As pastors are tasked with spreading the ministry and the word of God in their churches, it is important that they are attuned to the different signs in their church to make sure that the churchgoers are sticking around for all the right reasons.
In an article on Charisma News, Thom S Rainer urges pastors to watch out for 10 signs that their churches are sick.
According to Kalmeta, one of the first signs that there is something wrong is a steady decline in attendance. As this is usually gradual, Kalmeta advised leaders to compare the average month's worship attendance to that of the previous years.
Related to the first sign, the second symptom is a decline in the frequency of attendance among church members. This symptom is associated with a waning commitment to the faith or lack of interest in what the church has to say, and churchgoers manifest this by not going to church as often as they used to.
Other signs include a lack of vibrancy in the worship service and a lack of evangelistic fruit. In Kalmeta's view, if a church fails to reach the hearts of non Christians and encourage new Christians to join the Church, then there is a need to reevaluate the methods being employed by the Church to reach new members of the faith.
Low community impact is also a sign that a Church is not doing as well as it should because churches should always make a difference in the community.
If there are more meetings than ministries, she believes the Church is being ineffective in its mission to spread the word of God as it is more occupied in forming committees rather than focusing on conversions.
If meetings within the Church result in more disagreement and bitterness rather than unified and harmonious results, something must be wrong within the organization.
"Very few guests in worship services. A vibrant church will attract guests. A sick church will not," Kalmeta said.
