Churches have a life cycle, just as any living thing has a life cycle. They experience the seasons of birth, growth, plateau, decline, and death. It is important for a church to understand this and embrace this fact so they can know what season they are in and how to address it. The Malphurs Group, among many other research groups, notes that 80% of churches are plateaued or declining. This means that 80% of churches are in the final seasons of their lives. This is hard for a church to embrace. So, how do you know if you have a dying church? And what should you do about it?
Here are seven symptoms of a dying church and how to address them.
7 Symptoms of a Dying Church
1. Very Few First-Time Guests
If a church doesn’t continually connect first-time guests, then it will eventually die because of attrition. People come and go in churches, but if the church doesn’t replenish these people and add new families, then it plateaus and eventually dies. First-time guests are a great starting gauge for the overall health of the church. Do we have first-time guests? Are they staying? Every church should know how many first-time guests they have and how they found the church. In order to attract more first-time guests, the church will need an online strategy and an invite strategy. Your website, social media ads, and online church service are vital to people finding the church. A church should utilize search engine advertising such as Google ads. Many people choose a church to visit based on a simple Google search. Generally, they will visit one of the first churches that come up. You will want to have an up-to-date website and a robust social media platform. Guests will do their due diligence there first.
Secondly, the church needs an invite strategy. This deserves way more attention than this article can give, but a simple invite strategy is using invite cards on the 3 big days of the year which are Fall, Christmas and Easter. Invite cards can be used all throughout the year to encourage members to invite people they know. The key is to get first-time guests to the Sunday worship experience and then connect them to the life of the church as quickly as possible. That is one of the major differences between dying churches and growing churches.
2. Lack of Volunteers
Another symptom of a dying church is a lack of volunteers. Congregants don’t feel compelled to join the mission of the church to serve. In a plateaued or dying church, the same people are always doing all the work. The Pareto Principle is at play in a dying church where 80% of the people don’t volunteer at all, and 20% or less of the people do all the work. In a growing church, those numbers are often flipped. There are many more people serving than sitting. The first thing that a church needs to do is to see if you have a vision that compels the people to serve. Secondly, you may want to find out why people aren’t serving or stopped serving. Ask several people and really listen to their feedback. There could be a personality issue or they lost motivation.
Next, the church needs to focus on recruiting where you need people the most. Usually, this is the children’s ministry or production/creative arts. Once you have identified why people don’t serve and have fixed this, then you can recruit in a healthy manner. Each quarter, you can do “ministry spotlights” with a sign-up table in the back. People want to serve to make a difference and to feel like they are contributing to the mission of God. It is up to the church to present serving opportunities this way.
3. Controlling Board
Some churches have a central board of deacons or elders who are very controlling. They are dead set on micro-managing every aspect of the church. In this case the pastor feels like they are handcuffed in leading the church. There is usually a high turnaround of pastors in these churches, and the churches are dying. This is a concerning issue because those board members want their way instead of finding the best way for the church. A pastor has to be very upfront when interviewing for a position and ask many challenging questions about their readiness to change. When new board members come on, they must be interviewed and vetted extensively to make sure they want what is best for the church. A pastor must cast vision for what could be and what should be. They must also develop a plan for this vision and get buy-in from these board members. The key is finding out what they are okay changing now and what they don’t want to change. In the last case scenario, if a board member is unwilling to work with the pastor, they must look at possibly removing the board member.
4. Members who want to Preserve the Past
When you aren’t changing, you are near the end. In every church, there are people who want to preserve the past and never change. If the members don’t care about reaching outsiders or making necessary changes to grow, then the church is dead in the water. A pastor must get the ones with the most influence to buy into the necessary changes to reach their community. This takes a lot of one-on-one conversations with the theme, “I need your help. To stop this church from dying, would you help me with __________.” The pastor has to also paint a far better picture of the future than their past. You can do this by bridging the gap and showing how the future vision will keep their past sacrifices alive. But just as with a controlling board, after the pastor has had the conversations and cast the vision, if certain families are resistant, then it may be time for them to go so the church can move forward.
5. People aren’t getting saved
Dying churches only have transfer growth, not conversion growth. Your baptisms are dusty and dry. The church hasn’t cried out to God for Him to send the lost. You haven’t adopted the mindset that you are a missionary outpost in your community. Dying churches rarely see anyone saved or water baptized. For a church to correct this, you must first pray. Jesus said, “Pray to the Lord of the Harvest…the harvest is plentiful.” Seeing salvation and spiritual transformation is a by-product of fervent prayer. This is also a vision or mission issue for the church. If the vision and mission isn’t about reaching people who don’t know Christ, then seeing conversion growth doesn’t matter to you. The vision of the church has to be focused on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” It must also be founded on the Great Commandment of “Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.”
6. Children’s Ministry is on the Back Burner
The life of a church is a robust children’s ministry. Why? This means the church has young families. If a church doesn’t have a great children’s ministry, then it is headed for death. This could be a sign that the church has older members and is programmed to cater to them only. This may be the hardest ministry to breathe life into because it is not independent of the congregation.
A church can start a youth group for teens and reach teens in the community without the Sunday programming changing. However, with children’s ministry it is directly correlated to the Sunday experience reaching younger families. If the music, the preaching, the children’s environment and “vibe” of the church isn’t geared toward younger families, then the church will be in a huge uphill climb. So, it takes changing the children’s programming first. Then it will take changing the Sunday worship experience to reach young families.
7. The Pastor Lacks Vision
Last but certainly not least is vision. If the pastor doesn’t have a vision for the church and a vision to reach that particular community, then the church will be on cruise control. Plateaued and dying churches have pastors who receive a paycheck but don’t give out vision. Vision is prayed down. It is not borrowed or thought up. Vision is a picture of what could be and what should be. It results in passion. A leader with vision motivates people to move into action toward a greater good for the church and community. Vision is directly attached to calling.
If a pastor doesn’t have vision, then they will have to ask themselves, “Why don’t I have vision?” It may be hurt from the past or maybe being a lead pastor isn’t their particular calling. For a pastor to gain vision for their church and community, it will take serious prayer as well as seeking God.
How Will You Address These Symptoms?
As you read each of these 7 symptoms of a dying church, how are you doing with each of them? Are there any that you may need to give extra attention to? Is there any area of your church that could use an upgrade to avoid plateauing or death? Even if you find your church in a dying cycle, there is hope and opportunity to turn things around.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common questions pastors might ask:
1. How can a church address the lack of first-time guests?
Churches can attract first-time guests by developing a strong online presence through an updated website and active social media platforms, utilizing search engine ads, and creating an inviting atmosphere with clear invite strategies like distributing invite cards.
2. Why is a strong children’s ministry vital for a church’s growth?
A robust children’s ministry signals a focus on young families, which is essential for long-term church growth. Without engaging children’s programming, churches may fail to attract or retain younger generations.
3. What steps can a pastor take to instill vision in a declining church?
Pastors can develop a vision by seeking divine guidance through prayer, casting a clear and compelling vision for the future, engaging influential members to buy into the plan, and motivating the congregation to act on a mission-focused strategy aligned with the Great Commission.
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