Behind the Decline: Unraveling the Forgotten Reasons of Fading Neighborhood Churches

No doubt you’ve heard the phrase, “There goes the neighborhood.” Historically, it has been associated with ethnic minorities moving into white neighborhoods. I don’t believe most people use the phrase today in such a way. However, during the civil rights movement and the following decades, many white neighborhood churches changed locations, often moving to the growing suburbs where fewer minorities lived.

For the congregations that stayed, the fracturing of the neighborhood also meant the fractu...