Stop! Church Thief!

In the midst of widespread cultural and moral decay, the evangelical church appears to be thriving. But appearances can be deceptive. Beneath the surface of many of today's most successful churches lay the rotting remains of countless collective church carcasses. Even the most bumbling ecclesiastical detective can prove this to be true. Though many churches have experienced swift numerical growth in recent years, this has almost always been at the expense of other churches. The reason is simple: the majority of new members added to church membership rolls are already evangelized. Relatively few new members are actually new converts to the Christian faith. Therefore, the predominant amount of new members to any one church are actually leaving other churches. In other words, most of the growth in certain churches is due to "transfer growth" and not to "conversion growth."

William Chadwick labels this phenomenon "sheep stealing." In his book, Stealing Sheep: The Church's Hidden Problems with Transfer Growth he argues that "[t]he shifting of saints from one church to another is killing the church" (p. 10). Obviously, it is not killing individual ministries within the church, but it is ultimately bearing no positive fruit in regard to the overall kingdom work of the church. If we are concerned for the church on the whole, we must be willing to recognize this failure and seek to correct it. In order to do this, we must first recognize that "church hopping" is often indicative of a moral problem plaguing the church and not simply the exercise of one's consumer rights.

Chadwick personally identifies with the church growth movement and claims to write "from the perspective of an insider" (p. 9). In the introductory chapter of his book, he clearly states that he is a "church growth pastor" (p. 9) who is tired of "antichurch-growth arguments" (p. 8). However, ten years of pastoring a church in accordance with his church growth methodologies has left him wary of the constant pursuit of numbers as a sign of ecclesiastical success. Early in the book he confesses:

It is a mistake to build your ministry by raiding the pews of your neighbor. To my utter shame, I have alienated fellow pastors and weakened their ministries by luring away their flocks… For years I have lived a lie, believing that just because our numbers were increasing we were doing the Lord's work. In reality, enabling discontent through escapism, producing distrust among churches and reshuffling membership certificates can scarcely be considered the work of Christ. (p. 9)

According to Chadwick, the emphasis on growth at all costs has transformed sheep stealing into an "art form" (p. 10). Furthermore, it has excited our people's natural propensity to behave as consumers rather than Christians when it comes to their commitment (or lack thereof) to any one church.

Unfortunately, our consumer culture has had a major negative influence on the way people view their relationship to the church.

No longer are people loyal to the church of their historic roots; the consumer mentality has changed the nature of church commitment. Church has changed from a place where one serves to a place where one seeks services. In the selection of a church home, denominational affiliations are secondary to the question, "Does this church meet our needs?" (p. 19)

Because of this,

People have ceased to invest in the long-term, stable relationships that were the backbone of successful church bodies in the past. Today we have moving church bodies filled with church shoppers and ecclesiastical consumers, joining churches for personal gain and leaving them for the same reason. (p. 20)

This desire to consume is so strong that the average church does not need to aggressively seek "transfer growth" in order to create interest from other churchgoers. Instead, it merely needs to commit to having the best grounds, best programs, best accessibility--in other words, offer a better product than the church down the road--in order to attract consumers.

The unspoken benefits of church expansion through transfer growth are greatly desirable. When success is measured numerically, and rapid numerical growth is the goal, transfer growth provides the "best assets" in the shortest space of time--a phenomenon Chadwick calls "cheap growth" since it requires no serious effort in either evangelism or discipleship (p. 83). "Building a church on true conversion experience takes time, energy and resources; even when it is successful, developing a disciple who contributes to the ministry may take many more years" (p. 22).

Although there has been no overall significant growth over the last two decades in the evangelical church's collective numbers, transfer growth creates the illusion of kingdom growth for a few select churches. The problem is simply this: some churches grow while others decline, and since the appreciable number of evangelicals has not risen, the growing churches are expanding at the expense of other churches. This is the danger of transfer growth for "[t]ransfer growth by its very nature can occur only if there is transfer decline somewhere else" (p. 69).

