There are approximately 400,000 churches in America. 60,000 of them will close down in the next ten years. That would be 115 a week. On top of that 85% of the churches in this nation are declining or stagnate. A very close friend of mine is a medical doctor. I have been with him at this event or that when he has seen a person he does not know nor examined and has remarked to me personally that he knows they are dying whether they know it or not. He can see through his training and experience what the ordinary person cannot see and he knows that for them death is not far away. He will never have the occasion to tell them and, because it is a remark I must hold in confidence, I would not tell them either. Even if I did it would not be well received and I would probably be regarded as offensive or as a screwball.I am not a medical doctor but do have an earned graduate degree of Doctor of Ministry. Due to my extensive training and almost 50 years of experience in the Christian pastorate I can tell when a church is dying whether the people of that church know it or not. On rare occasions I have the assignment and permission to tell them, but most of the time, when I see the terminal signs, I am not able to tell the church. Even if I did it would not be well received and I would probably be regarded as offensive or a screwball.
I ask you, however, just for this article, to do me a great big generous favor. Indulge me in the exercise of supposing that you are a group of church people in whom and on whom I detect the signs of impending demise. Is that a tactful way of stating it? And suppose that it is permissible with you that I speak in specific terms concerning what I see as indicators that your church is in a current state of terminal, lethal, fatal, toxic, deadly decline. Imagine that you are willing to fasten your seat belts and give me the go ahead to tell you the diagnosis that is indicated by certain symptoms that lead to my conclusions. In fact let me add that you are welcome to a second opinion but I must also tell you that the most noted experts in church growth and decline would tell you the same thing, and they’ll charge you more to consult with them. Now I know that you might refuse me that permission and should that be your response I want you to know that, regretfully, I would respect your right to say “No thanks” to my offer of analysis. I promise I won’t feel snubbed. If a church wants to die it can. Not I, not any preacher, not even the Lord himself can make you do what you do not want to do to stay alive. If a church wants to die it can die.
Are you still on board and willing to play the game? I recently led a teaching tour to Greece and Turkey where I taught from the Bible at some of the locations of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. One of the churches was located in Sardis to which the risen Christ said, “You have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” Alright, here we go. Let me approach the subject by giving you six ways in which a church can die if it so desires.
First of all, a lack of zeal is terminal. There are simply no two ways about it. Winning people to Christ is a passion, not just a program. The passion to be a live church that grows by reaching people through evangelism comes only through the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. He is the key to shifting our churches into a condition of contagious faith. Years ago I heard a country preacher in Arkansas deliver a three point sermon that went like this: “Have you got it, is it catchable, has anybody caught it from you?” I’ve never forgotten that message and I hope you won’t forget it either. Zeal is a vital part of keeping spiritual life and breath in the body of Christ, and that zeal comes only through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives to fill us and empower us to stay on fire. I am reminded of Titus 2:14 which says, “Who (Christ) gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” The Christ who gave up His life for us expects and empowers us to have zeal for the good work of leading others to Him.
I am aware that many church members and leaders express concern that people in their congregations might become overly zealous and create excess fire. I know that can happen, but I also know that in all of my years in the pastorate in Bible-believing churches in five different states, I faced a variety of problem situations. An excess of fire in my church members was never one of those problems. Most of the hang ups came from a lack of fire. If church leaders were as much concerned about the lack of fire as they are concerned about too much fire, if they were as concerned about freezing in formalism as they are about frying in fanaticism, they would not be in a terminal status for the lack of zeal.
A second contributing factor to dying churches is a spectator mentality. A spectator mentality is lethal. Many Christians have allowed themselves to be deceived into believing that leading others to Christ and bringing them into the membership of the church is the responsibility of the paid clergy, itinerant specialists called evangelists, or green beret type special forces soul winners in the congregation who are extraordinary from the average church members who never try to win anybody.
One of my pastor friends who is an ex-football coach once described the average congregation as a football game where a crowd of spectators who are desperately in need of exercise are cheering 22 participants on the field who are desperately in need of rest. When people talk about what is taking place in their church you often hear them say, “They ought to do this or they ought to do that” as if to shift responsibility to “they” instead of “me”. When you do that you are singing a funeral dirge to your church. Speaking of singing, one song leader I know always insists on people standing to their feet when one familiar gospel hymn is sung. He says, “We shouldn’t sing “Standing on the Promises” while we’re sitting on the premises.” I remember hearing Vance Havner say, “On Sunday at 12 noon the chimes rang and the church gave up its dead.” Spectatoritis is a lethal infection that will kill any church.
