Almost every one working in Church Revitalization and Renewal has participated in a conversation of some sort discussing what can kill a church. Today I want to think upon some of the things laity with any church can do that will kill a church!

Here is a list Church Revitalization Killers:

1. Celebrate smallness over expansion.
2. Make public comments about how much God loves a tiny church.
3. Emphasize how wonderful it is that the members know intimately everyone in worship.
4. Sigh when growth begins to happen and lament about how much you loved the small personable church.
5. Complain about the lack of ministry choices in the church and then refuse to volunteer to get new ministries going.
6. Start going to another church because it has “more selections” of ministries to choose from.
7. When your feelings are hurt or you are offended hold grudges as long as possible.
8. Seek to create a wall of opposition towards anything new, which is created.
9. When frustrated at your lead pastor, remain silent and keep it in so bitterness can begin to surface and anger can fill you with rage.
10. Once you have heated things up at the church leave in a final blaze of glory declaring your exit and unwillingness to continue further in the present state of affairs.
11. Secretly suggest to those loyal fans remaining that if the pastor would either leave or stop trying to change the church you would come back.
12. Attend church with an emphasis on what you get out of it not what the Lord gets out of you.
13. Never invite or bring anyone with you to church.
14. Practice constitutional devotion over a faithful journey with the Lord and His church.
15. Be people of the “BOB!” Knowing more about Roberts Rules of Order than the Word of God.
16. Emphasize that the pastor is the one, which should do everything, and the laity are the spectators.
17. Personally divest yourself from the church than becoming invested in the church.
18. Sit back, fold your arms, and look bored when new things are tired.
19. Transform prayer to more of a gossip time over a spiritual time.
20. Gather groups in hallway conversations to gage the temperature of the conflict and assure that your opinion is prevailing.
21. Seek alliances of “same minded” people that have the same concerns about the changes taking place in the church.
22. Discuss openly just how wonderful the church would be if it were not for the pastor making all of these changes.
23. Fail to respect the Under-Shepherd of God and seek to belittle his calling and leadership.

Well there are probably a few more but if the laity will follow this list I am sure they will destroy “their” Church! Oh wait a minute, it is the Lord’s Church and we would be wise to not forget that in the final analysis. To be fair perhaps we ought to make a list in my next blog on things a pastor and staff can do that will kill a church.