REDISCOVERING OUR FIRST LOVE

Visionary leadership will plan for the future
by determining what to do in the present
with their knowledge of the past.

This is not the most encouraging chapter of our life in leadership training. In fact, it
could be quite depressing if we looked at it from a human viewpoint. The subject that
follows is a burden upon the heart of all evangelists who are concerned about the
spiritual strength of the church in any part of the world.
Those of us who work among many church groups must constantly prepare lessons
and materials in order to challenge stagnate churches. God wants growth because He
wants that which causes growth, the salvation of lost souls. When churches lose their
mission, souls are not being saved. Churches subsequently cease to grow. Therefore,
bear with me as I take you through this chapter. World evangelists deal with this
situation every week because they seek to stir up love and good works among the
disciples of Jesus.
When one is involved in conducting workshops, lectureships and seminars that are
directed toward the edification of the church, there is a common purpose and challenge
that must determine the nature of what is presented. Those who teach, must work as
Paul said, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ” (Ep 4:12). As evangelists, our work is to edify the church in order to
cause growth in Christ (Ep 4:16). In order to promote this growth, we must first
understand what causes stagnation or the death of churches.
(This series of blogs compose a book that carry the title, “Making Disciples In A Global Community.” )

When I approach an assembly of disciples for a seminar, there is a common problem
that often plagues churches that are fifteen to twenty years old. This is the problem of
non-growth. Because of non-growth, leaders and churches become discouraged. As
discussed in the previous chapter, sometimes the leaders are the problem for the
stagnation of a church. If they are, then it is time for repentance. And actually,
whenever a church is stagnant, it is a problem with leadership.
The thoughts of this chapter are a scenario of “church growth” that seems to be
common among many churches. It is a cycle of growth that leads to the destruction of
hundreds of churches throughout the world, and thus it is imperative that church leaders
understand this cycle of history through which many churches go in order that they not
allow a church to go into stagnation.
In the 90s in south Africa, many of the churches in the country were already in their
third decade of existence. Many of these churches had been started by missionaries
from America. However, the missionaries had long since left. The older members still
remembered the enthusiasm of the early beginnings of the church. But during the 90s
they knew that they were “on the plateau” of the church growth cycle, that is, they were
in a state of non-growth because of a lack of conversions.
There are no specific dates on the time line of this cycle. The problem is not the
time but the fact that a church reaches a stage at which it does not grow, and
subsequently moves into a stage of decline. How to get out of the slump is the
challenge. However, reaching this plataeu of non-growth usually starts when a
particular church is forty to fifty years old. I call this “Table Mountain Church
Growth” after the shape of Table Mountain in Cape Town.
A. The cycle of stagnation:
The following are general trends that are often evidenced in the life of a group of
disciples that is destined for stagnation and death. If our group is in a state of
stagnation, we would do well to recognized where we are in this cycle in order to make
some changes in our lives. Stagnation could be the result of our construction of a god
after our own image and a religion after our desires. This god and religion may be
taking our group of disciples on an unfortunate trip to death.
1. Stage 1: Climbing the mountain: The Plateau church begins with a rapid
church growth in the first five to ten years of its existence. Enthusiasm is high. Many
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
3
are being added to the Lord. Members are out every evening beating the doors of the
unsaved and the evangelist is leading the way. The attendance rises dramatically
because all have the spirit of reaching the lost in order to build the church. This typical
church is on the upward slop of the mountain.
Keep in mind that the history of any group of disciples is usually embedded in the
first generation of converts. What the fathers learn, they pass on to their children and
the next generation of converts. It is imperative, therefore, that positive growth
principles be taught and practiced during the early beginnings of a particular church.
2. State 2: Reaching the plateau: At this stage something goes wrong. After
initial growth, members of the Plateau church start settling into themselves. They lose
their “first love” since they feel they have accomplished their goal of establishing a
church. The sense of accomplishment is often enforced by the construction of a
building that is thought to be an evangelistic outreach for the church. There is thus the
feeling that the local disciples have arrived at their goal of accomplishing their mission.
They thus nestle themselves into the “temple” they have constructed for themselves,
thinking that the building will do the evangelism for them because it is now the
advertisement for the church and the “method” of evangelism.
The evangelist of the group around whom the work has now centered itself, finds
himself fighting the devil more in members than in the lost. If the group’s growth is the
result of a single evangelist, he finds himself dealing with a host of problems in the new
converts. Since they need spiritual maintenance, he must give a great deal of his time to
their care. His evangelistic outreach thus deteriorates and his example of nonevangelism
begins to have its impact on those who follow him. Therefore, after about
seven to fifteen years, the growth of the Plateau church begins to decline as the
attendance reaches its plateau of about 75 to 125. There is some concern about the nongrowth,
though there is no repentance to change the now established pattern of
stagnation.
