Do not say that I didn’t tell you, because I did, just now. The American church (USA) is in a bad situation.

In business, gap analysis is a process that compares a company’s current performance to its desired performance. It helps identify the gap between where a business is currently and where it wants to be. These types of things are not usually taught to pastors and many pastors do not have any upper-level management experience in business.

The steps are quite simple:
Identify the current state
Identify where you want to go
Identify the gaps
Bridge the gaps

Pastors must be able to determine whether goals or objectives are being achieved much the same as business; after all, is this not Kingdom Business on a Kingdom level?

Where is the spiritual growth/maturity? Discipleship is a journey of spiritual growth is it not? Discipleship is teaching, leading, and demonstrating to others what it means to think, act, and speak as a follower of Christ. Discipleship is often a relationship with a mentor.
Discipleship requires believers to respond to the Holy Spirit’s prompting to examine their thoughts, words, and actions and compare them with the Word of God. If this doesn’t describe your Pastor and Elder/leadership board, then I have some disheartening news for you. You need new leadership.

With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, pastors and elders should be able to create an action plan to bridge the identified gaps and be able to prioritize areas that need improvement, investment and even restructuring. As I said above, this oftentimes requires the restructuring of the leadership or elder board itself.

Have you ever heard of Peter Principle? The Peter Principle is a theory of management that seeks to explain why many companies have seemingly ineffective management staff. It states that rather than promoting people to the roles they are best suited for; companies will tend to promote effective employees to roles where they are not qualified. This happens in the Church time and time again.

Have you ever wondered why your church isn’t producing evergreen ministries, that they simply become ineffective and eventually die. What about those churches that have been stagnating for years on end, have you ever wondered why?
It is because your pastor is not equipped, and neither is your elder/leadership board.

It is time to look deeper within the church and get something done. Lives depend on it. Even pastors surround themselves and then listen to people who tell them what they want to hear instead of those with the wisest answer. Why do you think that is? Have you not observed this too, seriously? The church in the West is in a bad situation. Do not say that I didn’t tell you, because I did, just now.