Why New Churches Fail

The following is an insightful article by James Emery White

Too many churches race head first into no-man’s-land, and then languish, never breaking through the critical growth barriers necessary to flourish.

Every year, over 1 million people in this country start a business. Forty percent of them will close by the end of the first year. Within 5 years, more than 80 percent of them will fail. Of the 20 percent that make it past the first 5 years, 80 percent won’t make it past the second 5.

The statistics are about the same for new churches, and church-planting studies with denominations bear this out. Just as there are reasons why new businesses fail, there are reasons for new church failures. Having worked with church planters for several years and having planted a new church, I have seen some common problems in churches that fail or do not flourish.

Proverbs 21:31 says, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the Lord" (NIV). God brings whatever victory may result from our efforts, but the horse is ours to prepare.

At Mecklenburg’s New Work Conference, we cover dozens of critical issues related to new church health and growth, including a session outlining the top 12 reasons new works fail. Here are five that often contribute to a church’s failure to prepare for the battle.

REASONS WHY CHURCHES FAIL

Lack of Ministry Gifts

Many new churches fail because the point leader or leadership team lack the ministry gifts needed to plant a successful church. Certain gifts are essential for a successful start of a church. One person does not need to have them all, but they must be present within the founding leaders. These gifts are: leadership, communication, and evangelism. Be brutal on this evaluation. There is a difference between wanting to lead and being gifted to lead. And when it comes to communication, have someone besides your spouse and family affirm your ability to speak. Ministry is through spiritual gifts; and if the proper gifts are not present, the going will be tough.

Lack of Money

New churches cost more and tend to bring in less during the first few years through offerings than church planters think. Many new churches submerge because they don’t have sufficient capital to stay afloat. Too many let trite phrases, such as "God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s supply," flow from their lips in response to this critical need. In reality, the New Testament speaks of churches in financial need, without any indication of a lack of spirituality on the part of the church itself. This provides a responsibility for more mature churches to step up their giving (2 Corinthians 8). New churches must have working capital to sustain themselves and invest in growth until they are self-sufficient. Lack of money sets up a self-defeating cycle. Since there is barely enough money to get by, a church can’t invest in growth through additional staff, better facilities, or efforts such as direct mail campaigns. Yet without growth, the church remains financially stagnant. Denominations must give church planters the resources they need, and church planters must make sure they have the proper funding.

Wandering in No-Man’s-Land

New churches also fail because they are wandering in no-man’s-land regarding the people they are trying to reach. This is particularly the case for those churches wishing to be contemporary rather than traditional, or seeker-targeted rather than oriented toward the already convinced.

No-man’s-land is when you are too seeker-sensitive to reach large numbers of believers, but you’re not seeker-targeted enough to reach large numbers of seekers. By being in the middle, you end up reaching no one. If your vision is to be seeker-targeted, be seeker-targeted. Don’t have 30 minutes of highly participatory praise and worship for believers, followed by a Christianity 201 or 301 message, and then throw in an offering disclaimer, casual dress, and drums, and think you’re a seeker-targeted church. You’re not. Define your vision for the church, and then be pure in its presentation and operation. Too many churches race headfirst into no-man’s-land, and then languish, never breaking through the critical growth barriers necessary to flourish.

Failure To Contextualize

Other new works fail to contextualize. They take something from outside their context and put it into a form for their context. The impetus behind many new churches is an excitement about a particular church that sparked the imagination and vision of those desiring to plant a church. These leaders try to replicate or model that church. When leaders do this, they often fail to do the hard, creative work of taking that model and shaping it to their unique situation. The principles and philosophies behind most of the large, successful, fast-growing churches will translate anywhere, but there are some areas that need to be adjusted: type of music, degree of participation that a seeker may want or need, the style of worship, dress code, and the selection of sermon topics.

Mecklenburg Community Church is known as a seeker-targeted church. But when compared to other well-known churches, such as Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago or Saddleback Valley Community Church outside of Los Angeles, there are major stylistic and structural differences. It’s great to have models, but let the model be just that–a model, not a monolith.

Small-Church Mentality

A final mistake common among new churches is a small-church mentality that permeates the entire community of faith. Tom Watson, founder of IBM, was asked why the company had become successful. Here are his words: "IBM is what it is today for three special reasons. First, at the very beginning, I had a clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. Second, once I had that picture, I asked myself how a company like that would need to act. Third, IBM has been successful because after I had a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place and how such a company would need to act, I realized that unless we began to act that way from the very beginning, we would never get there. For IBM to become a great company it would need to act like a great company long before it ever became one."

One of the keys to Mecklenburg’s rapid growth as a new church–from a single family to over 2,000 in average weekly attendance in 6 years–was that we began as a small church with a big-church mindset. This played itself out in every conceivable way–every service and every event was done as if a thousand people were going to show up. And that is one reason why a thousand people eventually did. In many churches, just about everything they do–announcements, recognizing people, demeanor, levels of quality–is done as a little church, in little church style. This may seem laid-back and cozy at first, but it breeds a small-church mentality that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

IT’S JUST PLAIN HARD

While these five reasons explain why many new works fail, there are many more of equal importance. The bottom line is that planting a church is hard work. I laugh every time I hear someone say that starting a church–instead of working toward the transition or revitalization of an existing church–is the easy way to go. They obviously have never planted a church. Different problems? Yes. But easier? Hardly. But it can be done. The key is preparing our horse for battle and then trusting God for the victory.