3. Stage 3: Walking on the plateau: The Plateau church is now into a period in
which it has constructed a religion after its own desires. Few people are now being
added to the body because no one is out evangelizing the lost. Thus, no new energy is
being brought into the group through conversions. Those who do come in are “cooled”
after a few months and intimidated to sit on the pews as the rest of the church that has
become evangelistically indifferent. Complacency sets in. The church group begins to
accept its non-growth syndrome in which it is now being encased. Members start
believing that they are in an “unreceptive area,” and thus fatalistically sit back and ride
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
4
out the end result of the plateau.
The Plateau church then takes on the nature of a social religious club and members
show up for assemblies in order to keep their membership current. Evangelism passes
out of the scene except for a handful of members who still hang on to the spirit of
teaching the lost. The church group now unknowingly constructs a behavioral pattern
that will keep its growth on the plateau for the next decade or two.
The following are some of those philosophies that lead churches to stagnation on the
plateau, and keep them there until the decline begins. The members of the Plateau
church have now adopted these beliefs in their construction of a religion that pleases the
members’ lifestyle.
a. Social-club churchianism: The Plateau church is into the middle of its
second decade of existence. It huddles around itself in order to keep that for which
much struggle was made in its first decade of growth. When growth ceases, the
members seek to keep what they have. Christian fellowship digresses to church
membership. The members of the Plateau church begin to view themselves as simply
“members of the church” rather than in fellowship with one another because of a
covenant relationship with God who brought them into membership with the universal
body of Christ. Attendance and contribution become check blocks on a legal checklist
that has now been constructed, and by which they judge themselves “faithful” after
having checked off all “acts of worship” and requirements of the club.
There are few good works in this group. If the Plateau church exists in an
economically strong environment, contribution checks take the place of personal
involvement. Supported professionals become the medium through which work is
accomplished.
Holiness becomes a secondary struggle because members find contentment in a fully
completed checklist of outward legal club requirements. Church members become
introverted with one another to the point of inadvertently making it difficult for
outsiders to come into the group. Members die feeding off themselves. They become
“spiritual” cannibals ineffectively listening week after week to preaching and teaching
that does not get beyond the walls of the “sanctuary.” They become as the Hebrew
writer stated, “dull of hearing” (Hb 5:11). They have ears, but cannot hear. Their ears
only itch for preaching that makes them feel comfortable in their indifference.
b. Introverted churchianism: The Plateau church is on the plateau and is now
self-centered. Instead of seeking to grow in holiness inwardly by reaching outwardly, it
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
5
changes to developing ministries that reach inwardly but can be checked off outwardly.
They “test those who claim to be apostles, but are not” as a legal requirement (See Rv
2:2). The Plateau church begins to believe that it must first take care of its own needs
before it can reach out to others. Books, sermons and classes on self-help, self-esteem,
self-evaluation, self-control, etc. become the common read among those who know
something is wrong, but cannot discover why they are on the plateau.
Because the Plateau church members have no self esteem, they feel bad about
themselves because they know what they should be doing. “Feel good” books in such
churches become common bestsellers because members are seeking soothing for the
lack of self esteem that has been brought on by their isolation from one another and the
needs of humanity.
The Plateau church has constructed a churchianism that sees itself as an end within
itself. The primary work of the Plateau church is now to instigate programs for the
survival of the church. The term “ministries” becomes fashionable. Programs are
constructed to generate activity. However, the definition changes from a biblical
concept of serving the life-produced misfortunes of this world to entertainment of the
body life. The Plateau church becomes secular. The teenage group is entertained. The
concept of fellowship digresses to simply meaning food, drink and parties. A true
churchian existence has now been established.
Plateau churches can often be identified by their assemblies. Because these
churches have become introverted, the focus of their assemblies changes. Instead of
coming together to stir up love and good works toward others, members come to
assemblies in order to see what they can get. Instead of bringing worshipful spirits
together to pour out worship to God, they seek to be entertained. Assemblies thus take
on the behavior of a music concert in order to draw those who seek a “worship
experience.” Adherents go to the assemblies, therefore, for themselves, not for what
they can give to others (love and good works) and God (worship).
c. Good works without eternity in mind: The Plateau church has now
convinced itself that its purpose is to preserve itself. And in doing such, the church
turns on itself with petty squabbles and senseless disputes about “genealogies” and other
brotherhood issues the members feel might endanger the norm behavior and theology.
Business meetings are consumed with talk about buildings and grounds, “fellowship
meals,” and who has not showed up lately in order to keep up their “membership” at the
social club. Squabbles develop over the presentation of ceremonies during the
assemblies. Dress codes and structures and ceremonies are fine tuned for appearance.
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
6
Shepherds who once smelled like sheep now start smelling like brick and mortar.
