Revelation 3:1 - Sardis

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

He “who holds the seven spirits” is the one who has the perfect Spirit of God. Hear His words. He “who holds the seven stars” is the one who walks along with the pastors or leaders of the church. Hear His words. He knows that you have a reputation, presumably in the community, for being alive, but you are dead. You are spiritually dead.

How can a church know when they are dead? Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote a book in 2014 titled Autopsy of a Deceased Church. In it he identified some fatal causes that put once-alive churches into the graveyard. These include:

• Treating the past as a hero
• Refusing to adapt to the needs of the present community
• Moving the focus of the budget inward
• Allowing the Great Commission to become the Great Omission
• Letting the church become preference-driven out of selfishness and personal agendas
• Seeing the tenure of the pastors decreasing
• Failing to have regular, corporate prayer
• Having no clear purpose or vision
• Obsessing over the facilities

A complement to Rainer’s analysis is an article by Stevan Manley titled, “When does My Church Need Revival?” He lists six signs that a church is standing at death’s door:

1. The church is plagued with disagreements.
2. The preaching is ineffective.
3. Few can remember when a person was last saved.
4. God’s supernatural power is never seen.
5. God is not praised regularly.
6. No one is being called into God’s work.

Personally, I think the members know it inside when their church is dying. The church is no longer a place of recharge, but a drain on your energy. You no longer feel like it’s a supporting family, but a disheveled group that gathers out of habit. You can tell, and you have for some time hoping something would change, that it just isn’t alive. There are glimpses here and there of the work of the Spirit but no momentum or continuous spark.

The biggest problem with a church on that is dying is its members, who leave every Sunday and go into the world that seeks to tear them down continually, do not get recharged and energized. They get torn down week after week and soon realize that they simply cannot sustain the Christian life in their present state of habit. They see church as a burden, not a blessing. And so, the already sinking church ship starts sinking a lot faster as these members stop doing their work in the church and stop attending to begin seeking church’s that are alive.

How healthy is your church?  How healthy are you?  I pray we focus on our own hearts so revival begins with each of us.