Life and Death of Churches...

In a recent article I expressed my view that while government types may come and go, I belief the churches will continue onward because the rely upon and are protected by God whereas government rely upon human ingenuity and integrity.

I want to go a bit further on that subject. In my stated belief while I believe the church catholic/universal, the overall church will always survive, that is not true for individual churches.

A lot of research has been done on the life cycles of churches. The best of it I think comes from the Alban institute, a great think tank for modern Christianity, that I followed most of my career. Following is the normal life span of a church” gleaned from their material.

1.    Birth. This is a short period of time but the most important. It is the time when a church defines itself and its mission. The key person at this time is the founding pastor, but the founding members are exceeding important and it is their combined ideas, values and sense of mission the set the identity of the church. During this time the church can grow rapidly, doubling, tripling, quadrupling, and even growing to ten times it original starting membership.

2.   Vitality. The church continues to grow, the building is renovated and expanded. In essence this the foundation lying time of the church, with second generation members joining the originating members. It is like  Cheers the old TV show where everybody knows your name and you are accepted happily into the new group. But even at this point some founding members will look at the birth time as “the good old days.”

3.   Equilibrium. The church levels out and growth slows. There is less innovation and energy turns to maintaining the status quo. Traditions are set and life in the church become predictable. Ministers come and go as long as they don’t rock the boat too much. It is also a high risk time for the church where the church can become dull and lethargic. If you read the book of Acts you will see this taking place in the early churches.

4.   Decline. Now begins church membership loss, decreased giving or giving does not keep pace to the needs of the church. Budget strength and survival become a primary concern of the church rather than mission and purpose. Pastor’s salaries are cut and there is a lack of new leadership in the church or they may develop conflict between the “old guard”, older members and the “new guard” new members trying to take leadership of the church. A lot of blaming begins and ties with the denomination can become stained for not “saving them.” Anger, blaming, scapegoating all become typical behavior. However, these churches hang on for all their worth whitling away at their resources and limiting the ministries just in order to exist. The church is my church (or my families church) rather than God’s church. Though the church may claim otherwise, they can often actively chase away new members they see as competition to the old ways.

5.   Death. Eventually a church can just die despite the desire to survive. It is an unhappy time and a time for grieving and great sense of law. Solace can be taken in remembering the history of the church, celebrating it and moving on to new churches.

Now church death is not inevitable. A church can revitalize itself by recapturing those same feelings they had when they became. They can celebrate the traditions and history to find their strengths and use these to build a new identity and purpose and mission for the church. It is often hard work but many church go through this process and become stronger as a result of learning how to work through issues and dream again, and accept new leadership and new directions as they adapt to Christ’s calling to discipleship for a new time and generation.

An excellent time for rekindling churches is during pastoral changes. If a well trained interim pastor in brought in, it can help the congregation through necessary steps to celebrate the history and strength and prepare them to be ready for new pastoral leadership and new visions for the church.

If you find yourself in a church facing these issues I recommend looking for the material put out by the Alban Institute who have done great work in revitalizing churches.

click of the above diagram for to a larger picture.

Rekindling the Mainline: New Life through New Churches

www.alban.org/bookdetails.aspx?id=1010