3. Sacrifice is non-existent
In an insider-focused church, no one sacrifices anything for the sake of others, because people believe others ought to sacrifice to please them.
If the church exists to make you happy, why wouldn’t people sacrifice more to make you happier?
In outsider-focused churches, the opposite is true.
Insiders sacrifice for the sake of outsiders. They realize that when they give, others live. That when they decide the church isn’t about them, they find a joy that is so elusive to selfish people.
Externally focused churches realize that sacrifice for the sake of others is a pathway to joy.
Internally focused congregations never understand that.
4. Any growth is mostly transfer growth
Do some internally-focused churches grow? Sure…that can happen.
But it’s not real growth. It’s not mission-induced growth.
In an insider-focused church, almost all the growth that takes place (if any happens at all) is transfer growth. Not the kind of transfer growth that happens when a new Christian family comes to town or a family makes a once-in-a-decade move to a new church.
The transfer growth that insider-focused churches usually attract is the kind of growth that attracts serial church shoppers.
And guess what transfer growth often looks for? A church to make them happy. (I wrote a post on the challenges of transfer growth here.)
Best wishes with trying to make them happy.
5. Innovation is dead or on life-support
Most insider-focused congregations aren’t excited about the future, they’re afraid of it.
For the most part, insider-focused churches cling stubbornly to the present or the past, preferring the way things are or the way things used to be over the way things could be.
As a result, innovation dies. New ideas are shot down. Anything that would reach people who currently aren’t being reached is viewed with suspicion or even called ‘unfaithful.’
Members end up liking their church ‘just the way it is,’ which usually means they like it smaller and smaller every year.
So What’s the Antidote?
The antidote to insider-focus is simple: your mission.
One of the best ways to refocus your mission is this: Focus on who you want to reach, not on who you want to keep. I learned that truth years ago from my friend Reggie Joiner, a co-founder of North Point Church and now CEO of Orange. Reggie is so right.
An external focus will beat insider drift every day, all day.
So, shift your focus. Focus on who you want to reach, not who you want to keep.
Will you anger some members? Yes.
But they will have other churches to go to. The unchurched don’t.
Any Thoughts?
If you want more, I write about the changes the church needs to make to get healthy and reach people we’re not reaching in my book Lasting Impact: 7 Powerful Conversations That Can Help Your Church Grow.
In the meantime, what do you think?
Any other signs of insider-focused churches you’d like to share?
