Opinion | The Church Isn’t Failing—Leadership Is

At a lecture in 2018 at Faulkner University, I said something that has stirred no small amount of controversy: many churches are not declining because the gospel is weak—they are declining because leadership is.

I stand by that.

For too long, we have comforted ourselves with a narrative that the Church of Christ is shrinking, losing relevance, or somehow being overtaken by culture. The data tells a different story. Globally, the church is growing—rapidly. There are millions of faithful believers and tens of thousands of congregations worldwide.

The problem is not the mission. The problem is how we are managing it locally.

What follows reflects my experience and perspective in local church leadership.

In Nashville, I stepped into a historic congregation—as a member in early 2016 and became an elder in late 2017—that had once been a beacon of influence. It had strong preaching, visionary leadership, and a deep commitment to serving its city. But over time, something changed. Leadership weakened. Planning disappeared. Accountability faded.

What remained was not a thriving church, but a struggling institution trying to survive on the memory of what it once was.

To put it plainly: a church can still meet on Sundays and yet resemble what Scripture calls a ‘whitewashed tomb’—active on the outside, but lacking the vitality that once gave it life.

A church may appear vibrant on the surface—gathering, active, and visible—yet beneath that appearance can lie a quiet decay, where the life that once sustained it has been neglected or lost.”

That is not a theological failure. It is a leadership failure.

One of the most uncomfortable truths I raised—and one that has drawn criticism—is that church leadership must include competent organizational leadership. Some recoil at that idea, as if acknowledging structure, governance, and accountability somehow compromises faith. It does not. It never has.

Elders are not only shepherds; they are stewards. They are responsible not just for teaching and care, but for ensuring that what has been entrusted to them is managed wisely, transparently, and effectively. That includes finances, legal responsibilities, safety, and long-term planning. Ignoring those realities does not make a church more spiritual—it makes it more vulnerable.

Consider this: many congregations have no succession planning. When strong leaders pass away, they are replaced not by prepared men but by whoever is available.

That is not biblical faithfulness—that is a failure of organizational leadership. And the consequences are predictable: instability, conflict, and eventual decline.

We also need to confront why so many good preachers leave ministry. It is not because they lack conviction. It is because they are placed in environments that are unstable, unsupported, and difficult environments. If we expect men to dedicate their lives to preaching the gospel, then we must build churches where they can actually do that work.

At Nashville, we made changes. We established proper structure. We instituted accountability. We addressed safety issues. We clarified mission.

And here is the result: clarity, stability, and the foundation for growth.

This is not about turning the church into a business. It is about recognizing that God has entrusted us with something that must be handled with care, wisdom, and discipline. Scripture often speaks about stewardship, and we—as members of the body of Christ on earth—too often ignore it at its peril.

If we continue to avoid these hard conversations, we will continue to see unnecessary failure at the congregational level. But if we embrace both the spiritual and the practical responsibilities of leadership, the future of the church is not something to fear—it is something to anticipate with confidence.

The church is not dying.

But without strong leadership, even a faithful congregation will struggle to survive.

The solution is not retreat. It is responsibility.