22 Realities For Pastors Leading A Plateaued Or Declining Church

More than four out of five North American churches are plateaued or declining.  Many are led by pastors who truly love God, pray fervently, and reside in communities desperately needing salvation through the person of Jesus Christ.  Yet, growth and life change are taking place at unacceptable rates.
Recently, I began a relationship with the Willow Creek Association to promote the 2016 Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in August..  Each of us desperately want to see this trend reversed and are providing you the tools and resources needed to do so.
Shown above is a powerful teaching session from Willow Creek Community Church pastor Bill Hybels on leading a plateaued church.  Below are the key takeaways I gleaned from his session.  After watching the video and reading the lessons provided, there is a special FREE resource and invitation to this year’s Summit to help you improve as a pastor and church leader.
The following are 22 Realities For Pastors Leading A Plateaued Or Declining Church.  All quotes are from Bill.  Make sure you discuss these learnings at your next staff meeting.

1. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Fight Feeling OK Or Normal – “It’s OK.  It’s not exciting.  It’s not going to break but it’s not setting records.  It feels normal.”
2. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Develop A Sense Of Holy Frustration – “How does this make you feel as a leader? …Holy frustration.”
3. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Look Inward First – “You get to the point where ‘Am I the only one who is tormented by the fact that we’re burning through all these resources and we’re holding all these services and we’re having all this volunteerism and we’re static?'”
4. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Then Look At Others Second – “How come no one else is worried or frustrated about this?”
5. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Revisit The Scriptures – “How does scriptural language (ex. Romans 8 – If God is for us…) match up with static reality?”
6. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Personally Lead The Turnaround – “We have never come out of one of these (period of plateaued growth) until I got so unbelievably frustrated.”
7. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Begin Investing In Their Leaders – “I took my key leaders somewhere.”
8. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Take A Cold, Hard Look At The Facts – “I got all kinds of data.”
9. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Are Blowing Through God’s Money – “Last year we blew through $35 million of God’s money, we held all these services, we paid all these salaries, and our attendance has not budged an inch.”
10. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Are Not Seeing Significant Life Change – “We didn’t baptize more people this year than we did the year before.”
11. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Should Be Mad – “I’m mad at this (plateau).  I’m not mad at you (staff).”
12. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Shout “NO MORE!” – “I don’t think in church work you can break out of this (plateau) until somebody gets riled up and just goes, “No more!  There just has to be a better way!'”
13. Pastoring A Plateaued Or Declining Church Is Not What God Imagined – “If after 12 months, if all this prayer and all this effort is leading to a consistent flatline, this isn’t what I think scripture imagines.”
14. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Arouse Passion In Others – “You have to arouse passion here (during times of plateau).”
15. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Create A Sense Of Urgency – “You have to create a sense of urgency here.”
16. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Not Settle For Plateaued Growth – “People have to feel your unwillingness to settle in to this kind of nonsense.”
17. God Wants Better For Plateaued Or Declining Churches – “God would want better for this church.  You and I, in our honest moments, would want more transformation than this.”
18. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Develop A Plan For Growth – “There’s always a plan.  What’s it going to take?”
19. Pastoring A Plateaued Or Declining Church Could Be Bad Stewardship – “I’m not going to spend a number of years presiding over a flat line.”
20. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Must Have Candid Conversations – “It starts when someone has the candor to call it a flat line and exhibits some total holy frustration.”
21. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches May Have The Wrong Staff – “If you’re happy with this you’re on the wrong staff because I’m not happy with this.”
22. Pastors Of Plateaued Or Declining Churches Can Do Better – “And (I) think with God’s power we can do better.”

If you are looking for practical tools for initiating church growth, click HERE for a FREE copy of Bill Hybels’ 6 by 6 Strategy For Leadership.  This complimentary ebook will help you identify your 6 most strategic goals and adopt best practices for accomplishing your goals in the next 6 weeks.  No resource will help you be more effective!
I hope to see you at this year’s Summit.  You can see the conference faculty and register at WillowCreek.com/Summit.  Super early bird rates will expire May 24th.

Click HERE or on the image to the left and as a free gift for subscribing to this site, you can receive my new Ebook 1869 Leadership Quotes: Timeless Truths From 2015 Global Leadership Summit, That Church, REACT and Catalyst Conferences.  If applied, these insights will make you an exponentially better leader.  Enjoy!!!