The Ingrown Church

I was given this article a few years ago...it is good ammunition to fight against becoming...as Pink Flyod sang about, "Comfortably Numb".

The Marks of an Ingrown Church.
from C. John Millar’s Outgrowing the Ingrown Church


1. Tunnel Vision. The potential ministries of the church are limited to those that can be accomplished by the visible, human resources at hand. They are also limited by recollections of past negative experiences and perceptions of present obstacles.

2. Shared Sense of Group Superiority. A positive feature of the church is elevated and then compared with churches which lack this quality. It can be the history of the congregation, a superior knowledge of the Scriptures, separation from the world [no drinking, no smoking, no movies].

3. Extreme Sensitivity to Negative Human Opinion. The church tries all it can to accommodate everyone and keep everyone happy. Jesus did not avoid conflict on fundamental issues.


4. Niceness in Tone. An ingrown church wants a nice pastor to preach nice sermons about a nice Jesus delivered in a nice tone of voice. The church wants everybody to be comfortable and undisturbed. Christ brings about crisis in the lives of people.


5. Christian Soap Opera in Style. The church is characterized by endless, repeated conversations and gossip. Members use their tongues a lot, not to witness or pray or praise or encourage, but to review one another’s flaws, doings and sins. The members of church often have “roast pastor” for lunch.


6. Confused Leadership Roles. Church members do not want officers who are trying to be pacesetters for God’s kingdom. This is especially true of the small church, where fear of change often runs high. The reason for this should be clear. In the typical, self-centered church there is a hidden determination to eradicate enthusiasm that disturbs the comfortable routine. Zeal for Christ’s kingdom is hard for old wineskins to handle. In this system elders lack great convictions about God and His gospel and have little active role in the daily lives of the church members.


7. A Misdirected Purpose. The ingrown church is concerned with survival, not with growth through the conversion of the lost. The unity in the church is essentially that of a comfortable, private club determined to protect its traditional values and privileges.