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10
reasons why your church sucks:
#5
- it's inbred
by
john o'keefe
did you know that a community of 25-50 can
not survive because the gene pool can not
stand the inbreeding? a community that
small will soon die-out because it's generic
pool will grow week. in fact, it takes
a diverse community of 125 to truly maintain
a solid gene pool and a solid future - and
most churches simply do not have the generic
material to survive without becoming
inbreed.
i
was excited about the possibilities. i
had just graduated from drew and i left the
united methodist church and was heading back
home to las vegas from new jersey. i
was given the opportunity to serve as the
interim pastor with a primitive methodist
church, and i took it. the church was
small, but the position was for only a year
and i needed the experience before returning
home - i felt it would be a great learning
experience; one that would help me serve God
and at the same time help me relax and
gather my prayer live to see where God was
leading me. as i got settled in and
started to meet people i was surprised to
find out that all - all - the leadership of
the church was related to each other.
not one person in the leadership was
unrelated to others in the leadership.
what surprised me the most was out of the 50
people in the church only one couple was not
related to the others, and they had never
been offered a position of leadership (a
small side note is that i found out that
most of the people in the pm church were
related to each other - surprise).
now,
most people in these churches have no
problem with the fact that they are all
related, and that is because they have
become their own best listeners. one
time, while serving that pm church, a few
friends decided to pay us a visit and spend
the weekend. as we all went to the
church for worship that sunday, my friends
were excited about hearing me teach again.
when we got into the church my friends found
a place to sit and i went down to my office
to go over my sermon and to "get
dressed."
when
i got back into the worship area i looked
over to my friend was sitting, and they had
moved - i did not think anything of it at
the time. when the service was over
and we all went out to lunch, my friend
shared with me why they moved. as he
and his wife were sitting and talking an
elderly women and her husband approached
them and informed them that that pew was
theirs, and they needed to move.
inbreed
communities take on some very distinctive
forms. there is a partial list of some
of the factors you will find in an inbreed
church:
1.
people sit in the same place all the time.
have you ever noticed that people in your
church always sit in the same place - and
get mad when "outsiders" sit in
"their" spot?
2.
the people in the church are friends with
people in the church, and have no outside
friends.
3.
leadership is based on the "big
mama" or "big papa" in the
church. voting is done to give an
appearance of "following the
rules" but the decision to run and who
to vote for is based on the desire of the
"mother and father" figures of the
church.
4.
decisions are made long before any board
meetings. phone calls are made and
vote decided before the meeting ever takes
place.
being
an inbreed church dies not mean everyone in
related either. the church can have an
inbreed mentality without having people
being related. it is purely mindset
and a lack of heart set.
the
other "10
reasons why your church sucks"
articles
1.
It does not understand the community at large
2.
It has poor leadership
3.
It has no solid vision
4.
It is graying, quickly
5.
It’s inbred
6.
It’s concerned with look and not action
7.
It’s comfortable in its misery, and is looking for
company
8.
It’s out of touch
9.
It’s all about money
10.
It’s all politics
we,
are in the process of developing a bible study based on the 10 reasons -
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