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
At my previous church (medium-sized church) I had been sent because I have a great love for contemporary worship and hjave begun them. The church had said it wanted contemporary, told their superior it was what they wanted, and expressed to me at our initial mtg. it was what they wanted. Within the first yr. it was established (with blessing), implemented and 25% of their average attendance was attending with a congregational promise of a year’s experiment to make it work. Within 6 months the Council cancelled it, saying they did not want contemporary, and wanted a “more caring ministry to the members.” In other words, “we like the way we are and want chaplaincy care.” The church will obviously continue their decline toward demise. Meanwhile, a 5-yr.-old church-start in the community had grown from 3 people to-start to an attendance of over 200. I share this as a confirmation of the many factors you have listed — they are very much on target.
Charles,
I think you are on my devotional list. As always, I will pray for you and pray for the congregation. I am sorry things have progressed this way. While I like your phrase, “We like the way we are and want chaplaincy care,” I don’t like that it’s what they want.
So sad that people do not want to do what it takes to reach others.
Brian
Greetings, thank you for the reply and for the understanding. It is always helpful to know there are those who understand. I am now in a large-church congregation where I have been appointed to help develop an outreach program. At this stage, there is an openness and will endeavor to keep posted about the progress.
Thank you, Dr. Rainer. The truth is often hard for anyone to hear, and when people have eyes and ears only for their own ‘kind’ it is near impossible. I would add two comments that I don’t think I saw in the above.
1) small does not mean dying. Some small churches are in areas where large growth is not possible because it is a community where people come for short periods of time and leave again, or decide to retire elsewhere when the time comes, or are in remote locations. But the population of these churches may change while not increasing, thus showing that they are alive and reaching people.
2) the phrase “panta ta ethne” has ‘stuck’ in my mind since seminary. And as I have watched some of the churches that mean a great deal to me ‘die’ because they became disconnected from their communities, the issue was that the people were from a different cultural context or a different style of worship (usually in conjunction with socioeconomic change). Most of us are aware that race is an issue (if we look closely) but often we fail to recognize the differences that are more ‘hidden’ – the cultural and social differences in the ethnic groups. We (the predominant ‘white’ churches and people) always expect those who do come to our churches to become ‘like us’ culturally rather than in Christ. And it is true, too, that many ‘immigrant’ communities prefer to continue their prior cultural and ethnic traditions, being unwilling to move from their positions, too. Too bad that we seek ‘our kind’ ethnically, culturally, linguistically rather than seeking our kind as “Christ followers’.
Your article is exactly why I left the pastorate. Over 75% of the churches in the denomination I served is exactly as you speak. I served 17 years as a pastor and found that my effectiveness for the kingdom was limited and my passion for The Lord was waning. I now attend a church that is alive and reaching numerous people for Jesus. I don’t care where I serve. Be it from the pulpit or cleaning the bathroom, being a part of a community of followers that are reaching out is so life giving.
David Dollinger, I hope that your passion for the Lord is no longer waning. However, don’t underestimate the effectiveness of which God can use you in His kingdom, even as a pastor. Though we may have limitations God does not! It is not up to us to save others or to even change others. It is simply to lift Our Lord Jesus up before others. Jesus said that if we lift Him up before men than He will draw men unto Himself. I sometimes think that as Christians or Pastors that we have so much compassion to see others change their lives for Christ, that we will preach to people on their need to change. Instead of just letting Christ shine through us and allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to the hearts of others. May God Bless you in all that you do for Him! P.S.: Please forgive me if I have ever said or did anything that contributed toward your passion waning for The Lord.
My husband is a pastor and I’ll be honest….this is what we faced when we walked through the doors of our “new assignment in New Mexico” last July. But God is the Stronger One and thanks to His might, my wonderfully stubborn husband and a few dozen other courageous, God-loving, mission-minded people….we have returned from the dead!
I would love to hear more of your story in the future Julie. Thanks so much.
We would be happy to share with you Dr. Rainer…for the glory of God! You just can’t imagine what it was like…well maybe you can. 🙂
Dr. Rainer,
A few weeks ago satan reared his ugly head again in our church. This is the second major battle of “whose Spirit-led, who decides what programs are best, etc” that we’ve had. We (leaders, staff) are trying our best to reconcile with disgruntled members but we seem to be getting no where. This time its over AWANA of all things!! (They want Training Union, RAs/GAs, etc.) One member suggested my husband resign so that other members who left before would come back and start tithing. (Really?!) Please pray for us….!
And thanks for your post “Six Recent Lessons I Learned from Turnaround Churches”. This is our pattern these past few months…perhaps the reason for the pushback…
Julie
Thank you Julie. I have indeed prayed for you.
Dr. Rainer,
One final update: the cancer came back and was more aggressive and uglier than before. After 3 weeks of praying and fasting, my husband knew it was time to go…there was no life left. He resigned earlier this week. I can tell you that we have the peace and relief of knowing that we did just what God asked to the very end. God is good…all the time.
Thanks for the prayers,
Julie
Sadder still are those churches that seem to be alive and well, and have long ago became apostate. I’d like to read an autopsy on that kind of death, as well.
I pastor a little country church. We are 11miles from the nearest town. We are surrounded by The Shawnee National Forest – and people who either have a church home – or people who are not interested in a church home. We have canvassed, we have had newspaper ads, we have put posters up in public places, my business cards are in the local restaurants , we talk to everybody we meet and ask if they have a church home. Some are enthusiastic, but we never see them again. It is a beautiful little church and it brings me to tears to know that it might close, but we are down to 8 people (8 older people) – and we are praying for God to give us some instruction on what to do. At one time it was a thriving church, but was abandoned by a split many years ago.
You and your church are in my prayers Allan.
One thing which amazes me is how long the memory of a small community is. If you moved to that church to pastor, you may not realize how long the split echoes in people’s minds. When we go door-knocking in our neighborhood, people still call it the so-and-so church, along with all of the memories of things a pastor did maybe 40 years ago. It takes intentional rebranding through acts of demonstrated love to overcome that. When the apostles went to the Gentiles, the Bible tells us very little about the barriers they faced because they were Jews (“Blessed be Artemis of the Ephesians!” might give us a pretty vivid hint). Can you imagine how hard it was to convince an entire Gentile world that every experience they had with the Jewish people was misleading? But demonstrated love broke through where nothing else would. When you have a small church of older people, it is hard to get people who are able to serve in high-visibility ways. But making sure that you are constantly looking for ways to serve the community will be powerful. From your faithfulness in spreading the identity of your church, people already have at least some knowledge of it. Give them a positive association with that image and watch Almighty God touch their hearts with it.
Praise the Lord Allan!
What you need to to is pray ” spiritual warfare type” prayers. I can send you a template that i have developed and you will see a turn- around in Jesus Mighty Name.
In Christ,
Elizabeth.
You don’t have a core of membership to build upon. Your building is also not in a desirable location. Are you trying to build a community of believers or merely trying to keep a building open?
Thank you sir. I am most appreciative. I have been driven by Luke 9:62, but I have finally just said, ‘Lord I’ve done everything I know to do. If it’s going to survive -it’s going to take a miracle on your part. We all agree in prayer every day, seeking an answer.