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Kindle Notes & Highlights
As many as 100,0001 churches in America are showing signs of decline toward death.
The prayer commitment in each chapter is a positive challenge to take the hill, so to speak, where others may have failed.
God, open my eyes that I might see my church as You see it. Let me see where change needs to take place, even if it is painful to me. And use me, I pray, to be an instrument of that change whatever the cost.
It is rare for a long-term church member to see erosion in his or her church. Growth may come rapidly, but decline is usually slow, imperceptibly slow.
Often the decline is in the physical facilities, but it is much more than that. The decline is in the vibrant ministries that once existed.
The decline is in the prayer lives of the members who remain. The decline is in the outward focus of the church. The decline is in the connection with the community. The decline is in the hopes and dreams of those who remain. Decline is everywhere in the church, but many don’t see it.
The most pervasive and common thread of our autopsies was that the deceased churches lived for a long time with the past as hero. They held on more tightly with each progressive year.
“We will die before we change.” And they did.
Hear me clearly: these churches were not hanging on to biblical truths. They were not clinging to clear Christian morality. They were not fighting for primary doctrines, or secondary doctrines, or even tertiary doctrines. As a matter of fact, they were not fighting for doctrines at all. They were fighting for the past. The good old days. The way it used to be.
Yes, we respect the past. At times we revere the past. But we can’t live in the past.
So what did the deceased churches cling to? What did they refuse to let go of facing certain death?
But more than any one item, these dying churches focused on their own needs instead of others. They looked inwardly instead of outwardly. Their highest priorities were the way they’ve always done it, and that which made them the most comfortable.
Such is the reason we speak of them in the past. They were warned. They were facing certain death. They saw every sign. But like Harry Randall Truman, they preferred death to change. And death is what they got.
Look at Hebrews 11:13–16 and discuss it in light of churches that die holding onto the past.
For sure, there would be an occasional but faint attempt to reach the community. Essentially, on those rare occasions they tried to reach out, the church members asked the community residents to come to them, to the church. There was almost never any effort to go into the community.
What may seem like common sense to an outsider was treasonous to the church members.
The Church Becomes a Fortress
The key is to keep people and possessions on the inside safe, and to keep people on the other side out.
People in the community did not feel welcome in the church. Those in the church were more concerned about protecting the way they did church than reaching residents of the community.
Others First = Life. Me First = Death.
Whenever local churches are mentioned in the New Testament, they are always exhorted to be other-centered.
Paul told the church at Philippi to look after the interests of others even as it considered its own interests:
dying churches are concerned with self-preservation.
God called the church to look outwardly. Our autopsy revealed that the church had become self-centered and self-gratifying.
How does Paul’s exhortation to the Philippian church relate to churches today impacting their communities?
When you conduct the autopsy of a church, you must follow the money. For where the money of the church goes, so goes its heart.
I never met a member of a dying church who thought his or her church was greedy.
Perhaps it is better to say that their funds are inwardly focused.
in many of the deceased churches, the personnel portion of the budget steadily increased over the years.
But in the dying churches, the staff is expected to almost exclusively be on call for church members.
they are mostly hired hands for church members. It is for that reason the budget for personnel is often the last to go.
In dying churches the last expenditures to be reduced are those that keep the members most comfortable.
Our autopsy revealed, in most cases, cuts were made to ministries and programs with outward foci.
notice that the outreach and community ministries are the first to go. Not those ministries for church members. Not at first anyway.
By the way, not all the deceased churches died broke. In fact, a few of them had quite a treasure chest when they died.
They accumulate because they fear not having enough money.
In all the churches we autopsied, a financial pattern developed over time. The pattern was one where funds were used more to keep the machinery of the church moving, and to keep the members happy, than funding the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
Some churches begin with a great heart and a great effort toward the Great Commission. But the methods used become the focus rather than the Great Commission itself. As a consequence, the Great Commission becomes the Great Omission.
Nostalgia can be good. It can be fun and healthy. We certainly need to “remember when.” But, as I noted earlier, we can’t live in the past, and we can’t re-create the past. We do “remember when,” but we move on.
members of dead or dying churches often overlook the reason behind those years of growth and expansion. Thriving churches have the Great Commission as the centerpiece of their vision, while dying churches have forgotten the clear command of Christ.
the Great Commission requires at least two points of obedience from church members. They are to go, and they are to depend totally upon the power of Christ. That’s why Jesus reminded them: “I am with you always.”
As I looked at the deaths of fourteen churches, I saw a common pattern. Obedience to the Great Commission faded; it usually faded gradually.
The more vocal members usually left the church. The comfortable members remained behind for the deathwatch.
Perhaps it would be more truthful to say these dying churches had “Great Commission disobedience.” They chose not to remember what to do. They chose their own comfort over reaching others with the gospel.
Members of the dying church weren’t willing to go into the community to reach and minister to people. They weren’t willing to invite their unchurched friends and relatives. They weren’t willing to expend the funds necessary for a vibrant outreach. They just wanted it to happen. Without prayer. Without sacrifice. Without hard work.
But here’s the bigger issue. Even if the church began to grow on its own, the members of the dying church would only accept the growth if the new members were like them and if the church would continue to “do church” the way they wanted it.
Members of the dying churches really didn’t want growth unless that growth met their preferences and allowed them to remain comfortable. But the issue of preferences is its own category in reasons churches die.
There were about 150 people present. That included members who had not been to church in five years or more. That included people most others did not know. It was obvious what was taking place. Members had recruited others to come to the meeting to vote not to change.
A church cannot survive long-term where members are focused on their own preferences:
My music style. My desired length and order of worship services. My desired color and design of buildings and rooms. My activities and programs. My need of ministers and staff. My, my, my.
