Last month we talked about the need for congregational redevelopment in churches across America.  While the need exists, there are several obstacles that keep that need from becoming a reality. 

What are the obstacles to redevelopment in the Assemblies of God?  

According to Dr. Wayne Lee of Southeastern University one is that there is no national master plan of congregational redevelopment and only recently have districts begun to give time and resource to the need of redevelopment. (1)  The reason there is no plan could be because of the historical success in the Assemblies of God.  As churches and denominations rode the baby boom wave of growth and prosperity in the 1950’s and 1960’s, we became smugly confident that we “had all the answers.”  In the 1970’s we were too busy running our successful programs to see the shifts in our society and to understand their deep implications.  When growth tapered off and decline set in, we were convinced that it was a temporary problem.  While clinging to our comfortable time warp, we blamed any number of uncontrollable, external factors. (2)

We were further blinded to the need for change by the growth in Pentecostal churches that resulted from the charismatic movement during the 1970’s and 1980’s.  Our primary challenge became trying to keep the growing organization under control.  Once the management of existent churches and their programs became the primary concentration in North America, bureaucracy and an inward focus gained a foothold.  Our rapid growth in the 1980’s caused homeostasis to set in and may have even produced an unhealthy arrogance. This, in turn, led us to over-evaluate our current performance and competitive position, listen poorly, and learn slowly.  Being so inwardly focused caused us to experience difficulty seeing the very forces that presented threats and opportunities.  In many Assemblies of God churches the methods of past success have crystallized preventing present day success, the years of successes in church growth and greater the amassing of church resources has reduced our urgency and encouraged us to turn inward. (3)

A second obstacle to redevelopment is district and national meetings and conferences in the Assemblies of God focus training and motivation on improving quality and quantity of programs that were designed for harvest, discipleship or increasing involvement in the denomination’s most successful program of missions.  Focus on the need for redevelopment and training to facilitate it is not given priority.  

A third obstacle is that change is costly. 

Fourth, church conflict as part of change has been viewed wrongly and rather than training congregations in how to have healthy conflict, especially when conflict is a result of redevelopment change, conflict has been avoided at all cost even when redevelopment was deeply needed.  Later in this paper I will address the need for a conflict friendly environment for redevelopment.  Most churches needing change are not prepared for the change, especially in the area of conflict.

A fifth obstacle is that there have been no models which can carry the values of Pentecost through redevelopment.  Let me offer a note of warning.  It is important that attempts at redevelopment start at the right point.  The starting point of evangelicals is to know God; the Pentecostal starting point is to experience God.  You cannot “fix” the Assemblies of God, a Pentecostal movement, with evangelical jumper cables; if you do the DNA of Pentecost could be lost.  In an address to Pentecostals given at Southeastern University, Dr. Leonard Sweet recently warned, “[F]or the sake of the church as a whole, don’t leave your roots of Pentecost”.

Finally, there is a resistance to use consulting.  For deep change to occur there needs to be a guide who can help assess the health of congregations.  Each church needs a unique plan.  To help churches get from present reality to the fulfilled redeveloped vision God has for these churches congregational and pastoral coaches are needed.  Coaches have not been trained for redevelopment.  It is this need for coach development that I believe is critical if congregational redevelopment is to be successful within the Assemblies of God.