Koinonitis ● Over-active fellowship, people turned inward. ● Work focused on maintenance, not outreach. ● “Church is for saints, not for sinners.” ● Little attempt to bring new Christians into church. ● Few or no friends outside of church. ● Common to immigrant churches, high group consciousness, charismatic groups.

Koinonitis ● CURE: ● Rearrange and divide existing groups. ● Keep small groups “porous.” ● Start new groups regularly. ● Be sure all levels of sanctification have groups of their own.

Arrested Spiritual Development ● DEFINITION: A condition where decisions don't become disciples. ● SYMPTOMS: Many members can't articulate their faith and their relationship to Christ. ● Poorly defined vision and philosophy of ministry. ● Purposeless education program. ● Dull, lifeless worship services. ● Crisis-oriented pastoral care only. ● Pastor leaves every 4-6 years.

Arrested Spiritual Development ● MORE SYMPTOMS: Deficient Bible knowledge ● Little or no soul-winning. ● Poor spiritual formation ● Spiritual gifts neither recognized nor used. ● CURE: Revival by the Holy Spirit. ● Emphasize prayer and evangelism. ● Re-state church's vision that stretches the congregation's faith.

Arrested Spiritual Development ● MORE CURES: Disciple and equip, rather than educate. ● Pastor must develop the following traits: stays put, Great Commission minded, gutsy, ranches the herd rather than shepherds the flock. ● Discover and use people's spiritual gifts. ● Worship that gives an experience of God rather than information about God.

People Blindness ● DEFINITION: Oblivious to cultural differences. ● SYMPTOMS: The attitude that other cultures are inferior ● Trying to do cross-cultural evangelism in a mono-cultural way. Not recognizing barriers in language, dialects, and lifestyles. ● Problems in assimilating people.

People Blindness ● CURES: Affirm the cultural heritage of each cultural group. ● Reach different cultural groups in culturally appropriate ways.

Hyper- Cooperativism ● DEFINITION: Cooperation for the wrong ends (e.g. Joint evangelistic crusades) ● Push for cooperation and mergers because of dwindling resources. ● A lot of time spent in evangelism, but no results. Decisions, but no disciples. ● Identity of each congregation is blurred. ● A lot of pastors' time spent in merging instead of evangelism.

Hyper- Cooperativism ● CURE: Limit cooperation to joint theological education, social services, and church unity; but not evangelism.

Sociological Strangulation ● DEFINITION: Overcrowding of facilities ● SYMPTOMS: Church growth stops. ● Sanctuary 80% full. ● CURE: Build sanctuary larger. ● Hold parallel services in other rooms of same building. ● Start daughter church. ● Home meetings ● Weekday services, multiple services

St. John's Syndrome ● DEFINITION: Christianity of Faith and form, but no power. ● SYMPTOMS: Most members raised in Christian families. 3 rd and 4 th generation Christians. ● Loss of first love for Jesus Christ, or never experienced first love. ● Infiltration of false doctrine. ● Affluence that leads to lukewarmness. ● Biological/transfer growth only.

St. John's Syndrome ● Patterns of worship are frozen. ● Revival and renewal is rejected theologically. ● PREVENTION: Steady influx of new and excited converts.

Other Diseases ● ETHNICITIS – an unchanging church in an ethnically changing neighborhood. ● SYMPTOMS: new minorities moving into neighborhood, vandalism of church property, deteriorating buildings. ● CURE: terminal disease, with a few options. – Die with dignity. – Sell building and move. – Hire minority pastor to become a multi- ethnic church. – Forge new kind of homogeneity. – Become multi-congregational.

Other Diseases ● REVERSE ETHNICITIS – immigrant church which moves into a majority culture neighborhood.

Other Diseases ● GHOSTTOWN DISEASE – a church located in a disappearing community. ● SYMPTOMS: no weddings, no baptisms, people leaving neighborhood for education and jobs, no one moving in. ● CURE: none. ● Share a pastor from another congregation. ● Remove guilt from the community. ● Die with dignity.