Business meeting records which once recorded discussions about evangelistic efforts
now contain scribbled notes on problems, projects and parties within the local club.
Elders digress to being board members dictating assignments to a corporate church that
has been organized into introverted committees and programs to take care of every need
of a membership that has lost their direction toward the saving of the lost.
The good intentions of the Plateau brethren have changed in focus. Satan consumes
the energy of the church to do good into doing those works that have no eternity in
mind. The emphasis or goal of the works of the church are changed only a little in order
to keep people working, but their minds off saving the lost. Members start seeing their
purpose as saving the saved instead of saving the lost. Leaders see themselves as
working among the flock instead of eyeballing sinners. The preacher becomes a
clergyman who marries and buries members. The local function of the Plateau church
changes to sustain the plateau instead of training evangelists, teachers, preachers and
elders for world evangelism. This is churchianism in full bloom.
d. The loss of growth-oriented vision: The Plateau church begins hiring staff
who are job-oriented. The church seeks a preacher to minister to its own needs instead
of hiring someone to do the work of an evangelist, since at this stage the Plateau church
has long lost its understanding of the work of an evangelist and the purpose of the
church. The “evangelist” of the Plateau church sees himself in a job-oriented work
instead of being a God-called man to do the work of an evangelist. It is usually at this
time that the local religious group (the former Plateau church) has changed its
understanding of the work of an evangelist and nature of the true church. The members
want a “pastor” or “clergyman” to function among the members in holding hands and
wiping the running noses of forty and fifty year old babies who should have by now
learned commitment to Christ. The mission of this religion has changed from “go into
all the world” to “come visit me.” The lampstand has now been removed.
Stage 4: The backside of the mountain: The end of the Plateau church is
inevitable. Those early members have now grown older or passed on. They have lost
most of their children to the world because the parents lost their example by losing their
first love. As the church group majority reaches their fifties and sixties, they start
wondering why they have not grown for twenty years. They are still 75 to 125 after all
these years and no growth is in sight.
As the churchian group nears the backside of the mountain they can look back and
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
7
see that their attendance was greater in the past than at the present. Unfortunately, it is
usually by this time that they have already constructed a religion after their own desires
and t is too late to turn from the back side of the mountain. Negative growth now sets in
as members start dying off and a plummet to the bottom is certain.
While on the plateau a few were baptized to fill in the gaps. Some moved away.
Some fell away. Some died away. However, after thirty or forty years of existence,
even the gaps are not filled and the Plateau church is down in attendance and on its way
out. The ship is now dead in the water and the current is taking it toward the rocks of
destruction.
The problem is intensified by the fact that the churchian disciples do not think there
is a problem. After thirty to forty years of existence, no one is alive who remembers the
glory days when members were evangelistically reaching their neighbors.
Unreceptivity is not so much the result of changes in the community, but in the
nature of the churchian development of the disciples. The churchian member excuses
himself or herself from evangelistic outreach by describing his or her neighbors as
unreceptive. The problem is not in unreceptive neighbors, but in churchians who seek
to be accepted in their communities, and thus are afraid of causing any disturbance by
“preaching their religion” to their neighbors. Everyone in the community is thus
“Christian,” and will somehow make it to heaven on their good works. Churchian
speech can always be identified by those who say of those who have not obeyed the
gospel, “He’s a good Christian.”
Now add to the preceding scenario the ownership of a church building by a dying
membership. The original group was excited about their own church building after they
had grown to the point of affording payments. They sat in a new building they thought
would bring growth, but after a few years of nongrowth in the building, they discovered
a startling fact. Their attendance on Sunday morning was deminishing as children grew
up and moved away. The urban district in which the building was built started to
change. It was no longer the district where most of the members were living. In some
cases, it became the inner city, while most of the members moved to the suburbs. Most
of the members simply migrated away from the building. The unfortunate thing about
urban church buildings is that members often move away from the building, and it is left
standing with only a few to maintain the building itself. Because there is such an
emotional attachment to the building, the last remaining “charter members” hang on to
either building payments or utilities in order to maintain the shrine. What sometimes
happens is that a merger takes place with another church group that is also in a similar
situation. A merger is thus accomplished, one building is sold and another is saved, and
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
8
the new group is reaffirmed again for another thirty years until the same story starts to
repeat itself. No one confesses up that a spirit of evangelism has been lost. There is no
desire to repent and do the first works.
B. The Ephesian syndrome:
The preceding common history of the rise and decline of a local church should
startle repentance into the hearts of church leaders. This cycle of church growth is
happening to many churches throughout the world. If churches fail to see this historical
pattern, they are doomed to live it. It is a common cycle of church history that naturally
happens if disciples develop a churchian definition of Christianity.
