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.
More from Thom
473 Comments
Thom, can you explain what you meant with # 4 “The percentage of the budget for members’ needs kept increasing. At the church’s death, the percentage was over 98 percent.” ?
I am quite concerned that SBC churches as well as “mainline” denomination churches seem to be on Life Support, while the non-denomination churches are growing and thriving…and I live in the “Bible Belt”! SBC churches seem to hold onto the past and to what is comfortable, and one theory is that the name “Baptist” has a negative connotation. I was practically born in a SBC church and now I sometimes feel more welcome in the non-denom environment. Most of my adult children attend non-denom churches and are active in serving.
So much attention seems to be on the worship “event” and very little Discipleship is taking place. Our fast food religion and high tech world seems to be producing “Christians” with little or no nutritional/spiritual value.
Now, I hear that some SBC churches are in hospice care. Like someone stated perhaps too much time and effort is given to maintenance that the machine needs replacing.
I would love to hear the words VITAL, VIBRANT, THRIVING…and see the effects of those words in our churches. Perhaps the local church needs a resurrection!
What a great article. This is amazing work. Our church grew last year from 20 – 70. We did the opposite of all the things in the autopsy report above. We looked upward to Christ, outward to our community and inward to encourage one another. They said it couldn’t be done..now other small churches are asking us..what’s your secret? How’d you do it? Bible preaching…loving every person who walks through the door, helping those in need. Praying for each other and our community. Making children feel special. It’s all been very easy. God KNEW we could do it..He was just waiting for us to realize it.
Tim Hall.
Huntsville, Alabama
Our church grew last year from 20 – 70. We the opposite of all the things in the autopsy report above. We looked upward to Christ, outward to our community and inward to encourage one another. They said it couldn’t be done..now other small churches are asking us..what’s your secret? How’d you do it? Bible preaching…loving every person who walks through the door, helping those in need. Praying for each other and our community. Making children feel special. It’s all been very easy. God KNEW we could do it..He was just waiting for us to realize it.
Tim Hall.
Huntsville, Alabama
I recently finished reading Autopsy of a Deceased Church. For the most part I thought it was very good. However, on page 41, second paragraph you said, “The imperative in those verses is “go.” The implications of that really bothered me. I double checked the Greek again and “go” in the Greek is a participle. “Disciple” is the only imperative! A literal translation would be, “Going therefore disciple all the nations, baptizing them to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you.” Or “As you are going (to you neighborhood, or job, or school, or bowling league, or third place, etc.) make disciples.”
The focus is not on the “go” but on making disciples (not converts but followers of Christ who recognize Him as Lord of their life).
Thom, are you familiar with the research of Dr. Richard A. Myers? It is not well known, partly because there was very little published about it. However, as someone with PhD level training in social science research at a Big Ten university, I can say it is probably the best research ever done on churches. One of the things he learned is that what almost everyone believes about Easter attendance is a myth. I was present when, based on his research, he predicted exactly how many people were present on Easter at one church. (Usually he was only close.)
Am being interviewed by a church of Christ, 6 members. They (or she, the secretary) asked me five questions over the internet, e.g. who would you be responsible to, etc. “They” even asked me if I would send them a “professional” resume instead of the one I already sent. Maybe they are testing me? The gist of this: they are dying, they know it, and I truly believe they blame their death on previous preachers. What a shame! I sensed no love nor dedication to Christ while speaking to one of the leaders on the phone. Am I paranoid or has Jesus left them to their own devices???
I’ve been asking churches “Are your MEMORIES bigger than your DREAMS?” Are the memories of what [insert name] church used to be / have / do bigger than your dreams of what [insert name] church can be / have / do? Our churches need to stop living in the past; they need to forget about the “glory years” and look at the “founding years” – looking at the passion and the willingness do something new that the church planters who founded [insert name] church.