Leave The Dying Churches Alone.

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I read this article, about the epidemic of closing churches, and I have mixed feelings.  That probably doesn't surprise anyone.  I specialize in mixed feelings.

I've been a Christian for so many years now that sometimes I feel like I've heard every argument people can make, and this is nothing new.  There are lots and lots of things any organization *should* do - every organization under the sun, not just churches.

And to paraphrase H.L. Menken: "For every problem there is a solution that is easy, neat, and wrong."

And yet it's hard for me to say this because I love the easy answers!  Yes, so simple, so OBVIOUS!  Just bundle all the Christians together into one big, effective, vibrant church and then all the little churches can close and you can be financially stable and so forth.

This sort of answer just pulls at us, doesn't it?  The simple and neat and easy and successful?  Get rid of all the complexity of messy humanity and be a substantial congregation and fiscally stable and all that - I mean, who wouldn't want to look at it that way?  Well, God, for one.  God doesn't look at it that way.  I can't count the number of times I've said the following statements:  "God doesn't call you to be successful; He calls you to be faithful.", "No one intelligent enters the ministry with an eye on financial success in life", "(my husband's) 'boss' is not the congregation; it is God".  And so forth.  I have to say these things over and over again because...this is not what the world tells us.  And Christians, including this author, have absorbed similar ideas.  The church is intended to be successful, the church should close old buildings and focus on what will really work, the people who cling to those old buildings are doing so because they have nice memories associated with them, but we should pass over those feelings and get rid of that old stuff, because there is New! Stuff! Ahead!  Go forth!

That...isn't Christian.  It's very popular, and it's very appealing and it would maybe give you the results you desire...but it isn't Christian.

The fact of the matter is that God is the head of those churches, as He is the head of all churches that follow Him.  I don't know the churches that the author mentions, but I would be hesitant to support any suggestion that we know all that God intended them for - that His plans for those buildings, those congregations, that history and community influence, are simply done now because the church isn't financially affluent.

When a church struggles these days, we immediately start to throw newness at the 'problem'.  And believe you me, I have experience with churches slowly 'dying'.  We find new ministries, we gussie the place up a bit, we start new outreaches and such.  And if we are doing this because we feel as though our faith has grown stagnant and needs to be renewed then probably this is all quite a good idea.  If we're doing it because the other churches in town have bigger congregations than we do and we want the same outward signs of success and prosperity...maybe not so much a good idea.

I've gone to those little churches before.  My husband once did pulpit supply for a church so small that when we showed up we doubled the congregation.  And I don't know what to tell you.  Those churches, like all churches, serve as beacons of God's word in the wilderness, even if they do nothing else of value in the world's eyes.  They are the church that you drive past on your way home from work.  They are the church your grandparents went to.  And who knows...maybe they're the church someone goes to that Sunday when "I should go to church someday" turns into "Today is the day I go to church."

I get it, I get the desire to have the big, the shiny, the new.  I get the desire to want to look out over the pews and see them full, just BURSTING, with people, and new people, and eager people.  But these people are cherished souls, and the old, the tired, the ones who look nothing like that vibrant congregation of your dreams, they are also cherished, in their old grey pews, with their well worn faith and their adamant desire to not use an overhead projector.

Leave the little, decrepit churches alone.  Or rather, don't leave them alone.  Go to them!  Attend them!  Help them make coffee and offer to print off a nice Easter bulletin for them or at the very least talk to them, maybe they have something to teach you.  Listen.