Members' Resitance to Revival
People need to be motivated to persuade them to sacrifice. This is not easy with respect yto launching a program for local congregation revival.
1. New Faces, New Ways. When newcomers arrive, old members find them different. One new family a month is tolerable. The newcomers must adjust. Five new families a week, and the old members must adjust. Nobody likes to adjust.
How can these newcomers be assimilated? Someone must be in charge of a program to assimilate them. Who will that be? The pastor? With what extra time?
2. More Costs. Who will pay for more hymnals, more vchaurs, more everything? These people come with questions, not answers; with requests, not money. Existing members must pay for these extra costs. This means that 20% of the existing members must pay for 80% of these extra costs.
The congregation must know in advance that more members will require more costs. They must be persuaded that these costs will be worth paying.
3. Less Social Coherence. Newcomers will be different in terms of background. This will not be total discontiniity. People make decisions rapidly abut either they fit in. But people coming out of this culture will face culture shoick, no matter which economic segment of the modern church that they walk into. They will be ill at ease. They will not know the rules. Who will show them? How?
4. Additional Responsibility There is no escape from this. As a congregation grows, the existing members bear greater responsibility. The 20% minority on top have to work harder. The 80% majority at the bottom must pick up the slack. No one has trained them to do this.
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