Items that Hinder Church Growth: Leadership Failure to Respect Time

Urban centers are fast pace with events happening all throughout the city every day, and Sunday is no exception.  Cities experience professional sports teams, concerts, conventions, etc nearly everyday of the week.  This causes the avid fans to make a hard decision, and sometimes the length of a service becomes the determining factor for attending.  Some urban churches become proactive in helping members and guest attend.  One church I know located near a stadium where professional football games often start at 1:00 pm, has timed their worship to end at 11:30 a.m.  When games are being played at 1:00 pm, they throw a big “tailgate party” in the parking lot allowing worshippers to eat and still make it into the stadium for the kickoff.  Members and guest can attend worship and not feel the need to skip church to make the game.

Churches can fight against urban social events, or use the events to advance the cause of Christ, taking advantage of the event for outreach opportunities.  Worship leaders need to understand the urban mindset of worshippers.  Churchgoers want:

•  worship and discipleship at times convenient for them.
•  accessible parking and ease of entrance, with no waiting, lines, or delays.
• greeters, ushers, and staff that are polite and efficient.
• their worship leaders to be well educated.
• up to date with use of technology in worship and teaching.
• able to equip correctly interpret and mentor Scriptural application to modern urban life.
• all worship and discipleship to be accessible and high quality.
• to use technology to communicate events and happening in real time.
• accessibility to staff 24-7

In summary, churchgoers want convenience, quality, and technology blended into services and training.  Pastors and staff want better pay, better working conditions, and personal recognition, but often resist learning new technology, continuing education, and “putting themselves out there” to meet the needs of city dwellers.

Urban families have numerous demands that pastors should take into consideration.  Divorced parents often are shuffling children back and forth between parents, many people work on days of worship, and household chores demand much of the weekend time.  In the case of my wife and me, we find ourselves squeezing in time with our adult children and their families, household chores, and serving as power of attorney for my mother who is in the later stages of Alzheimer’s.   

When pastors fail to understand and respect the worshipper’s time constraints, the pastor hinders the growth of the church.  Urban churches must creatively develop unique ways to allow members and guests to worship and to experience discipleship training.  Churches must not make worshippers feel bad when they are unable to attend a set time of worship.  The key is to offer more worship times, not less, to develop online discipleship training tools, and to create Bible Study and fellowship times very throughout the week.

The problem with dying churches, especially in urban areas, has more to do with church leadership making bad leadership decisions than any other single factor.  Churches can no longer expect the faith community to fit restrictive preset times and structure and must embrace flexible efficiency in order to experience growth.

So what do you do if your leadership does not respect your time or makes you and others feel guilty that you cannot make or stay for events?  First, commit this issue to the Lord in prayer.  Continue to pray until the Lord gives you a clear directive.  Second, talk with the pastor about your personal time restraint.  Be truthful with both yourself and the pastor.  Sometimes the hardest part is being truthful with oneself, but it is never easy speaking with the pastor about such matters.  Some pastors think they have more to say than they really do, while others think that what they have to say is more important than anything else.  Third, take the information gleaned from your conversation with the pastor and continue to pray concerning it.  Continue praying until the Lord gives you another clear directive.  Fourth, when the Lord speaks to you, act on His directive.  Often the Lord directs a person to leave their current church instead of creating a major issue.  Remember, God deals harshly with those who raise their hand against God’s anointed.  On the other hand, you may discover that your pastor is already aware of the issue and he may enlist you to help resolve the issue.  If this is the case, be patient, change takes time.