New life and death are a natural part of the life cycle and overall health of a denomination and annual conference. This may be seen in the planting of new congregations, but it will also be necessary to move through the death of some congregations who are no longer effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ.
Recognizing that a congregation is nearing death in a life cycle may be easier for someone that is outside of the congregation, i.e. newly appointed pastor, district superintendent, etc. However, it may be very difficult for someone from the outside to bring this to the attention of the congregation and facilitate moving into the process of closing. What may happen is that the person from the outside is accused of not having the best interest of the congregation in mind.
Sometimes there will be a place where someone within the congregation notices that things are not going well and perhaps the best thing is to let the congregation die. This may become easier as there are more and more congregations that are closing within the annual conference. The closing or death of congregations is likely to increase within the next ten years for various reasons. According to Steve Compton, conference staff of the North Carolina Annual Conference, some of these reasons include:
- Loss of family perpetuation of membership in rural and town churches
- Longer effect of the natural life cycle
- Dramatic shifts in community demographics.
This is true, not only in the North Carolina Annual Conference, but I believe in the Kansas East, Kansas West and many other annual conferences around the country. The death of congregations will need to be matched with both the birth of new congregations and the revitalization of existing congregations.
Rev. Andrew Conard 
5 replies on “Death of a Congregation”
very very true.
here in north georgia we have the possibility of converting the existing building into a new a vibrant congregation — we have done it twice in the last year. two churches; one dying an awful death, messy and painful being re-made into a korean church, but the second story was one filled with grace — and older congregation giving their building over, lock, stock and barrel over to a fledgling multi-cultural congregation.
but this is not always true.
God bless those other congregations…
Andrew, thanks for your blogging during this conference. I have enjoyed gleaning from your experience. I especially resonated with this post as the congregation I served in Seminary is definately in the midst of a downward cycle.
Rev. Mommy and Jeff – Thanks for your responses. It is true that there are very different experiences with death and rebirth within particular buildings – some congregations are just not ready to go and some can see a vision of God’s work in that place.
Andrew – I used to think that a congregation dying was the most depressing and horrible thing in the whole world. However, I now see congregational death in a little different way. Just as people often get sick and die, congregations do as well.
One of the worst kinds of illnesses a congregation can contract is the loss of missional vision. Once a Church switches into maintenance mode they are plugged into life-support. This raises all kinds of important questions, including how to revive these dying Churches.
However, there are Churches that are terminal and are often siphoning off resources from vibrant missional congregations just so Aunt Barbara-Lou and Uncle Django can have their funerals in that particular Church. In a workshop this weekend, I said, “If you’re not missional you’re not really a church.” Before I could backpedal, many of the folks were shaking their heads in agreement. Hmmm…I thought, I guess I’ll just leave them with that!
Matt – Thanks for your great thoughts and responses. I particularly appreciated the comparison between the loss of missional vision and being plugged into life support. Thanks Matt!