{"id":18888,"date":"2016-09-12T19:56:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T23:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=18888"},"modified":"2016-09-13T19:54:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T23:54:13","slug":"how-mad-are-you-that-your-church-has-plateaued-or-declined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2016\/09\/12\/how-mad-are-you-that-your-church-has-plateaued-or-declined\/","title":{"rendered":"How Mad Are You That Your Church Has Plateaued Or Declined?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s go back five years to September 12th, 2011.<\/strong> \u00a0You analyze the attendance numbers of your suburban church. \u00a0You run 500 in attendance with annual giving of $750,000. \u00a0Your evaluation is you have a good, solid church where lives are being changed. \u00a0Great things appear to be ahead for this congregation.<\/p>\n

Now let’s return to today. \u00a0It is September 12th, 2016<\/strong> and you revisit your numbers. \u00a0You still run 500 in attendance with annual giving is now $825,000. \u00a0Giving has slightly increased but you have not grown by a single person. \u00a0You have people coming in the front door and exiting out the back door but the net growth is zero.<\/p>\n

After five years of ministry, how does a net growth of zero make you feel?<\/strong> \u00a0Before reading any further, just take a moment and write down your thoughts.<\/p>\n

After processing your feelings, some of you may go into your next staff meeting and focus on the things God HAS done through your ministry. \u00a0You will talk about the baptisms, restored marriages and freedom from addictions. \u00a0You will discuss how grateful you are for your staff and their hard work. \u00a0Then you will pray for revival and open doors in your community.<\/p>\n

Or……………….<\/strong><\/p>\n

You will walk into your staff meeting and say, “In the last five years, the people of this church have entrusted us with over $4 million of their hard-earned dollars and their investment has yielded a net of ABSOLUTELY ZERO in terms of growth. \u00a0If you were in the marketplace and someone invested $4 million in your business and the next growth was zero, what would you think they would say? \u00a0Do you think they would invest any more dollars? \u00a0Would you expect them to invest any more? \u00a0Worse yet, should we be entrusted with anymore of their hard-earned resources or should they invest it elsewhere? \u00a0Something is going to change right now! \u00a0We have not been good stewards of what we have been entrusted with. \u00a0This is unacceptable!” \u00a0It would be your church’s version of Jesus overturning tables.<\/p>\n

Which describes you? \u00a0How concerned are you? \u00a0How mad are you? \u00a0How would you handle this situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This posts is not meant to encourage or discourage anyone. \u00a0It is simply a numerical reminder that evaluation, accountability and the need for change are constant requirements for those in church leadership<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you are stuck as a ministry and wanting to grow, I recommend you contact Tony Morgan<\/a>, Mark Meyer<\/a> and the team at The Unstuck Group<\/a>\u00a0by clicking HERE<\/a>. \u00a0They can analyze your ministry and help you regain lost momentum. \u00a0I am rooting for you because your mission and vision is too important to remain stagnant.<\/p>\n

\"1269\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click\u00a0HERE<\/a>\u00a0or on the image to the left and as a free gift for subscribing to this site, you can receive\u00a0my new Ebook\u00a01269 Leadership Quotes: Timeless Truths From 2016\u2019s Top Christian Leadership Conferences<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. \u00a0Featured are the Johnny Hunt Mens Conference, ReThink Leadership, Orange and Leadercast Conferences among others. \u00a0If applied, these insights will make you an exponentially better leader. \u00a0Enjoy!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s go back five years to September 12th, 2011. \u00a0You analyze the attendance numbers of your suburban church. \u00a0You run 500 in attendance with annual giving of $750,000. \u00a0Your evaluation is you have a good, solid church where lives are being changed. \u00a0Great things appear to be ahead for this congregation. Now let’s return to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[259,346],"class_list":["post-18888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-leadership","tag-leadership","tag-pastors"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pexels-photo-medium.jpeg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18888"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18903,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18888\/revisions\/18903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}