I like the television show Air Disasters. It may seem odd that a guy who does a fair amount of flying for his job would like to watch a show about aircraft crashes. But I do like it.

The show is not really so much about the actual crash, but about the investigations done by government agencies such as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States and elsewhere. The show focuses upon how the investigators figure out the actual root causes (and contributing factors) that caused the crash and what safety improvements were made to enhance flight safety for us all in the aftermath.

Sometimes people ask me whether my fondness for Air Disasters makes me a nervous air traveler. It does not. Mile per mile, air travel is the safest form of transportation we have – I am more at risk of death or serious injury during my drive to or from the airport than I am while in flight.

One episode detailed a flight event that became known as the Gimli Glider incident. An Air Canada jet enroute to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, ran out of gas and became a very large and heavy glider in 1983. The air crew miraculously managed to keep the aircraft aloft long enough to land safely at the abandoned Gimli airfield. All the pilots knew was that their engines and most controls shut off mid-flight and they needed to land the plane.

Investigators found that the aircraft had simply run out of fuel. Its fuel tanks were dry. They had to figure out why.

The answer was simple. The fuelers miscalculated the fuel load – they had measured the fuel using pounds per liter instead of pounds per kilogram which was the measurement used by this new kind of aircraft. The aircraft never had enough fuel to get to Edmonton.

But this jet aircraft was no glider. It was incapable of riding air currents upward in the atmosphere as is done by true glider aircraft – it was just too heavy. They were aloft, unpowered, for quite a while gliding along. But the pilots knew they were not gliding. They were on a long downward glide slope and headed for a crash landing – and perhaps death for all aboard. The plane may have felt pretty level, but it was actually falling from the sky.

Way too often I find myself working with church leaders who describe their church as plateaued – having a flat glide slope. They are looking for some advice about how to grow, attract younger families, and that kind of stuff. They think they have some time, but they do not. What most of these churches are facing is an unpowered, long loss of altitude that is leading to a crash landing. The church has lost momentum, they have lost power, they are not going anywhere and, sadly, they are often way too late to ask for help in figuring out what they need to do to stay aloft. They simply run out of gas.

Oftentimes these church’s leaders will say, “We are an older congregation that has plateaued. We need to grow. We need to attract younger people.” They are actually about to crash the plane. To quote Napoleon, “The leader’s job is to define reality and offer hope.” Without accurately defining the reality of their situation, there is not much, if any, hope. 

• When did we last check our fuel levels? What is powering this church? Are we on fire about doing the Great Commission or just coming to church to be with our friends? Is our fuel tank being refilled with people who are more than merely replacing the people we have? Is our congregation reflective of the age demographics of the community we seek to bring to faith in Christ? 

• Take a look at the church’s attendance records over the past 10-15 years. Are we growing? Are we truly plateaued, or are we on a long, slow, downward glide slope headed for disaster? Year-to-year attendance figures are interesting, but they don’t tell the full story. We need to have a longer perspective to be honest about our situation. What is the current situation for our church?

• Have we somehow missed a succeeding generation? Are our member demographics skewing older and seeing fewer and fewer younger people who are active participants in the life and ministry of the church? When we see fewer and fewer young people in our church, a bright red light and alarm bells should be going off on our cockpit display. We are in trouble and need to take action. A church needs a “birth rate” of new believers to sustain itself. Who in the last year has come to faith in Christ because of the ministry of this church? What is the trend in our demographics?

• Do we have the courage to ask for help? It seems odd to assume that the leaders who have been leading the church during its long slow decline will spontaneously figure out how to reverse course. That’s why the interdependence of churches is so vital. If we have concerns about what is happening and with our current trajectory, are we willing to seek outside help? For those in the EFCA West district of the EFCA, we are here to help – we just need to be asked to do so.

I’m sometimes haunted by the church in Ephesus described in Revelation chapter 2. They were doing lots of things right. They had a great history. But they had strayed from their first love. They needed to consider how far they had fallen, repent, and do the things they did at first. I notice that their first step was to consider how far they had fallen. That’s defining reality. That consideration can lead to repentance and new behaviors. The other option? The removal of their lampstand.

Air Disasters is one of my favorite television shows. Not to see crashes or injured people, but to see how adjustments have been made to not let it happen again. Investigators considered how the crash happened and then took measures to fix that threat so it would not happen again.

How is our church’s energy supply? Are our engines running properly? Do we know where we are and where we are trying to go? Do we need help from outside ourselves? These are critical issues for leaders, and something to talk about. Are you willing to have that conversation?

Let us know if we can help and how your conversation goes. Contact Bob Osborne by e-mail at bob.osborne@efca.org. 

This is one of a series of articles intended to facilitate and guide church leaders’ conversations about significant issues that often are not talked about among pastors, boards, and church leadership teams. Visit the EFCA West website to see prior Something to Talk About articles.