Welcome To The Vandalia Church of God!

The challenge of change for the good of the body

Having pastored the Vandalia (Michigan) Church of God for nearly two years, I’ve been witness to a lot of good and faithful service to the Lord. The people are faithful in prayer, in care for their infirmed and elderly church family, and consistent giving to the needs of the church. I am encouraged and inspired by the folks who are the body of Christ’s church. One of my roles as pastor is to teach in a way that challenges our status quo and gets all of us moving toward the greater vision that the Lord has put in my heart. In that spirit, we began to use Thom Rainer’s fantastic 2014 book Autopsy of a Deceased Church as our Sunday School text. I managed to “rustle up” copies that came from Goodwill outlets as far as Denver and Seattle for a dollar (or two, but an enormous bargain, either way). So began the unpleasant conversation every church should probably have during the comfortable times in order to have the dreaded post-mortem discussions.

Thom Rainer, the former CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources, had a novel idea of dissecting what went wrong in a dozen congregations that died. Although the image of an autopsy is disturbing, this slim volume reminds the reader that oftentimes our churches need to be disturbed from complacency before they are disbanded and sold off. As I read the book on my own before presenting it to our small congregation, I was stunned by how obvious some of the “causes of death” for churches are. I won’t review the book here, but if you are committed to the life of your local church congregation, I’d suggest taking an hour, or so, and reading this radical little volume. The causes broken down include the local church being stuck in it’s glorious past, continuing to be inwardly focused and carrying on while adrift without prayer and pastoral commitment. The scariest take-away from Deceased Church is the very basic idea that slips past most congregations over time: death is incremental and normally not caused by a sudden attack to the body.

Bringing Rainer’s book into the church as a Sunday School discussion starter had some natural and expected consequences. Small “cans of worms” were opened and conversations were strained at times. The signs of creeping decay were identified and talked through. Remembrances of past programs and pastoral initiatives were shared. None of it was particularly fun, but the essential questions were raised. Not only why the local church exists, but should it. Do I recommend this sort of book and the ensuing conversation for churches of all sizes and attendance rates? Absolutely. Consider the alternative. Young congregants go off to college and often move to start fresh, adult lives, starting new families in distant cities. The church family ages without the presence of young families arriving to revitalize the ministry. Pastors age and retire, or are swept up in all-too-human sins that cause them to leave the pulpit. Facilities start to sag and need more loving attention with fewer people to step forward. The neighborhood demographics change, but the church that has been the cornerstone of the neighborhood becomes a closed loop, uninterested in the changing landscape of local life. All of that doom and gloom is simply to say that I recommend this book and others on church health.

“ ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.‘ ” Revelation 3:15-17 (ESV)

Like the churches John was commanded to admonish in The Revelation, the evangelical Christian churches of North America often find themselves trapped in a false sense of believing we need nothing and are well off past the time our own generations pass. The passionate Christ-believer takes his or her own congregational health seriously, however, and has these difficult conversations long before the dreaded autopsy.