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
My husband, a geologist, has a t-shirt that reads, “Evolve or die.” It really is this simple. Churches that refuse to evolve will die. I believe that a trend towards evolution could be prompted by seminaries (all denominations) through emphasis on leadership skills, conflict resolution skills, and financial management skills (both personal and organizational financial management). Seminaries tend of focus on theology to the exclusion of practical skills. Pastors who see the need to instill change in their churches often lack the tools to turn the tide.
Good word Kellie. Thanks.
I have worked for a church for 15 years. About seven years ago, we got a new rector. A few months later, we had our regularly scheduled Annual Meeting, where, among other things, vestry members are elected. One person stated that they wanted to make sure things didn’t change too much. That statement stayed with me, because I thought it was such a stagnant statement. Yes, it is nice to build on traditions and honor them, but things in a church HAVE to change. the neighborhood changes, the world changes, people change. It is called growth. Without change, without adaptation, institutions (churches) wither and die.
For 30 of the 37 years I have been in the ministry, I have been in a pastoral role of some kind, the vast majority of it as a lead or senior pastor. My wife and I have worked together, serving mostly churches where our ministry was “search and rescue” and sadly, most of the time we were not able to bring much help. Now I serve as an assistant area overseer and one of the churches in that area is gasping for breath and refuses to do anything about it. They’ve been through three pastors in the last five years, and the last one left after trying to reach into the community and expand outreach, only, to the best of my knowledge, be rebuffed by the few congregants left. While the stories of the sick and dying churches are tragic, without a doubt, I would offer they become warnings to any church to recall “if you think you stand, take heed, lest you fall.” Jesus told us through parable to go out into the highways and country lanes and compel them to come in. If we do not heed that divine direction, then we have only ourselves to blame for the terminal diagnosis of our local fellowship.
EVERY CHURCH IVE ATTENDED IN THE STATE SHOWS SIGNS OF THE 11 ISSUES U MENTIONED. I FEEL THESE THINGS ARE ALIVE BC PPL ARE USE TO DOING WHAT THEY DO AND CHANGE IS HARD FOR MOST. I FEEL THAT IF THERE WERE MORE PPL N POSITION INTERESTED IN MAKING THINGS WHOLE AND RIGHT INSTEAD OF CLASSIFYING “EVERYTHING” THE CHURCHES COULD THRIVE AND REACH THE COMMUNITY.
I could have written that story of our church that just closed.
The only difference, our congregation was obsessed with the building. We would spend whatever necessary of our limited funds to preserve the building. Now the building is being sold and the Congregation is non existant.
We never learned that the Church is not the Building.
Maybe I am reading into this in a different way than most…. BUT, I’m sure you will find many reasons for your comments to be valid, many probably ways we all need to look at and see if they are ones we need to establish. I believe there are many reasons in opposition to some of the comments presented as well, many people just won’t post them here, or have the resources to post them here. BUT, here I go (please know, I don’t speak for the Church I work at, or have devoted myself to), but, I stand in opposition to some of your comments…excuse me, THREE weeks gives you a real objective look at any parish?? NOT AT ALL!! Try living in a parish for over 50 years, try working and ministering with the people in various ways…try living, crying, ministering and dying with them as well. THAT is a sign that “someone” has researched the particular parish…then go from there. Sure, there is room to look at all the various options in the search for a new rector, possibly a new way to look at things too…BUT, for Christ Church, Delavan, going thru a search for a new rector, we will most likely be looking for compassion for times past, and times present, a rector who won’t come in changing things in his/her agenda, but yet looking at things a new person will help us grow into as well…a person who draws us back to a God that will help us to further the mission God has presented us with here, in this community, in this ministry. Lord, in Your mercy…here our prayers!
Roberta,
I appreciate your love for your church. Would that more people were as dedicated. However, I would say that devotion to a church and or some ideal of how church should be run is neither honorable or praiseworthy if it leads to the death of the church. If a church is dying, it must be willing to ask why. Sometimes we cannot see the reasons why without an outside set of eyes. So churches bring in other CHRISTIANS who love God’s church to assess the situation. That being said, three weeks may not seem long compared to 50 years, however it is a lifetime when compared with the 60-300 seconds in which most visitors evaluate their experience at a church. Furthermore, sometimes churches stop learning and growing because we get comfortable with what we know, and with what was effective at one time in the congregations history. I do pray that God would bring the right person to your church, though I would also point out that the effectiveness of the rector will be related to the willingness of the congregation to change as God leads, if the Lord leads. Blessings to your church as it seeks its next rector.
DK
Maybe the death of a local church is Christ’s body doing some apoptosis. From our point of view it sucks that the dying cell keeps the cell walls, so to speak, while the new cell needs to rent a school or meet in living rooms but maybe from God’s point of view that is a good thing also.
I found you because you followed me on Twitter. Thank you. I’m glad I check out my followers because I appreciated this post. I agree with you. It’s sad, but true. We are the church and when we focus on a building or program or set of past ideals we die. Jesus is about giving life to us from which we pour out to others. If we don’t empty ourselves for the sake of someone else, we stagnate and die. I realized as I was looking at the books you’ve written, that I have friends who introduced me to Simple Church. What little I read, I loved. We need to get back to simply living out Jesus in a real and relevant way. Church as we knew it back when we were kids means nothing to most people now. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you Laura.
I agree with all of hem expect #1 – A church should in now way lower it’s standard’s to that of the community – it should however reach out to the community in help, ministries, and Evangelism and help the community to want to prosper and better itself.
The churches that I belonged to all had these elements – not only helping those have a better life that became members, but helping visitors to lift themselves educationlly and ecoomically to better themselves and their community.,
I also have witnessed that the older a member becomes the more they are entrenched Unless you have seniors tht think and act young go to these people and befriend them and encourage them to start living again.
One of the churches I used to belong to now has a multitude of ministries and also has the head pastor plus 3 associate pastors. It’s a church that celebrates life ad The Lord Jesus Christ – and has activities for all ages.
I served a “cat” church 12 hours weekly for 6 years. When I was called the church was in disrepair. In 6 short years they painted the outside, calked the windows, painted the sanctuary, put in new carpet, installed an accessible ramp and repaved their driveway. But they were still not satisfied and decided I needed to be replaced with a young male pastor with children. They still worshipped the long-time settled male pastor who had 4 children who remained active in the church after he retired. In the 6 years since I’ve retired they installed a new kitchen and had one settled pastor, one seminary intern, and a long-term pulpit supply pastor. After much procrastination they have just called a very part time middle-aged ordained minister who is a grandmother. I scratch my head because they are repeating the type of leadership they rejected 6 years ago. However I am happily retired and an active member of a terrific church.