Balancing New Churches with Revitalization
There is a tension within the church around the world. The tension exists between new churches and established and dying churches. The tension is really about priorities. In our efforts to share the Gospel around the world and point others to the Kingdom of God, we must ask ourselves, should we be spending more of our resources in starting new churches or in trying to revitalize existing churches on the decline.
All churches seems to go through a similar life cycle of birth, growth, prosperity, decline and then death. The life cylce goes for different lengths, not everyone has the same experiences, but it is a somewhat understood process. But, isn't God saddened when any of his churches die. The vision in starting a congregation is never to live for a certain amount of time and then move on, but to build a sustainable community that through their unity in Christ will weather storms and handle the changes in their world so that the next generation will be part of their vision as well. So what do we do with churches in decline?
Should denominations, pastors, church planters and even congregants spend their time trying to resucitate a church with little vitality left in it or should we just let it die gracefully and start a new congregation? It seems so much harder to change an established church than to start a new one. But, the older, dying churches all around us are so important to God. The church can’t give up on them and just abandon them. With limited resources to commit, however, priorities must be made.
It seems that the church needs to begin to train and raise up a generation of long term care givers for older congregations. People who will help churches find their end peacefully if they are terminal, but also help shape and push churches that can recover with the right rehabilitation and life injected into them. Many of us are torn between a passionate love for churches in decline and a desire to see a new generation of churches birthed that are actually bringing the Gospel, which always is relevant, to a culture that has deemed the church irrelevent. As a denominational leader how do you prioritize your vision and resources?
Too much money in many denomination is spent merely propping up dying congregations. There was a story recently of a congregation in Washington, DC that was spending $35,000,000 to revitalize their building in hopes of attracting new members. This congregation of some 50 people has a ridiculous endowment of close to $50,000,000 because of its prominent place in the city. That much money could be used to start a thousand new churches, and yet it is being thrown away. That is obviously an extreme case, but it is reflective of what many denominations and districts do with the money they do have.
So what is the answer? How do we balance our love of each church and the people in dying congregations, with a desire to further the spread of the Gospel? There is a balance out there, but discovering it will take local congregations, denominational leaders, and the pastors of these churches to share in a common vision. We must work to keep congregations healthy, to be continually rebirthed, so as to prevent decay and death. We must also recognize that part of that vitality is that every church needs to be committed to a vision of helping to launch another congregation, no matter the size of the church. We must remove the inward focus of our churches and begin to look outside to our responsibility and connectivity with one another.
May God work within all of our congregations to keep us alive, filled with the Spirit, and passionately committed to reaching the lost. Amen.
