A pastor looks out the office window, counting cars in the parking lot, knowing the sanctuary will be a quarter full for this week’s service. The discouragement resonates from the face of the faithful pastor who can’t get a break. This scenario plays out weekly in countless churches across the Western world. Self-worth is seemingly found in how many people are in the seats each week.
Finding any hope in a declining church may seem counterproductive. Still, even with the disappearance of members, a ministry can be reborn if a church and the leadership trust God in the process of rebounding from decline. In church revitalization, there is a tendency to give up before the church sees realized results. This is due in no small part to the high expectations of future growth and the need to understand that it takes time to rebuild after a long decline. Do not forsake small beginnings because God can and will use a small amount of faith and a small number of people to do something new. As author and self-help teacher Karen Salmoansohon said, “Hold the vision, trust the process.” Here are five ways to see potential in church decline.
Be Persistent.
When things do not go a leader’s way in the church, they tend to want to give up or give in to temptation that they have failed. Be a persistent leader who does not allow negative voices in your head or pews to chase you from God’s work. If he has called you to the church, he has equipped you for the work ahead. Persistence in revitalization is about sticking to the vision, working on God’s plan, and not getting discouraged when you have to adapt to the changing realities from week to week. Understanding the truth the church is facing will not be changed overnight, but the turnaround can begin through the step-by-step process. It will take a persistent leader to keep everyone encouraged, direct and implement the plan, and keep the focus on the ultimate goal of winning new souls.
Be Patient.
It takes time to rebound from decline. Unless a major scandal sunk the church overnight, a slow, steady decline happens to most churches. Permit yourself to take a long-view approach to the rebounding work. While some quick fixes happen at declining churches for most church leaders, it takes years. As a leader, you have the opportunity to adjust the church to the pace of change. Too fast, and you will lose the ones who stayed. Go too slow; you will lose the church altogether; it’s a balancing act. As the leader, you can share the highs or lows of revitalization work in your private and public conversations. Whatever you say and do will be watched by those around you. Give yourself permission to be patient at the pace of change, but always be positive in seeing that the transformation will occur just around the corner. The optimistic leader is the one people will rally around when things look rough, as the pastor clings to Jesus.
Be a Problem Solver.
There are problems in every organization, including the church. You can either spend time thinking about problems or solving them. It’s your choice. What a privilege to take on a challenge like revitalizing a local church. What a God calling to see through the eyes of Jesus the opportunity that awaits the congregation through developing a new plan for the future. Instead of investing in problems, become a problem solver who adapts to the challenges. One exercise I do to help revitalize a church is to write down all the issues the church faces on a piece of paper. Spend time reflecting, praying, and asking others for thoughts. There should be no rush in developing the problem list. Once complete, rank the problems from the easiest to solve to the most complicated. The idea is to solve the low-hanging issues so that you can create early wins to celebrate with the church. See these wins as deposits in a future investment. As you arrive at the most complicated items, you will have to take withdrawals that stretch members to see beyond their wants and desires for God.
This is when growth happens because people begin to release problems to God, trust the process, and work the plan to see the church’s turnaround. Instead of speaking about problems, the church begins to work through them, and with each solved case, God draws you closer to a spiritual and physical rebound that changes the church forever.
Be a Pattern Thinker.
In every church, some patterns (good or bad) have taken hold that either hinder or help the church move forward. For a church in decline, some poor habits have taken hold and must be addressed if the church is going to rebound. Leaders must become pattern thinkers who review patterns and see what works. The broken patterns, discard them. What is a pattern, you say? A pattern is doing something for a purpose. A fractured pattern may be that the church has a yearly budget but overspends it yearly and borrows from savings. That is a broken pattern. To fix the pattern, the leadership must cut spending and reverse borrowing. Patterns are easy to locate but hard to fix because it takes a tenacious leader to hold each department and board to account. While it won’t make many friends, it will help the church capture the proper patterns to follow. As a pattern-thinking leader, you can help members consider the church’s patterns and why it’s important to examine every facet of the church when reversing the decline.
Process the past, current and dream of the future.
The church you are helping to rebound has so much potential. Think about the days it was planted and why the location was chosen. While the community might have shifted, God still has called the located church to serve the community. The past is not a hero but a marker of God’s faithfulness throughout the decades. Celebrate the past through a legacy wall where items are placed in storyboard form to share the church’s history. While the current reality of the church is stagnant or declining, the story of the current situation can help redeem the past and prepare it for the church. What a gift to serve a legacy church with a rich history that God asks you to be a part of. It is not time to retreat but to reverse the decline by celebrating the past, evaluating the present, and dreaming about the future. Is there a space that once was filled with children but is no more of a storage closet? Instead of fretting that the church does not have any children, begin to redeem that forgotten classroom or wing and rededicate it to a new God purpose. Could it become a new classroom, a prayer room, a computer lab, or an ESOL training classroom? Do not allow space to go to waste; use it for the glory of God’s kingdom.
While not definitive, these five ways to see potential in church decline are a good place to reflect, discuss with leaders, and pray to see where God might lead you and the church in the near future.