The reality of this cycle is manifested in the life history of the Ephesus church. I call
this the Ephesian Syndrome. It is a history of the rise and decline of a church, to the
point that the lampstand was ready to be removed as they existed on the backside of the
plateau.
In Acts 18 and 19 the Ephesian church was established with vibrant commitment
and growth as people dramatically turned from mystic religions to the one true God.
The date of this dynamic beginning was probably around A.D. 52 or 53.
After the initial explosion of growth, Paul revisited the leaders of the church a few
years later. He warned them in Acts 20 about a “departure from the faith.” He saw the
departure coming, and thus warned them that it was in their future.
In A.D. 61 or 62, Paul wrote a letter to the Ephesian church, addressing their
apparent misunderstandings concerning Christ and the nature of the true church. Their
decline had already started because churchian theology was changing the way members
thought about the church. It started with a misunderstanding of the nature of the church,
which misunderstanding led them to distort true Christianity into something that was
foreign to Scripture. Christianity was being transformed into churchianism.
By the time John wrote the book of Revelation, Jesus pronounced judgment on the
Ephesian church in Revelation 2 by stating that they had become a legal oriented church
that had lost its first love. The warning was that if they did not repent, their lampstand
was going to be removed.
From the time of the events of Acts 18 and 19 to the pronouncements of Revelation
2 was about thirty-five to forty or fifty years, depending on when you think the book of
Revelation was written. Is there a pattern of growth, stagnation and death here about
which we need to be cautioned? Is there a danger that should be recognized by the
leaders of churches today? I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit used the history of the
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
9
church in Ephesus as an example to caution us about a cycle of growth, decline and
death that we should recognize. One thing is very clear from this case history. Even the
presence of a Christ-sent apostle in the early beginnings of the Ephesian church was not
a guarantee that the church would not move into an era of decline and death. If this was
true of the Ephesian church, then certainly church leaders must be alert to the fact that
such can happen today in a church.
It is important to remember that the seeds that are planted in the first year of the
establishment of a church will affect that church for the next fifty years. If evangelists
plant seeds that lead to stagnation, those seeds will eventually lead to the stagnation and
death of a church. It is critically important, therefore, that evangelists know what they
are doing. We must seek to plant churches that are based on solid growth principles.
We must build churches on the foundation of Christ, constructed with spirits of gold,
silver and precious stones that will endure the test of time.
However, being built on a solid foundation of biblical principles is no guarantee that
a church will survive the onslaught of the religious culture in which it exists. The
Ephesian church is a good example. What better foundation could a church have than
being established by great people as Aquila, Priscilla and the apostle Paul. Add to this
the fact that the Holy Spirit sent the inspired letter of Ephesians directly to the church.
Though the Ephesian church had all the advantages, including an exciting beginning, all
such advantages was no guarantee that its lampstand would not be removed. If this does
not alert us to the fact that even great churches will suffer decline and death, then we are
not good leaders of the flock of God. We must remember, if it happened to the church in
Ephesus – and it did – then it can happen to us.
I have received numerous calls from church leaders who are tired of their existence
on the plateau. They knew they are dead, but they want to change. They want to grow
again. However, they often do not understand how they got to where they are, nor how
to get growing again. But at least they have come to realize that they must start growing
again. Unless a church takes ownership of its death, it will never start growing again.
Herein is the challenge of evangelists who work among the churches. There is a
definite need for evangelists not only to be trained in the skills of establishing new
churches, but also in the skills of resurrecting stagnate churches. It is my opinion that
the latter is more difficult than the former. It is more difficult simply because a pattern
of non-growth has been established in the minds of the disciples that will be difficult to
change. Once churchianism has been established as the norm, it is almost impossible
for churchians to start growing again by evangelistically reaching out to their
communities. They are churchian simply because they think they are right.
Roger E. Dickson
Africa International Missions
P.O. Box 1919, Bellville 7535, South Africa
10
Nevertheless, there are a lot of churches out there who need the patient help of
evangelists who can help them start growing again. Because Jesus called on the
Ephesian church to repent and rediscover their first love assumes that He knew they
could repent. There is always the possibility for repentance in the lives of those who
have grown cold. We must never underestimate the power of Jesus in the lives of those
who seek to repent.
So did the Ephesian church repent and restore the first works? Unfortunately,
Revelation was the last inspired New Testament book that was written. We do have
secular church history that records the continuation of the Ephesian church. However,
second century records of the church paint a different picture of the Ephesian church
than the picture of the church that is described in the New Testament. The point is,
members keep on meeting as a “church” though the lampstand for representing Jesus in
the community has already been removed. The world is full of such churchian
denominations that have long lost their representation of God on earth. In this type of
religious environment it is our challenge to search the Scriptures in order to discover
how God would have us be as His flock. It is not our goal to clone an existing
churchian institutional religious group. It is our goal to use God’s directions in order to
be as He would have us as His children.