Third, a cultural disconnect is fatal. A large segment of the millennial generation has abandoned church because it doesn’t relate to their lives. A lot of churches are stuck in the mud of superficial religiosity. They major on minors and minor on majors. Time after time I have listened to the leaders of churches lament the disintegration of their attendance, their offerings, and the fact that the most of their members qualify for the AARP, and that people in their community just won’t come to church anymore. Some of them blame it on the increasing hardness of the hearts of the people in their community or lament the fact that “times ain’t like they used to be.” The ironic thing is, they are missing the very point that they are trying to make. In most of our procedures we are doing very little to soften the hearts of the people in our communities and we are performing as if the times are what they used to be. There seems to be a more-than-slight misunderstanding in the church about the issue of adjusting to the changes that take place in our culture. The renewal that occurs in forms through which communications, architecture, literature, music, and communications take place from generation to generation should be incorporated into the methods by which the church connects with those it is attempting to reach. The formula of the gospel and the biblical truth that the church preaches and teaches ought not to morph itself into a message that adapts to the latest trends of cultural thought and behavior. However, even though the formula should not change, the forms can be adapted in order to be up to date with current advances in technical, artistic, and communications tools and techniques. Thousands of churches seem to insist on staying at least one generation—and sometimes more—behind. They regard their preference for outdated architecture, same old same old familiar music, and priority of adult ministries over children and youth ministries as the most important issue. A failure to see the use of at least some contemporary Christian music as an attraction to contemporary people is, for whatever reason given, a big mistake. To build churches in a traditional form of “churchy” architecture instead of appearance and function that appeals to most twenty first century men and women sends a message that says to the average person, “Stay away” rather than “You are welcome here”.
In the death gasp brought on by disconnection with their culture, as I have defined it, all too many churches have spoken what Dr. Ralph Neighbor. Jr. described as “The Seven Last Words of the Church”, which are “We never did it that way before.” In an attempt to insulate themselves by isolating themselves a lot of congregations suffocate themselves. Mummified and petrified they become museums or monuments instead of momentous and meaningful to the very neighborhood they should be trying to reach.
One of my relatives who is a leader in his church in a New England state asked me to sit down with him and discuss what his church could do to stop the bleeding in their attendance and effectiveness and get a transfusion of life back into the congregation. He was surprised at my beginning statement. I told him, “Well, first I would need to take a look at your church budget.” I paused as he looked at me quizzically, then I said, “Your church budget figures will tell me where you are placing your priorities. In particular, I want to see how much finance your church is putting into your youth program. I need to see the amount you are spending in the ministry to children. That will tell me a lot right off the bat. Statistics and surveys tell us that the churches that place priorities on relating to youth and children will have a fast rate of growth. The churches that do not will stall and decline.”
Whether or not a church will adjust its expenditures to follow the reality may be a tough test but the results of the test will determine success or failure. If you don’t connect with the kids in this generation your church will only be a memory in the next generation and forgotten in the generation after that. A cultural disconnect is fatal.
Fourth, let me point out that a bad theology is toxic. A large portion of American Christianity has mutated into an errant virus that has had a negative impact. A so-called gospel is preached that offers faith without repentance, grace without the fear of God, and destiny without discipleship. If we decide that doctrinal positions and ethical principles should be based on what is deemed politically correct or convenient to self interest we have not only violated biblical standards we have also trifled with the “Gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). When I watch Christian television hear a preacher or religious personality preface his remarks by saying, “Now I don’t have any scripture to prove this, but…”, then I might as well turn the channels to watch Spongebob Squarepants because I’ll probably get more out of that cartoon than I get out of that sermon.
Compromising our convictions in order to attract those who prefer an easy believism and a glib receivism is dangerous. To prioritize prosperity in the material sense creates a mirage and sends people who have the wrong kind of thirst to a poisoned water hole in a box canyon. It produces church people who think they can be satisfied with squirts that are temporary instead of springs that refresh forever. We desperately need to honor Christ through the proclamation of the truth of His Word and avoid self-inflicted extermination brought on by “heaping to (ourselves) teachers, having itching ears” (II Timothy 4:3).
Fifth, a poorly defined mission is deadly. “Where is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). Many churches never sit down together, pray, discuss, and determine “Why are we here, what are we about, what are we called of the Lord to do, and how should we go about doing it? Hardly any church would ever say, “I don’t believe in winning people to Christ”, or “I don’t believe in reaching out to help others in our community”, or “I don’t believe in generously supporting missionary efforts”, or “I don’t believe in spiritual zeal”, or “I don’t believe in active participation, and sound doctrine.” They just let an internal focus disrupt a clear outlook and allow it to kill so slowly and so painlessly that nobody gets desperate or even concerned enough to do a diagnosis and prescribe a prognosis to cure and heal the terminal condition. There is an old story about a man who prayed, “God bless me and my wife, my son and his wife, us four, nor more, Amen!” In a similar way, when a church limits it perspective to itself it will collapse in upon itself and “give up the ghost.”
There is one more way in which a church can die if it wants to. Denial and refusal to face and remedy the life-threatening condition only leads to oblivion. You can argue that your church is fine just as it is, you can argue that your church is a hundred years old and will last another hundred, you can get mad at the prophets who try to kindle a fire under you and run them off, you can hug each other until there’s no one left in the sanctuary that hasn’t been hugged and re-hugged a hundred times. You can do everything one can imagine to put off the need to revive and renew, and not one of them or all of them will prevent the digging of the grave and the last Amen for the church.
It is not my purpose to publish an obituary and preside over a funeral procession of any church. My hope and objective is to issue a wake-up call to churches that appear to lack zeal, evidence a spectator mentality, indicate a disconnection with its current culture, preach and teach a bad theology, poorly define their mission, and refuse to face a life-threatening condition. In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 3, verses 1-6 the risen Christ sent a message to seven churches, one of which, as I previously mentioned, was the congregation at Sardis. He said to them,
“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
2Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
4Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
5He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
6He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
~Dan Light
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