Vulnerable churches. The concept was given definition in my May 13 blog: churches that have declined until their critical mass as measured in people, leadership, resources and results is insufficient, leaving them borderline viable or not viable at all, and therefore vulnerable to all sorts of misdirection, abuse and manipulation by unscrupulous individuals and groups.
The definition reveals an end result. The fact is that no group becomes vulnerable over night. Rather, vulnerability is the end result of a journey. That’s why recognizing the indicators of vulnerability and correcting them early is so critical. Business guru, Jim Collins describes the journey well in his latest book, “How the Mighty Fall.” Of this perilous journey, he says, “I’ve come to see institutional decline as a staged disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages, easier to detect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a precipitous fall.”
Though he’s applying his words to business, they have equal import for ministry. What we together need to see is that Scripture gives us a heads-up with respect to this. Paul, for instance, in Acts 20 fears for the Ephesian church and their vulnerability to ravenous, wolf-like leadership. Peter voices a similar fear in his letters. John warns of the fall of true fellowship in I, II and III John, and the relational vulnerabilities that fall can bring to churches and believers. Jude urges us to be contenders for the faith. Interestingly, his urging reflects most on being able to contend against internal erosion rather than against external forces. And the author of Hebrews calls his readers to account around five warnings, each of which relates to the road to vulnerability: drifting away from sound teaching, creating an unbelieving heart through disobedience, becoming spiritual dull by not practicing one’s spirituality, entertaining willful sin and becoming uncorrectable.
My point? The Scripture is filled with markers and warnings regarding what moves us as believers, congregations and churches toward vulnerability. And as we’ll see as we continue this journey, it’s filled with the means to counter and where necessary reverse this perilous potential. Check it out . . . okay?
So, you know a church is on the road to vulnerability when it has grown dull to the warnings of Scripture with respect to this deadly journey. Next time: the danger of a fiercely held independence.
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