I was their church consultant in 2003. The church’s peak attendance was 750 in 1975. By the time I got there the attendance had fallen to an average of 83. The large sanctuary seemed to swallow the relatively small crowd on Sunday morning.
The reality was that most of the members did not want me there. They were not about to pay a consultant to tell them what was wrong with their church. Only when a benevolent member offered to foot my entire bill did the congregation grudgingly agree to retain me.
I worked with the church for three weeks. The problems were obvious; the solutions were difficult.
On my last day, the benefactor walked me to my rental car. “What do you think, Thom?” he asked. He could see the uncertainty in my expression, so he clarified. “How long can our church survive?” I paused for a moment, and then offered the bad news. “I believe the church will close its doors in five years.”
I was wrong. The church closed just a few weeks ago. Like many dying churches, it held on to life tenaciously. This church lasted ten years after my terminal diagnosis.
My friend from the church called to tell me the news. I took no pleasure in discovering that not only was my diagnosis correct, I had mostly gotten right all the signs of the impending death of the church. Together my friend and I reviewed the past ten years. I think we were able to piece together a fairly accurate autopsy. Here are eleven things I learned.
- The church refused to look like the community. The community began a transition toward a lower socioeconomic class thirty years ago, but the church members had no desire to reach the new residents. The congregation thus became an island of middle-class members in a sea of lower-class residents.
- The church had no community-focused ministries. This part of the autopsy may seem to be stating the obvious, but I wanted to be certain. My friend affirmed my suspicions. There was no attempt to reach the community.
- Members became more focused on memorials. Do not hear my statement as a criticism of memorials. Indeed, I recently funded a memorial in memory of my late grandson. The memorials at the church were chairs, tables, rooms, and other places where a neat plaque could be placed. The point is that the memorials became an obsession at the church. More and more emphasis was placed on the past.
- The percentage of the budget for members’ needs kept increasing. At the church’s death, the percentage was over 98 percent.
- There were no evangelistic emphases. When a church loses its passion to reach the lost, the congregation begins to die.
- The members had more and more arguments about what they wanted. As the church continued to decline toward death, the inward focus of the members turned caustic. Arguments were more frequent; business meetings became more acrimonious.
- With few exceptions, pastoral tenure grew shorter and shorter. The church had seven pastors in its final ten years. The last three pastors were bi-vocational. All of the seven pastors left discouraged.
- The church rarely prayed together. In its last eight years, the only time of corporate prayer was a three-minute period in the Sunday worship service. Prayers were always limited to members, their friends and families, and their physical needs.
- The church had no clarity as to why it existed. There was no vision, no mission, and no purpose.
- The members idolized another era. All of the active members were over the age of 67 the last six years of the church. And they all remembered fondly, to the point of idolatry, was the era of the 1970s. They saw their future to be returning to the past.
- The facilities continued to deteriorate. It wasn’t really a financial issue. Instead, the members failed to see the continuous deterioration of the church building. Simple stated, they no longer had “outsider eyes.”
Though this story is bleak and discouraging, we must learn from such examples. As many as 100,000 churches in America could be dying. Their time is short, perhaps less than ten years.
What do you think of the autopsy on this church? What can we do to reverse these trends?
Posted on April 24, 2013
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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473 Comments
Thank you for the courage to honestly observe the Church and write this article. I am in a denomination that closes many more churches than they plant. In our region, the last new church was in the 1980’s, and we’ve been closing one church a year for many years. I asked if we’ve even done an autopsy, and the answer was no, and we never will. I would love to be in a community that talks about these issues.
Very interesting story. Unfortunately, this is happening all over the world.
The church needs a remedy and has to really place their trust in the One in whom they preach about and have faith in.
Thom, I read this article and then I shared it with our church email members. Although our church is not at this place now, I could easily see it happening. This article could serve as a wake-up to us because there are so many churches that are slowly headed this way. I know many churches in our area have done away with Sunday night services; and I believe that’s just the beginning of the death of the church.
Dr. Ranier, your blog Autopsy of a Deceased church hit home 100%. I am Pastoring a church that is dying or really is dead. There has been almost zero growth in the past 5 years that I have been here. Average age is 70 and only 2 Baptisms in past 2 years. I have a retired pastor and his wife that feel called to this church and are helping but are not interested it seems in trying anything “new”. I think a blend of contemporary and some traditional is worth a try but fail to be able to institute any significant change. the community has changed from white to hispanic. but we do not seem to be able to reach them. We have a food pantry, our only ministry outreach at this time. I suggested we put the building up for sale and take the proceeds and start in a small storefront that we could afford,.voted down. the building is paid for but is in sad state of neglect and old. (1897) the average income per month is about 1200 dollars enough to pay the bills. we rent the downstairs fellowship hall to a Haitian church but they are also very small. I am open for any help or suggestions at all.
Elmer –
Unless the church truly decides to reach the community in which it is located, the prognosis is not good. You are in my prayers friend.
So true, the church must decide on its mission, it needs a concrete vision with goals to drive it. In effect it needs to decide to change or stay the same. If it decided not to change or reach the community around it then there is nothing a pastor can do there. They simply are not willing to strive for God’s will in the life of the church. Praying too. Thom I am so thankful you are speaking truth to Pastors.
Thank you Maren.
I am part of a church which has held steady at about 350-400 attendance but has had problems maintaining a decent-sized youth dept. There is a core of about 65 people who volunteer, serve on committees and organize things, with the rest content to come to church & worship & that’s it. I’m in my late 30s and PREFER the pews & hymnals. Church with folding chairs and videoscreen lyrics leave me cold…that isn’t worship, to me. In previous years I have served this church in multiple ways, becoming extremely involved in things, but over the past 2 years, I’ve suffered from illness to the point that it’s hard to maintain my home and keep up appearances, and I have stopped going. They are so focused on missions and serving others in the community, nation and world, that the congregational needs are sometimes overlooked. As soon as new members join, it’s like they are pounced on- what can you do for us??? Donate this, volunteer for that, give give give… sometimes congregational members of the church need help too. Sometimes we are too poor to give or donate anything, and sometimes everyone just seems so perfect and “together” that it’s hard to feel like I’m worthy of being there, when my house is filthy and I can’t get motivated to do anything due to depression and grieving. I need help with things as a single mom, and I’m too embarrassed to ask. I no longer serve on committees, volunteer, play sports, or help much, and no I’m not elderly. I work a full time job and keep my bills paid. Sometimes I go to church and sit in worship, feeling raw and unworthy to be there, and the familiarity of everything is a huge comfort. The hymnals and unison prayers and pews comfort me, and sometimes that is the only comfort I have.
As church restoration specialists who go into dying churches and help them – we can say that this post is bang on! The article posted “6 Steps DYING Churches Must Take to Find Life” on ChurchLeaders.com to follow up on this post is also precisely true! We have found this in every church we have helped. Good job and thank you for getting the word out.
Thank you so much!
I really appreciate this insight. Albeit common sense to a minister’s call, it is still very much an issue. I pastor three small rural churches and much of the conversation is spent talking about times past and good this was or how many used to come. Board meetings consist of counting money and dealing with a building not a people. This article came at the perfect time for me and I am going to look very closely at all 11 of these signs. Thank You!
Blessings to you and your churches Jim.