Large numbers easily create the illusion of God's favor resting upon a ministry. But numbers should not be the standard for success or failure. Chadwick blames the church growth movement for accepting our capitalistic culture's use of numbers, giving them "the authority to define success or failure in a ministry" (p. 81). In order to truly interpret the numbers, we must begin to distinguish between "conversion growth" and "transfer growth." We must not assume that all increase in numbers is "conversion growth" for even in the best of churches the ratio of conversion growth accounts for only 50% of new members. In most churches the ratio of conversion growth is less than 10-20% of new members. This means that the other 80-90% of new members to any church are former members of other churches. These high figures indicate how widespread the acceptance of "church hopping" and "transfer growth" are in the evangelical church in America. To suggest, like Chadwick does, that this is indicative of a moral failure is to incriminate a large number of people who value their personal choice and consumer rights over corporate solidarity and long-term loyal commitment.

One of the most helpful chapters from a pastoral perspective is the chapter on the hidden costs of stealing sheep. Chadwick lists seven costs--all of them brimming with pastoral insight. I highlight the first two.

Sheep stealing cripples churches through extensive transfer decline. The average church in America consists of approximately 100 members. If a new church in any area grows by 2000 people in the space of 10 years and its transfer growth rate is only 50% (a very conservative number), then 1000 of the 2000 people have left other churches to become part of this growing new church. This means that 10 other churches have either died or countless numbers of churches have had their membership severely impacted by the growth of one church. Obviously, the possibility for hard feelings among local churches is high. This diminishes partnering opportunities with other churches for fear of losing even more members to another church's ministry.

Sheep stealing kills the vision and passion of church leaders. Many pastors invest great amounts of time, energy and love in the lives of their parishioners, hoping for a reciprocal commitment from them. To lose these members to other churches after so much personal expenditure is difficult. It is hard not to take this rejection personally. Sadly, it is usually the most problematic parishioners that take up most of any pastor's time and it is generally these same parishioners who are easily swayed to move on to greener pastures. Over time, constant rejection creates cynicism and hard hearts. The pastor learns to insulate himself by remaining clinically detached and professional in the presence of newcomers. Eventually this deadens not only the pastor's heart, but also the pastor's vision for leading his church. It is hard to create a people committed to a common mission because of the constant turnaround of members.

In order to truly benefit the kingdom of God and not one particular church, we must be willing to call "church hopping" and "sheep stealing" sin. Refusing to attach one's self to one body in loyal and loving commitment is not indicative of mature Spirit-led love. Growing at the expense of other churches is stealing and must not be tolerated or left unchallenged.

Chadwick offers many practical suggestions in the final chapter of his book for discouraging "church hopping" and reducing "sheep stealing." Clearly, there are situations that demand a change of church, although the situations are probably more rare than most are willing to recognize. One of the most obvious situations that allows for authentic transfer growth revolves around a parishioner's change of location.

Ultimately, Chadwick argues that authentic transfer growth should be about "rescuing sheep" not "stealing sheep" (p. 157). Some sheep need to be rescued from churches where the Gospel is not preached or where false teaching and heresy abound. Some need to be rescued from abusive church settings. But each situation is unique and must be approached with wisdom, discernment, and caution.

"Growth for the sake of growth is wrong. How a church grows matters" (p. 30). The orientation of transfer growth "is not the good of God's kingdom but the prosperity of one individual or church" (p. 30). Building a church primarily on transfer growth is hurtful to the church-at-large and potentially damaging to a local church. Those who easily transfer into a church usually find it easy to transfer out at their convenience. We can take it for granted that those on the elusive search for "better worship," "better preaching," or "better programs" will never rest in one place for long. Our consumer culture has impacted our people far more than they realize. We must help them to identify this "worldliness" that pervades their thinking and choices.

Perhaps the greatest negative facet of transfer growth is the expenditure of evangelistic energy to win sheep from other folds rather than the lost to Christ. One clear indicator of whether a church is growing primarily through "transfer growth" or "conversion growth" is to assess the number of baptisms performed. "As our ministries grow, let's be sure that we are not contributing to the demise of another church. When new members join our congregations there should be baptisms, or else we are facilitating yet another spin on the church merry-go-round" (p. 11).

Chadwick has done the church a great service in clearly demonstrating the hidden dangers of transfer growth. Now may God grant his church the boldness to speak against our culture's dominant values of consumer choice and comfortable options by courageously pointing out the sinfulness of church hopping and sheep stealing. If this personal confession turned theological challenge establishes a mutual consensus on the moral error of sheep stealing, then it may initiate dialogue among sister churches that will have far-reaching implications in the future. Perhaps we will even start growing again!

© Richard J. Vincent, September 11, 2001