3 Options When Your Church Is Dead
The local church I am a part of is the furthest thing from dead. That doesn’t mean I think it is perfect, but it is definitely not dead. However, I have been part of a dead church or two. As I have thought about being part of these dead churches, there seems to be three options of what to do when you realize the fellowship you are part of is dead.
STAY WITHOUT HOPE
This may be the hardest option. You resign yourself to the place that you don’t think that it will ever get better. You don’t think things will ever get better.
Why would you stay in this situation? There could be many reasons. Loyalty. Family. Responsibility. There are surely more reasons than I can think of.
STAY WITH HOPE
Here you believe that if God could raise Lazarus from the dead, He can do so with your church. And it’s true. However, it can be very demoralizing when you don’t see any realization to the hope you have.
Why do you stay? Because you believe if just one or two things happen, the Lord will bring your church back.
This may be the most dangerous because you can fool yourself into thinking great things are just around the corner. Too often, it’s not.
LEAVE
This should, actually, be your last option. You should leave when you have carefully considered options 1 and 2. In fact, you may go through periods of options 1 and 2 before reaching this point.
Here’s the key to this one. Once you realize that it’s time to leave, leave. Get out. Don’t drag it out. Make haste. It will be easier on you and it will be easier on the church you are leaving. Don’t do anything that will cause trouble. Don’t take parting shots on your way out. Get out. Get busy looking for a church that is alive.
Have you ever been part of a dead church? Did you stay for a while? What caused you to stay? What made you finally leave?
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Larry The Deuce
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Larry, this is so true. You handled this with sensitivity and tact. What a fantastic post.
Thanks, Jim
The hard part is when you are the pastor of the dead church.
I have been there and wondered on three of your points. Hoping against hope. Staying and believing God will move. Finally, admitting it isn’t working. Tough way to go.
Bill, I think that is something few of us consider: how it affects a pastor who wants nothing much more than to pastor a live, Spirit-filled church.
The only problem with any of the choices about leaving is being sure what the Spirit of God is saying to you. If He says leave, get moving. If He says stay, for whatever reason, you’d better be obedient and get back in the pew.
My answer to that is if you are pursuing the Lord and walking in the Spirit, then do what you want to do because you will want to do what He wants you to do.
This hits close to home. My dad is actually a pastor of a small and, quite frankly, dying church. The congregation i comprised of mainly older people, and the people who are not elderly don’t do a ton to help with growth. They don’t invite people, they don’t want to volunteer, they don’t faithfully tithe, they don’t want to make changes. It’s the recipe for disaster. I went to my dad’s church for about 3 years before I finally just had to get out.
Kevin, did your dad understand? I imagine you had a lot talks about it with him.
Thankfully I have never been a part of a completely dead church. God has used all of the churches that I’ve been a part of to shape me. Some where more alive than others but none were close to death.
Rob, that is awesome. I pretty much watched one die.
Since I have been in va I have been going to a church that seemed pretty amazing. I enjoyed their fresh approach of sharing the word. Now that I reflect on it however really what they were sharing was their self. I had been going to the church for the better part of a year and on a volunteer team. Every Sunday the entire “experience” was geared to impress newcomers with almost zero of the”experience” geared to grow the congregation spiritually. Additionally it seemed rushed with no room for the holy spirit to work. Church seemed to end at the end of fast pace Jesus check in.