13 REASONS WHY SMALL CHURCHES FAIL
 
Thirteen essentials to church faithfulness
 
BY
RICHARD S. SHARPE JR.

 
 
 
INTRODUCTION:
 
A.  Experience in Ministry
 
I have been the pastor of three small churches. I started out in ministry in a small church in Pennsylvania. It had a background with the Chez- Slov convention. They had asked to join the General Association of Regular Baptists but were turned down. They went to the American Baptist Convention and were accepted. Their doctrinal statement was more in line with the GARB. When I met with the pulpit committee I told them that I agreed with their doctrinal statement but not with the doctrinal statement of the American Baptist. They said it was OK. They did very little with the American Baptist. I spoke one time and they called me to be their pastor. Upon arriving I found that they had asked the previous pastor to retire after twenty-two years in the church. They wanted a younger pastor. They gave him a house across the street from the church. He attended the church when I arrived and taught a Sunday School class in their native tongue in Chez. This proved to be a hard relationship. He was not happy and I was very young. I was twenty-four years old.
The church grew in the first six month. There were many people who came because of my going door-to-door on visitation. I would print up extra bulletins each Sunday and pass them out in the neighborhood. We also started a softball league with other churches in the area. We attended Youth For Christ rallies in Erie. I worked with the Regular Baptist churches in the area. Our teen group had grown from none to over thirty. During this time I was ordained at my home church in New York because of my disagreement with the American Baptist.
After about a year the board asked why I didn’t do anything with the American Baptist. I told them that when I met with the pulpit committee that I did not agree with their doctrinal statement but agreed to attend some of their pastor’s fellowships. I found about three others there that were as conservative as I was. However, I also found that there were many that didn’t believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ.
I told this to the board but they didn’t believe me. They asked the area Superintendent if there were some that didn’t believe in the Virgin Birth and he said they all believed in the Virgin Birth. This was the beginning of the end.
The church had tripled in size. The youth group was very active. The new people were listening to the Word of God. But it was not going well with the group that was there when I came. I did not take the time to get to know them before I started growing the church. One lesson I should have learned from that experience was that I needed to get to know the present members before inviting the future members.
 
I spent the next eight years in a rural church in New York. This church called me with a salary of $30.00 a week and a parsonage. We had to pay all the utilities in the parsonage. Needless to say I needed a full time job to support my family of four. I worked construction with one of the deacons of the church at the beginning. It was good work but I had never handled a power tool in my life to this point. After working there for a while I took a job in a nursing home as an orderly. The last job before going full-time at the church was working at a local school as a bus driver/groundsman.
The church had about thirty people attending when I began. I started an aggressive visitation program. There were few that went with me. On one occasion a deacon went out on visitation with me. He stated that there were only Amish and Jehovah Witnesses in the neighborhood. After we had visited for a while he rethought his statement and said to me: “Pastor you showed me that there are a lot of people who don’t fall into my two categories.”
The church continued to grow with the highlight of each year being Daily Vacation Bible School. We could fit about a hundred and ten in the church comfortable.  One summer we had over 200 children in attendance. We had them in the church, on our church bus, at the parsonage, and at one of the homes of the deacon. It made the paper.
Each year I scheduled guest speakers about every six to eight weeks. We had four major events: Missions Conference, Evangelistic Conference, Bible Conference and D.V.B.S. This gave the members of the church a reason to invite others to attend. Some did.
Within five years the church was full. We had a good outreach into the community. I started ETTA classes which attracted individuals outside the church.
 
Our third church was in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York.
 
B.   Background experiences
C.  Growth in Ministry
 
 
CHAPTER ONE: LACK OF BIBLICAL PREACHING
 
A.  Lack of training in what Expository Preaching is
B.   Tools needed for proper preaching
C.  Opportunities to preach
D.  Evaluation of preaching
E.   Topical preaching
 
CHAPTER TWO: LACK OF PRACTICE OF
BIBLICAL DISCIPLINES
        
A.  Knowledge of Biblical Disciplines
B.   Application of Biblical Disciplines
C.  Accountability regarding use of Biblical Disciplines
D.   
 
 
CHAPTER THREE: LACK OF DOCTRINAL TRAINING
 
A.  Follow- up from Evangelistic meetings
B.   Church membership classes
C.  Doctrinal classes
D.  Church Bible Institute
E.    
 
