Ministry 101 - Dead Churches

Contrary to what my heart says, sometimes churches die, and that's not always a bad thing!

First, what is a dead or dying church?
A dead or dying church is one that is no longer fulfilling it's mandate to fulfill the great commission and great commandment (Making fully devoted followers of Christ - see Colossians 1:28- by loving them to Christ)

Second, how do you know a church is dead or dying?
1. There are only occasional visitors. The visitors who come are typically new to the area and found the church in the phone book. If the church has stopped advertising and people have stopped inviting friends, these are clear signs that the church is dead or really close!
2. No one can remember when someone other that a church leader's child accepted Christ or was baptized. This is the point when the "us four and no more" mentality is really evident. Churches often don't even realize that they have hit this stage. A church can have several hundred in attendance and still be dead or dying, the people are typically too self-absorbed to notice.
3. Weekly addendance is completely predictable. Counting isn't necessary, you could use the church almanac to determine within ten what the attendance will be on any given weekend. The variable of ten is nearly always less, not more.
4. No one can remember when the last change occurred or new program launched. There is nothing wrong with consistency, but complacency and staleness are sure signs of death, think rigermortis!
5. The pastor (if there is one) hasn't heard anything new from the Lord about direction or what needs to be taught. This is an indicator that their own spiritual life is dead or dying!

Third, what do you do with a dead church?
1. Sometimes, you have to let it die! In fact, sometimes you have to gracefully help it through the process. A church that has been around forever and has not responded to change in its community may have nothing left but a few elderly Christians who love the Lord, put don't have the ability to impact their community for Christ. Don't disrespect that they have been faithful in their lives and their leadership didn't lead. If the bills are paid, let them continue. A great transition would be to help them see the need to reach their changed community and actually start a new church in that place.

2. Sometimes there is so much disfuntion and the stench of death is so overwhelming that disbanding the church and selling the property is the best thing that could happen. I know of one church who had so much infighting that they never noticed that the culture around them had completely changed (including the language of the people). Mercifully, they were dibanded and the property sold to a new church that was reaching the community.

3. Sometimes, a dying church can be resurrected! God has the power over life and death, even for churches. He can resurrect a dying church. It may take a great change of heart in the people and perhaps even a change of leadership (I'm not just talking about the pastor!), but churches can change. For a church to change from near death to strength, it takes reliance on God's power (which the church probably hasn't done in some time, so it will be a paradigm shift). I'll write more about resurrecting a dying church soon.