Thom S. Rainer - Who Moved My Pulpit?: Leading Change in the Church

Other Books by Thom S. Rainer

I Will

Autopsy of a Deceased Church

I Am a Church Member

The Millennials (coauthor)

Transformational Church (coauthor)

Simple Life (coauthor)

Essential Church (coauthor)

Vibrant Church (coauthor)

Raising Dad (coauthor)

Simple Church (coauthor)

The Unexpected Journey

The Unchurched Next Door

Surprising Insights from the Unchurched

Eating the Elephant (updated edition) (coauthor)

High Expectations

The Every Church Guide to Growth (coauthor)

The Bridger Generation

Effective Evangelistic Churches

The Church Growth Encyclopedia (coauthor)

Experiencing Personal Revival (coauthor)

Giant Awakenings

Biblical Standards for Evangelists (coauthor)

Eating the Elephant

The Book of Church Growth

Evangelism in the Twenty-First Century (editor)

Copyright 2016 by Doulos

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-4336-4387-3

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 254.5

Subject Heading: CHURCH ADMINISTRATION \ CHURCH GROWTH \ CHURCH MEMBERSHIP

All Scripture is taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ( hcsb ), copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.

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To

Team Rainer:

Amy Jordan

Jonathan Howe

Amy Thompson

Incredible Coworkers. Great Friends.

And always to

Nellie Jo

My Wife

Grateful to God for four decades of love and marriage.

Acknowledgments

One of the greatest desires of my life and ministry is to help church leaders move their churches to greater health.

But if most of our churches dont change, they will not be healthy. Many of them will die.

I am a blessed man to be able to hear about the state of our churches every day. I am grateful beyond words for the millions of men and women who join me and inform me at the ThomRainer.com blog, at our podcast, Rainer on Leadership, and at our mentoring ministries at ChurchAnswers.com. I hear from you every day. You are an incredible gift to me and to the body of Christ.

Thank you again to Team Rainer for all you do to make my world of ministry and my life a joy. You threeAmy Jordan, Jonathan (The Voice) Howe, and Amy Thompsonare among the best and most joyous workers I know. I think you will understand how much I mean these words when you read the dedication page.

Ten years ago when I arrived at LifeWay, our book publishing arm, B&H Publishing, was struggling. Now it is the premier Christian book publisher. So many have contributed their leadership to this turnaround: Brad Waggoner; Selma Wilson; Eric Geiger; Cossy Pachares; and Jennifer Lyell. Jennifer is not only the leader of B&H trade books; she graciously agreed to be my editor as well.

I love and adore my family. I could not do anything of worth without them. I certainly couldnt write books. If my calculator is working, there are eighteen in my family at present count. There is my wife, Nellie Jo. There are my three sons and their wives: Sam and Erin; Art and Sarah; and Jess and Rachel. Seven years ago, I whined because I had no grandchildren. Today I have ten: Maggie, Bren, Joel, Nathaniel, Joshua, Canon, Will, Harper, and Collins. Number ten is due close to the release date of this book, so I dont know his or her name or gender yet.

You who read my blogs and books and listen to my podcasts are an incredible blessing. I dont deserve you, but I am thankful to God for you. I wrote my first book in 1989. This book is number twenty-six. I am so humbled because some of you have been with me on this journey from the onset.

You have likely heard me describe the state of churches in North America. Nearly nine out of ten are either declining, or they are growing more slowly than the communities in which they are located. In simple terms, 90 percent of our churches are losing ground in their respective communities.

Change is absolutely necessary in our churches. Major change is needed in most of them. But change is very difficult in most churches. Church members have become complacent and comfortable. Many church members have become highly change resistant.

The gospel is at stake. Eternal lives are at stake.

I pray this book on leading change in your church will be a catalyst to make a difference. I pray you and many leaders will read and study it together. And I pray you will be courageous to lead change no matter what the cost.

Welcome to the world of where pulpits get moved!

Introduction

An E-mail of Desperation

Through social media, blog comments, e-mail, and other means, I receive several hundred requests for advice and counsel every month. I am humbled so many people would ask me for my counsel. But I am frustrated that I cant get to all of them.

But it was something about this e-mail that caught my attention. Indeed, there was something about this e-mail that prompted me to write this book.

Subject: A Plea for Help

Dr. Rainer

I am a pastor and Im about to give up. I have incredible seminary training where I learned about theology, the Bible, Greek, Hebrew, etc. But I know zero about dealing with conflict or leading the church to make some changes. Every time I try something, I get hit hard by critics and bullies.

My wife wants me to quit. She feels the pressure too. Some of the critics go after her, but most of her pain comes from watching me get hurt. She has cried herself to sleep too many nights. When we got married, she didnt know I would be a pastor one day. I didnt either. Im not so sure I should be now.

Im not sure how to ask for your help. I have too many questions. About all of my practical ministry training has come from the school of hard knocks and your blog and podcasts.

I guess what I need most is an A to Z plan on leading change in my church. Okay, I know thats asking too much. But maybe you could write your next book on this topic. I know many of us in ministry would benefit from it greatly. And I know I could share it with my elders so they would know what we are trying to do.

Yeah, this is a pretty bold request, but please prayerfully consider it. Im not sure how long it takes you to write a book and get it on the shelves, but I know I dont have much time left. It looks like I could be facing three possibilities in the next couple of years. The likely change is we will continue to decline to the point the church cant afford to pay me a salary. Another possibility is I will get fired. Right now I have more supporters than adversaries, but I dont know how long it will last. The most likely option is I will just give up.

I am tired. My wife is tired. I never thought church leadership would be like this.

Please, please consider helping us church leaders understand how we can lead a church to change when we have so many obstacles.

Please help me. I think you can help a lot of us. Please help us before its too late for many of us.

Thank you.

This book is for that pastor. This book is for all pastors seeking to lead their churches to change. This book is for church staff and lay leaders who want to make a positive contribution toward leading change in the church.

Now lets dive into the book and to that fateful Sunday when a pastor cried out: