{"id":741685,"date":"2021-04-20T05:00:41","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T10:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=741685"},"modified":"2021-04-19T20:32:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T01:32:37","slug":"9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. When nobody\u2019s praying about the process.<\/b> I\u2019m convinced that every consulting team and every church undergoing consultation must be covered in prayer in the process. We\u2019re dealing with <\/span>God\u2019s church<\/span><\/i>, and to go through a consultation without seeking the wisdom and presence of God is to operate too much in our own power.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. When the lead pastor isn\u2019t really on board with the consult. <\/b>I\u2019ve seen this happen particularly when another leadership group in the church almost requires the pastor to accept the consult\u2014a situation that already reveals problems in the church.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. When the leadership fails to accept the depth of the problems.<\/b> Typically, the leaders recognize some problems, but sometimes they don\u2019t understand just how deeply the issues have affected the church. When we point them out, these leaders tend to become defensive.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. When leaders don\u2019t fully explain to the church the purpose and plan for the consultation.<\/b> I\u2019ve interviewed laypersons who began the conversation with, \u201cWho are you, and why are you here? They asked us to be available for an interview, but they didn\u2019t tell us why.\u201d An uninformed church will also be an uninvolved church in the consult.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. When the church keeps no records of attendance, additions, etc.<\/b> We can learn <\/span>a lot <\/span><\/i>about a church by looking at things like growth trends, assimilation patterns, and giving trajectories. It\u2019s almost impossible to do, however, when the church has been unconcerned about numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. When the church is seemingly unaware of, and unconcerned about, the community around them.<\/b> If the church assumes the consultant\u2019s role is only to deal with internal issues\u2014and they don\u2019t even ask questions about the community they need to reach\u2014it takes long-term effort to turn their attention outward.<\/span><\/p>\n

7. When the church is comfortable with transfer growth.<\/b> That is, they don\u2019t care about <\/span>how <\/span><\/i>their church grows; they just want to see increased numbers. They\u2019re pleased if\u00a0 they grow at all, even if it\u2019s at the expense of other congregations in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

8. When the church has other previous reports sitting on a shelf.<\/b> They\u2019ve been through this process before, ignored the suggestions then, and likely assume they\u2019ll do the same this time. This kind of situation is most frustrating to a consultant.<\/span><\/p>\n

9. When the church refuses to ask for help\u2014which means they don\u2019t even consider a consultation in the first place.<\/b> No matter who we are or what success we\u2019ve had as church leaders, we can use outside eyes on our work at times. When we\u2019re unwilling to admit that need, we lose out on the benefit of learning from other brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Church Answers consulting team, on the other hand, wants to make a difference in local churches. We want to walk alongside struggling pastors and churches to help them walk well into the future. That\u2019s one reason I\u2019m glad we now offer<\/span> virtual consulting<\/span><\/a> that any church can use. I encourage you to check it out!<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these…","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":741686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-741685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chuck Lawless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"headline\":\"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\"},\"wordCount\":579,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\",\"name\":\"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\"},\"description\":\"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":628},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/\",\"name\":\"Church Answers\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f\",\"name\":\"Chuck Lawless\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Chuck Lawless\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers","description":"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers","og_description":"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.","og_url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/","og_site_name":"Church Answers","article_published_time":"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":628,"url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Chuck Lawless","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Chuck Lawless","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/"},"author":{"name":"Chuck Lawless","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"headline":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult","datePublished":"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/"},"wordCount":579,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png","articleSection":["Church Answers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/","name":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult | Church Answers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png","datePublished":"2021-04-20T10:00:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f"},"description":"I\u2019ve been a church consultant for more than 20 years. My wife and I have closed our company, the Lawless Group, to join the Church Answers consulting team, and I remain excited about the possibilities of our helping struggling churches. I\u2019ve learned, though, that not every consultation leads toward health and renewal, particularly in these cases.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Blog-Article-Picture-34.png","width":1200,"height":628},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/9-times-when-church-consulting-is-difficult\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"9 Times When Church Consulting is Difficult"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/","name":"Church Answers","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/09e294734245d3978e67deffd6991c7f","name":"Chuck Lawless","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b99cf3a5686c69c6ee0fa69473f5a659bee7daaa31ff24217be46675fd10a5bd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Chuck Lawless"},"description":"Dr. Chuck Lawless is a leading expert in spiritual consultation, discipleship and mentoring. As a former pastor, he understands the challenges ministry presents and works with Church Answers to provide advice and counsel for church leaders.","url":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/author\/clawless\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741685"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741688,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741685\/revisions\/741688"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}