If John Maxwell’s maxim was correct that everything rises and falls with leadership, than what leadership role is to blame for the USA/Canada Church of the Nazarene falling attendance? The six General Superintendents? The 78 District Superintendents? The 11,003 elders in USA/Canada? All of the church boards and Sunday School Superintendents across the country? You? Me?
Yes.
We are to blame. All the people who call themselves Nazarenes could look in the mirror and ask, “what more could I do?”
We can talk about broken systems and less than qualified people in various roles. I have had church leaders lie in my presence; be enraged for no reason; display a lack of holiness and the opposite of every aspect of the fruit of the spirit. I can name leaders who’s record would indicate that they have no business being in a leadership role, but they are. I’ve seen church politics, nepotism and the tit for tat happenings for years. You have your stories of bad leaders too. Still, we must all accept some responsibility for declining numbers.
Of course, it is harder to pastor these days. Yes, social media stinks. Our culture is circling the drain. There is an angst than has never existed. A recent poll says most young people have left the church because of church hypocrisy. You can read the survey here. We know the survey is true, even casual observers have seen hypocrisy in the church. It’s harder to reach people these days. Who doesn’t know that? It does not negate this overwhelming truth: people still need Jesus.
Are we doing everything we can to help people find Jesus? Are we working as if the King were coming tomorrow? Are we? Am I?
HONESTY ALERT: I can work harder. I can try more. I can pray more. I can and I must. You can too. This isn’t a guilt trip. It’s reality. People need Jesus. Lots of people need Jesus. The road is wide that leads to destruction (Jesus’ words, not mine). While we are doing more important things (that was sarcasm), people are dying without Him. There is nothing more important than people discovering Jesus. Nothing.
Past generations took evangelism seriously. We are not universalists (everyone makes it to heaven) but if our attitudes towards the lost and dying around us is an indicator we might as well be. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. You know the verses. They are still true.
Who is to blame for the lack of evangelism? We are. We all are. Don’t complain about the denomination, the GSs, the DSs or pastors. Take a plate of cookies to a neighbor and begin the long hard work of earning the right to share the good news of Jesus Christ! Don’t be hypocritical. Live out a real, authentic faith, then invite friends to dinner or coffee and eventually church.
It’s not the pastor’s job alone to be an evangelist. It’s all of our job. What are we doing about our friends, neighbors and family members who are walking on the wide road. Past generations worked hard to get those folks on a different path, the narrow road.
What are we going to do about it?
My Two Cent Offering 
Dear Pastor Prince – Wonderful article. Convicting, loving, tough, gentle and real. Thank you!
In the financial world, when a company gets this bad, they file for bankruptcy (a reorganization process). Bankruptcy proceedings do not necessarily mean the end for a company, it could mean re-organization or re-structuring. It does not mean “business as usual.” The CoTN has reached, at some point, a “bankruptcy of mission.” We will need collectively come to a conclusion as to our way forward. Like American Politics we are of two-minds. On the one hand, we have Progressives, meaning those that want change (this is also the non pejorative definition of radical) and on the other hand we have Conservors or conservatives, who want things to either not change or to return to “the good old days.” (The non pejorative definition of this leaning is called reactive). The danger, is that neither group has the correct answer and I think that both groups, together, can form a whole, correct answer for a way forward for the CoTN. But first, we have to listen to each other.
Good article. We always need a reminder. But having lived (endured) the nonsense, hype and hustle of the church growth movement over my time as a pastor I can say with conviction that that approach was a mistake–and worse than a mistake, because it pressured pastors to go light on deep truths in the name of being relevant and practical, as well as putting an unnecessary guilt trip on them if they didn’t have the numbers. The church growth movement gave us neither growth nor depth. It seemed to me an invasion of a business ethos into the church, which is not a business.
A return to that kind of thing is definately not the answer.
The church needs to be the best that it can be, that’s our responsibility. But, have to say, the level of resistance and evasions of the unsaved seems pretty high today. Individuals bear ultimate responsibility for the state of their souls. It’s up to them to receive God’s offer.