What Hoarders Can Teach the Church

by Rik Danielsen, D. Min.

My wife and I like to watch TV shows about hoarders. Hoarders are those folks who have a serious mental illness that keeps them from throwing anything away. They have an emotional attachment to almost everything in their home including the garbage and spoiled food. Quite often the description of the show will say “so-and-so is in danger of losing his/her home. The city has threatened to condemn their property if they don’t clean it up.” There are some that are even worse, “So-and-so is in danger of having their children removed from their home because the unsanitary conditions pose such a serious health hazard to them.”

At some point the hoarders agree to work with psychologists and professional organizers to clean out their homes. They’ve even agreed to allow a TV crew to come into the home to film the whole process.

Please remember what they are facing: they are either facing having their property condemned, which means they lose ownership of the property and may become homeless, or they are in danger of losing custody of their own children. This is critical part of the story.

What happens when the psychologists, organizers, and cleaning crew show up? The hoarders are usually somewhat enthusiastic about starting the process, although their enthusiasm is tempered by some degree of fear of getting rid of their stuff. However, almost all of them begin to resist getting rid of their hoard at some point. Their emotional attachment to their stuff is so strong that even the fear of eviction or losing their children cannot motivate them to change.

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of people say they don’t mind change. When I hear that, I ask them, “How did you feel the last time your favorite TV show got canceled or they changed the time it’s shown?” We all hate change when it impacts us. This impacts groups of people as well as individuals.

Think about change in the context of the local church. Almost every church is born with a sense of enthusiasm. The people who are a part of the birth of the church are excited because they have a vision for doing great things for God. They grow because they are on mission and are trusting God for the future. At some point though, the organization plateaus in growth. Everything is fine for a while, but then they move into a maintenance phase. They are working to maintain their size, or maintain their finances, or their status in the community. Then they reach a numerical plateau or worse they go into a period of decline. Conflict raises its ugly head if there is decline in any of these areas and with that conflict comes the “blame game.” People want to know whose fault it is. Inevitably the pastor will move away out of frustration or he’ll be forced out. The logic seems to be that everything rises or falls on leadership, so a change of leadership will change things. The members of the church who are left just want to get back to the way things used to be in the church’s glory days.

There will come a point where the few people who are left will consider making a major change. Usually, that point comes when they can’t maintain the facilities or pay the utilities or both. They seek help from their denomination or they make a last ditch effort to call a young pastor who will “surely attract a young crowd and save our church.”

Then the unthinkable happens and people start talking about the things that have to change in order for their church to begin growing again and change is the very thing the congregation has been trying to avoid for years. “What’s wrong with…?” You fill in the blank. What’s wrong with our music, the way we dress, our Sunday School, or our leadership style? The old folks who are left want young people to come in and do all the work while they control all the decisions and the finances. After all, it is their church.

Even when they are facing losing their church, they refuse to change.

When the subject of change in the church comes up, someone will emphatically say “We can’t change the message of the gospel!” And they would be right. The biblical message is divinely inspired and timeless. It must not be changed. But, the church is the delivery system for the gospel. We do not have permission to change the message, ever, but we probably need to change how we deliver the message. Forty years ago it was easy to deliver the message, non-Christians came to church seeking spiritual answers, we shared the gospel with them and viola some of them got saved. Today, very few non-Christians are darkening the doors of the church looking for spiritual answers. At least they won’t do that on their own. If they are looking at all, they are looking on the internet or listening to “spiritual giants” like Oprah.

In 1957 Billy Graham recognized the power of television and began broadcasting his crusades into the televisions of millions of Americans. People have shared testimonies about sitting in bars or motel rooms when Graham’s broadcasts would come on. They have told how the message of the gospel touched them and they were saved. The delivery system changed.

At the beginning of the Covid Pandemic, churches all over the country knew they needed to change their delivery system and many found a way to get their message onto the internet. Church members and people from literally all over the world were able to connect with the church and hear the message of the gospel. I know of one small rural church in a town of two hundred residents and only twenty-five attendees that literally had thousands of people from around the world watching their pastor’s sermons online. The delivery system changed.

One of the things we’ve learned in recent years is this: the churches that God is using to win people to Christ are on mission outside of their buildings and are serving the needs of people in the community. They are getting out into the community and living winsome lives, meeting real needs, and sharing the gospel with those they minister to. They are not waiting for non-Christians to come to them. They are taking the gospel to those who need it the most. They have changed their idea of what it means to be on mission and they have changed their delivery system for the life saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Will that kind of change be comfortable? No, it will force us out of our comfort zone. Will it happen overnight? No, the beliefs and behaviors that led to decline have developed over a period of years, so change will take time, too. If we have an absolute dependence on the Lord and seek help from godly counselors/consultants, we can see things turn around for God’s glory and the good of our community and world.

“It is the whole business of the whole church to preach the whole gospel to the whole world.” Charles H. Spurgeon

Copyright Rik Danielsen 2022