I read so many blog posts about dying churches. Some offer help and hope. Some seem to assume death is the inevitable goal. I’ve even read pieces written by bishops who dismiss small churches as being part of a life/death cycle that is only natural. None of this sounds like we believe the message of the gospel.
Labeling a church “dying” assigns a church community a status beyond hope—not worthy of God’s grace. Once labeled “dying,” leaders have an excuse to do little or nothing. That attitude spreads. Talk about a pandemic!
A stereotype emerges to support this thinking.
- 20 members, give or take.
- Average age 70.
- Few or no children.
- Predominantly senior women (presumed to be unskilled).
- Pastoral needs: palliative care only.
Churches reach this state because evangelism and education have been neglected. Turning decades of neglect around is a challenge. Our God loves this kind of challenge!
Let’s start by
dismissing the
stereotype.
Stereotyping the smallest churches as “dying” deflects attention from similar problems “large” churches, which are presumed to be healthy as long as they can afford a full-time pastor.
About ten years ago, I was searching through church records and statistics. Our bishop had said, “You’ll die a natural death in ten years.” I wanted to see how we measured up to other congregations in our region. I found a list comparing changes in church records during ten years.
The records I found had assigned each church to a category. (More labels!). There were corporate churches (1000+ members), program churches (500-1000 members), pastoral churches (200-500 members) and family churches (up to 200 members).
Our congregation was in the family church category because we had fewer than 200 members. We were a mid-sized church in that category. But the label hadn’t fit for decades. 60 years ago we had been a church with most members sharing a common background, if not blood. But as the 21st century approached, we had transformed—without losing our base members. We had become a diverse congregation with multinational roots.
So how did we
measure up?
Surprise, we were the only church in our category listed as growing!
I started looking at all the other categories. Almost all the churches in the regional body were in serious decline. The largest church—one of only a few that fit into the corporate category had dropped from 10,000 members to 3,000 members in ten years. Still a corporate church, but clearly showing signs of distress. They had lost 7,000 members! We, on the other hand, had only grown for the previous 10 years–about sevenfold. But we had been labeled “dying.”
We need a
different yardstick!
A healthy church of any size has new members monthly. To have new monthly members a church has to be consciously addressing evangelism. The congregation and its leaders have to be crafting ways to connect—over and over again. This is every bit as important as worship and pastoral care, but is impossible if a comfortable death is the only mission vision.
The best way to reach
today’s world is to
have a healthy
online presence.
This has long been presumed to be out of reach for small churches. Why bother? The pandemic proved this wrong.
Digital Ministry requires content and a shift in pastoral priorities. Evangelism and education grow churches. There was never an easier time for small churches to create evangelism and education ministries. We have the gift of the internet, email and social media. Powerful stuff! Potential is overlooked because of the “dying” label.
The modern faith journey begins with the first email and continues for a while outside the church walls. Every size church can do this—if you stop believing the labels and start using modern tools. Small Church Toolbox helps small churches create digital (online) ministries using the people and tools they already have.
If you’d like to learn more about starting Digital Ministry, download this short booklet that outlines a basic strategy and, more important, provides a vision for shaping a modern small church.
