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 this article. A friend of mine posted it on her Facebook page. I then posted it on mine.
It has caused a bit of stir in that it is not done by my denomination (The UCC) but it was if you were writing the
future of the church I serve if change does not continue. I love this church and God is surely at work but
human beings seem to struggle with change as if they are undergoing an amputation Sometimes it seems as if they would rather destroy what is there than be part of change. God requires change for God’s people. Just read The Acts of the Apostles! I really appreciated this article and I felt I wasn’t alone.
Sad but true. Why is it that everything in American life is willing to re-engineer but church. Churches must allow others such as yourself make recommendations and then they must take the plunge to change.
It has been said that the only one in church that wants change is the wet baby in the nursery. I
I pastor that church. The only difference is that 10 years later we have relocated, restructured by-laws to reflect a more relevant ecclesiology, found new ways to engage the unchurched, and embraced a thriving missional church culture. From a church that was 3 funerals away from closing the doors to a church that sees new faces walk through the door each week. From a church that had plants in the baptistry to a church that regularly baptizes adults who were formerly estranged from God. It can be done. It is difficult, hard work leading through change, but it is not mission impossible. Church planting is a powerful tool. But how valuable is the Kingdom resources stored in the buildings, property, and people of these dying churches? This past Sunday I was hugging one of our original Senior adults who just turned 90. She gets it. I just had to be patient and be willing to spend some time teaching with love what change could do to impact someone’s eternity.
It’s all about #5 for me. So many of our congregation still perceive Evangelism or outreach has been a multinational activity. It is something we do in another country we don’t need to do it in our own suburbs. That is so far from the truth. But we don’t want to offend our neighbors with our religion. We don’t want to assume anything about them or we assume they are just like us, or worse, not at all like us and thus not worth our efforts.
Wow. Thank you for this post.
I am a younger guy in an older, more traditional church. Sometimes it is a little frustrating to see my church lagging behind the times a little bit.
But when I compare my church to this autopsy, I see lots of reasons to be thankful and optimistic:
Early in our church’s history, we committed to give 25% of our budget to missions, and we have honored that commitment ever since.
Recently there has been a renewed emphasis on impacting the community around us, and we have a clear purpose and mission.
Ironically, the church that had the vision to plant our church back in the ’50s is probably what you would call ‘terminal;’ they have shrunk and aged and become isolated and irrelevant in their community, and they probably won’t be around in 5-10 years.
Funnily, I’m the relative youngster (35) who prefers the older music. 😉
I recently returned to church after a few years of not bothering, to my original denomination after having a negative experience with another church. That said, the other church WAS alive, they were mixed, they were old and young, they got out in the community…but they were “holy rollers”, and that set off red flags (because I’m not convinced that stuff like spontaneously falling over and babbling incoherently is the power of the *Holy* Spirit, not to mention a few places where I felt their *other* beliefs conflicted with the clear and plain word of Scriptures. YMMV).
But I go to this church, and it’s almost all older people, except for the minister, who’s probably about my age or a little younger. I think to some extent they’re trying, but none of us really seem to be certain of what to do. The whole denomination seems like it has stagnated since long before I was born. :/
I remember my brother and wife after visiting a church that had people falling between the pews and not in order (I Co. 12-14). They were ‘whiter’ than ghosts and troubled for quite some time. I know my brother fell right into the category Paul said, “They will think you are luny…” I believe in the force (power in Greek) of our God and all the gifts (no Apostles though who had to be eye witnesses of our Lord Jesus).
It keeps coming down to believing in the Word as the truth and ultimate authority over my life and other people AND HOW MATURE are you in the Lord? DISCERNMENT is necessary in maturity which makes decisions, stands fast in them, and does what is right. You can have self control and order with the force of God’s moving and the force of the gifts operating IF we have some maturity!
Dr. Rainer,
Thanks for sharing. I started pastoring a church slightly over 2 years ago that had dwindled to 8 people, with an average member age of 80 years old. I asked the group then that had not had a pastor in 4 years “if they were sure they were ready for change” and one 86 year old mother stated “if we dont change, lock the door in 1 year”! I was amazed in her honesty, I felt the pull of God tugging at my heart. In 2 years God has provided spiritual growth and numerical. We have average of 70-100 adults and 25 children in children’s church. We have completly renovated the building, the community is excited we exsist again. I pray we never get stuck, lose sight, or get focused inward. It’s sad to see a church die. In our community many are in “ICU” on life support. Great read, thanks. #breaking100barrier
Hey, you just wrote an article about the church I’ve been called to pastor!!