CHAPTER FOUR: LACK OF USE OF BIBLICAL GIFTS OF
                                    THE HOLY SPIRIT
 
A.  Training for use of Spiritual gifts
B.   Practical application of Spiritual gifts
C.  Sabbaticals from use of Spiritual gifts
 
CHAPTER FIVE: LACK OF MAJOR EVENTS PLANNED IN
                                    A GIVEN YEAR
 
A.  Daily Vacation Bible School or Day clubs
B.   Missions conference
C.  Evangelistic conference
D.  Deeper life conference
E.   Men’s retreat
F.   Ladies retreat
G.  Leadership conference
 
CHAPTER SIX: LACK OF FOLLOW UP OF THOSE VISITING
                                    THE CHURCH
 
… and have taught you publicly and from house to house.
Acts 20: 20
 
Basic questions:
 
1. Is the church in an urban situation or country situation?
2. How many members?
3. Have they had a visitation program in recent history?
4. Is the pastor behind the visitation program?
5. How often do you think the people will go out to visit? Weekly? Monthly? Quarterly?
 
 
 
 
 
A.  Visitation of Membership
 
1.    Annual visit in home
2.    Hospital visitation
3.    Shut-in visitation
 
 
B.   Visitation of those who have visited the church
 
1.    Visitors to a Sunday service
2.    Visitors to special programs
3.    Visitors to outside events
 
 
C.  Visitation in the community
 
1.    Door- to – door visitation
2.    Hospital visitation
3.    Community event outreach
4.     
 
D.  Ideas that work
 
1.    Roses to those visited
2.    Flyers for special events
a.    Daily Vacation Bible School
b.    Bible conference
c.    Evangelistic conference
d.    Missions conference
e.    Musicals
f.     Guest speakers
 
3.    Community newsletter
4.    Welcome wagon
5.    Claim a block in city or a couple of miles in country
 
 
 
CHAPTER SEVEN: LACK OF GREETERS AT EACH DOOR OF
                                    THECHURCH
 
A.  Church Map
B.   Assigned Greeters at each day each event
C.  Visitor packets
D.   
 
 
 
CHAPTER EIGHT: LACK OF UPKEEP OF CHURCH PLANT
 
A.  Tour of Church Plant
B.   List of needed projects
C.  Assignment of those who can do the projects
D.  Tour of Church Plant
E.   Look through the eyes of Visitor
 
CHAPTER NINE: LACK OF CONSISTANT LIFE OF PASTOR
 
A.  Pastoral character
B.   Pastoral doctrinal believes
C.  Pastoral work ethic
D.  Pastoral rest ethic
E.   Pastoral family
F.   Pastoral reading habits
 
CHAPTER TEN: LACK OF GENUINE LOVE WITHIN THE
                                    CONGREGATION
 
A.  Preaching on the concept of Community
B.   Practice of Community
C.  Confession in Community
D.  Small Groups
 
CHAPTER ELEVEN: LACK OF PROPER VISITATION PROGRAM
 
A.  Knowledge of Visitation program
B.   Plan for Visitation night
C.  Pastor’s involvement in visitation night
D.  Reports filed properly
E.   Follow-up where necessary
 
 
CHAPTER TWELVE: LACK OF PROPER BUDGET FOR 
THE CHURCH
 
A.  What is a budget
B.   Who organizes the budget
C.  Application of the budget
D.  Budgeting for outreach
E.    
 
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LACK OF INTREGATED
MUSIC PROGRAM
 
A.  Type of Music
B.   Mix of Music
C.  Involvement in singing
D.  Praise teams
E.   Single song leader
F.    
 
CONCLUSION:
 
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CHAPTER ONE: LACK OF BIBLICAL PREACHING

CHAPTER TWO: LACK OF PRACTICE OF

BIBLICAL DISCIPLINES
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CHAPTER THREE: LACK OF DOCTRINAL TRAINING

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER FOUR: LACK OF USE OF BIBLICAL GIFTS OF
THE HOLY SPIRIT
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER FIVE: LACK OF MAJOR EVENTS PLANNED IN
                                    A GIVEN YEAR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER SIX: LACK OF FOLLOW UP OF THOSE VISITING
                                    THE CHURCH
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER SEVEN: LACK OF GREETERS AT EACH DOOR OF
                                    THECHURCH
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER EIGHT: LACK OF UPKEEP OF CHURCH PLANT
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER NINE: LACK OF CONSISTANT LIFE OF PASTOR
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER TEN: LACK OF GENUINE LOVE WITHIN THE
                                    CONGREGATION
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONCLUSION:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY