With my last post I entered some dangerous territory that might come across as my claiming that trusting God, when against the odds, is ill founded and ill advised.  Not so, we should always be in a state of trusting God, especially for the impossible.  But there are times when our “impossible” situation is our own doing, and there must be action on our part; there are times when we can’t hide behind the spiritized cliche of, “With God all things are possible.” Surely this is true, but it is not an excuse for inactivity and it is not an excuse for passing the buck of our responsibility to Him.

I wrote in the last post, “God will not do the impossible just because He can.  There must be more to the story and that more is viability.”  I cited three areas of concern when it comes to viability.

The first area of viability I want to consider is financial viability.  The primary question is:  Does the church have the capacity to grow into financial sustainability before the funds run out?  To determine whether the answer is “yes” or “no” other questions must be answered:

1.  How many people are currently in the core?

2. What is the current giving level per month?

3. How much funding is in reserve?

4. Are there funding sources available other than regular giving?  If so, how much can these resources generate and in what time frame?

5. What is revealed by measuring these first four items against the current operating budget?

A church that is struggling cannot stick its head in the sand and pretend that finances are not an issue.  It cannot fall back on the cliche that with God, all things are possible.  Church leaders must take a sober and prudent look at finances and other key areas of viability and make informed, prayerful decisions.

Often there is a great deal of denial in a struggling church.  This denial comes in two forms.  First, there is denial that there is a real problem.  “Things are tough,” leaders will say, “but God just has us in a season.”  Since seasons change, leaders reason that sooner or later a different and better season will follow.

Second, there is acknowledgement that there is a problem, but church leaders deny that it’s their fault.  “Outside forces have conspired against us – the factory closed and everyone moved away, the beloved pastor retired, that new church that moved into the area with its big show on Sundays has lured our people away.  And, since God is the initiator of the seasons of the church, whatever our condition is His fault.”

For a church to turn such a ministry around, there must be financial viability, the ability to sustain its ministry financially for a minimum of twelve months, using those months to move its ministry toward an outreach and evangelism focus shaped by the Great Commission.  With this new focus, more connections with people outside the church will be made, more visitors will find their way to the church, some will stay, some will begin to give financially.  Most importantly, lost people will be reached and the kingdom will grow through conversion as the church grows.

The church that answers these hard questions and shifts its ministry outward ceases to be a victim and improves its survival probability.  With God, all things are possible.  Our role is to take the courageous action needed to increase our survival probability.