Seriously, every point in this autopsy has been true of this congregation. In the 130+ year history, there have been over 30 pastors. The huge building that was once very nice is ill-kept and in some places actually deteriorating. The community is changing drastically, both in racial makeup and socioeconomic realities.
The only answer is for the Holy Spirit to breathe new life into the church.
As some of the previous commenters have noted, I think some of these point in the article are causes, and some are indicators of other issues. That being said, however, the one single overarching reality is the lack of the power of the Holy Spirit within the individual lives of the believers, as well as His presence and empowerment within the congregation as a whole.
I liken it to Israel after their return from the Babylonian exile. They rebuilt the Temple, and under Ezra rebuilt the altar. But the Ark, the indicator of the presence and power of God with His people, was absent.
And no one noticed.
No one asked “Hey, where is God?”
I imagine that in the 400+ years before the birth of Christ, that many of the people who worshipped at the Temple were godly, they loved God, pursued Him, sacrificed to Him. I’m sure many of the priests were godly men who carried out their rituals and duties with hearts full for God.
God’s people doing what they were supposed to do, when they were supposed to do it, where they were supposed to do it, in the way they were supposed to do it.
And the power of God wasn’t there.
It wasn’t until old Simeon, whose only description in the Bible is that “the Holy Ghost was on him,” was at the Temple one day, and in walks this young couple with a baby. Simeon, the guy with the Holy Spirit resting on him, is the only person who suddenly recognized – God’s back!
I know there are demographic studies that can be done to provide tighter targeting for promotional materials. There are vision-casting strategies, transformational workshops with tons of great ideas, stewardship campaigns.
All of these are good, and might address the perceived need for the various points within this autopsy.
But there is only one answer, in my opinion.
Realizing that we are like the people in Israel, who are good, godly people going through all the motions, but without any power.
The church falling on its knees and asking, pleading, for God to revive them.
I know that’s the only answer for the church where I serve.
And it doesn’t come without a price. Even more people will leave. The church, the leadership, and the pastor will be attacked – sometimes physically – within the community. People will disagree, trying to exert control over the few resources that are left.
But only God and His life-giving Holy Spirit can bring life from death.
Well stated Mark.
Thom,
This is a good list of warnings. I wonder how connected this list is to each item on the list. Does the routine of a shortened tenure of the Pastor contribute to many other elements on the list? Does the lack of emphasis on the appearance of the buildings create an unwelcome environment to invite new people? Does the lack of prayer by the church set the stage of a “me first” mindset? Thanks you for sharing these eleven.
Jojhn –
I have little doubt that most of the factors are interrelated.
Thom,
Your “Autopsy of a Deceased Church” is dead on. (Excuse the pun) Several years ago I begin researching the opposite. I looked at churches that were growing and increasing in numbers through new salvations and baptisms, as well as reaching the unchurched within their local communities. We were able to identify seven common key ministries within all of the Churches that we studied. What we discovered was that a church may have more than these seven key ministries in its organizational structure, but without the seven key ministries all being active and linked together like a chain it was almost impossible for a church to be a Great Commission Church within its community. I concluded that “When any one of these seven key ministry links becomes weak or broken it seemed impossible for church members to pull in the same direction needed for church growth, and membership retention. I see the 11 things you identified in your autopsy as a confirmation to our findings within a growing church.
The seven key ministries we identified are listed along with free ministry instruction manuals at http://bit.ly/ZKlstj
Dysfunctional and spiritually depraved churches will linger for a long time. Only when they run out of money will they become termina
I am wondering how much of these are “indicative symptoms” and how many are “causes”. Has anyone tried to look at churches’ behaviors over the previous 20 years and compare which ones died and which are still strong?
Warren –
Based on my years of consulting and research, I think most of the 11 items are symptomatic rather than causative.
Good question.