I passionately believe that the church should be alive, filled with joy and active in their community. A few months back, I had the opportunity to teach our adult congregation a mini-series called Change 2.0. As I researched for this sermon, I stumbled across an article talking about this book and finally have found the time to read it in one day.

Thom Rainer is the president of Lifeway and has observed over the years the death of many churches that at one time were thriving. In the book, he does a postmortem on a number of those churches. It is a sobering and fascinating read for anyone in ministry or those that love the church.

The Symptoms of a Dying Church

  1. The church refused to look like the community.
    I am reminded of my mom’s home church in Philadelphia. The community used to be primarily white blue collar workers. Over the years, it became a largely lower income African-American community. The one thing that didn’t change in the church was the demographics. Many attendees had moved from the area and would drive in to “their church.” A healthy church is reaching out to its community and make them a part of their family. This means diversity will become a part of the church. Many are willing to protect their church from this even though we are called to do it.
  2. The budget moved inwardly.
    Simply stated, the churches began to focus all the offering on them. Staff members became personal caretakers and outreach ministries were reduced or eliminated.
  3. The Great Commission becomes the Great Omission.
    Pretty obvious again. However, Rainer adds that often churches that are inward focused reflect on and pine for “the good ole days.” They reflect on a moment in church history that had a high mark for attendance, a high offering and more big moments. I remember a church I served with that had undergone a name change and several of the original members would complain about the new outreach focus and reminisced for the days when they would sing Happy Birthday in the weekly service to all those that had a birthday that month.
    Also churches that have lost an outreach minded culture only want outreach that is easy and won’t require much effort on their part. Simply put, outreach was okay as long as it fit in their preferences and comfort zone.
  4. The Preference-Driven Church.
    The worship battle. The lighting battle. The service order battle. They put their preferences ahead of the common good.
  5. Pastoral Tenure Decreases.
    They see their staff leave after a few years. Many times it follows a pastor who had a long tenure. The new staff is compared to the “legend.”
  6. The Church rarely prays together.
    I would add to this that even those dying churches that DO pray often are praying for physical ailments and internal issues rather than outreach.
  7. The Church had no clear purpose.
    Religion and ritual. The people are focused more on doing what they always do rather than asking what SHOULD we be doing. Vision is a passion of mine. I believe in setting a big cause before people and challenging them to do something more than we can do and depend on the help of the Lord.
  8. The Church obsessed over the facilities.
    The Jones Memorial Hall. The Martin Smith Pew. Churches become obsessed with memorials. Some minor rooms and areas get more time, money and attention than the areas that should be getting them. We lose sight that these are Jesus’ things, not our own. And if the Jones Memorial Hall has holes in the wall because 100 gloriously unsaved teenagers met in there and heard the gospel, I’ll pay for the drywall repair. This is not to say we shouldn’t be careless stewards, but we need to keep things in perspective. Very convicting for me.

This is a great and convicting read for any church leader. It is something that a church should keep before them and evaluate every so many years. We all believe the church is the instrument God uses to reach the lost. We just get sidetracked by us.