to God.  Those who are “spiritual” (Gal. 6:1) must do everything they can to restore the erring.