Dying Churches

A friend posted a message on a discussion list and mentioned he was part of a dying church.

I was an elder in a dying church at one time, and God used that experience to change me and move me in my theological journey.  While I was there I was asked to be on the outreach committee.  I knew practically nothing about the topic and had very little interest in it, but I also believe that God uses the local church as one of his instruments to shape us in the direction he wants us to go, so I agreed to join, and later chair the committee.

I began to research outreach, and over time I found three types of materials:

1.  Canned methodologies – We did ABC here, if you do ABC there, it will work for you.

2.  Abstract ideas – 10 Signs of a Vibrant Church (not an actual title but a representative one)

3.  Indepth spiritual studies of church dynamics.

The first type of materials were not helpful nor were they thoughtful.  The second type had some helpful insights but really only painted a portrait in the abstract about what a healthy church looks like; there was no path for getting from here to there if your congregation wasn’t already vibrant and healthy.

The third type of materials were harder to find, but I did find some.  Turning around a dying church is not a science – no one knows how to do it in any reproducible fashion, but there are some resources that can help you understand what the state of your church is and how it got that way.

One book I found helpful was by Israel Galindo, entitled _The Hidden Lives of Congregations_.  It’s a good introduction to how congregational communities operate and some of the unwritten rules that govern them.  Dying churches are dying because of reasons, but generally the reasons are not well understood by the people in them because they are so used to their congregational context that they are unable to see what’s happening.  The smaller a church is, the more likely it is that it runs according to a list of unwritten rules and assumptions.  The church is like an aquarium, its members like fish.  The ethos and dynamics that run the congregation are like the water – the problem is if you’re a fish in the aquarium it’s really hard to put your finger on the nature of water.  You have to “go meta” and put yourself outside and observe like an outsider.  Books like Galindo’s will help.

Another great resource is from North Carolina Baptist leader George Bullard.  I’m a Presbyterian, not a Baptist, but Bullard and the community he’s part of was very helpful to me.  Please take some time to go through his Spiritual Strategic Journey tutorial located here:

http://www.ssjtutorial.org/

This will be helpful in diagnosing where your church is in its organizational lifecycle.

Another helpful resource is from James Furr, Mike Bonem and Jim Herrington, entitled _Leading Congregational Change_.  The entire first chapter is available as a PDF from the publisher here:

http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/52/07879476/0787947652.pdf

Let me implore, urge, and abjure you to please, please, please read this free PDF file.  You will find that you’re not alone.  Others have been where you are.

I will also note that most congregations, no matter how sincerely they may claim to want to move from maintenance to mission, simply don’t.  Most congregations would rather die than change.  That’s why 3,000 churches per year close their doors in America, when finally enough of the septuagenarians and octogenarians who remain in the congregation die and the church can’t meet its operating budget.

Having spent several years researching church turnarounds I know something about it, although I must also confess that I don’t have a track record of success.  Since I was only one elder in a dying church, I felt that I had no right to impose my views on the church, but did have a responsibility to make it known.  I presented a series of reports to the other elders, but ultimately the church leadership chose to do nothing by default.

Churches in this state may not just be dying – they may be zombies that have the appearance of a living church, but apart from divine intervention will never reach their communities or move from their current mode of maintenance.

If you will remember the death of pro golfer Payne Stewart back in the 80s, you will recall that the private jet he was on depressurized, killing all on board.  The plane continued to fly on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed, but everyone was already long dead and frozen before the plane ran out of fuel.  To all external appearances, it was still in controlled flight, but in reality the controls were locked and the crash was absolutely inevitable because there was no life in the plane, no hope of return to controlled flight.

Dying churches are like that – the controls are locked.  Unless the people inside wake up and seek God’s vision for This Church in This Community at This Time, and pray and seek His way to move at least part way across the gap between the current reality and the church’s kingdom potential, the church will die.

Observing one church in my city, I wrote this blog post a couple of years ago:

http://nakedchurch.wordpress.com/2007/08/08/embracing-congregational-death-to-birth-new-churches/

There’s more to be said, but I think that’s enough for this post.  But it’s a topic I’ve put a lot of thought into, and one which deserves more thought.