Chapter 4
The Church Refused to Look Like the Community
Our autopsy revealed this condition in several of the fourteen churches. Look at the faces of the members before the church officially died. Now look at the faces of most of the people who live in the community where the church is located. They are significantly different.
Here is the typical scenario I heard. In the “good old days” the church was booming as residents in the community flocked to the church. The church was a part of the community and it reflected the community.
Then the community began to change. In some cases the change was ethnic or racial. In other cases it was age-related. And sometimes it was simply socioeconomic change.
But the change was real and the members of the church felt it.
The response to the changing community was often subtle. One family in the church would decide to “move up” to another section of town. Others would follow. The migration of people in and out of the church was often slow and almost imperceptible. But it was very real.
For two to three decades the church held its own. While it was not reaching the new residents of the community, the members were not leaving in mass either. They were willing to drive into the community where they once lived because, after all, it was their church.
But their children, and especially their grandchildren, did not respond accordingly. Some of these younger generations left town completely. Others stayed in the areas, but they found churches where their homes were. They did not see the point in driving to a transitioned community that had no identity with the church.
So the church began its death march. Family by family the church declined. Of course, the membership of the church grew older. Those who once lived in the community represented the oldest of the members, and no younger families replaced them.
For sure, there would be an occasional but faint attempt to reach the community. Essentially, on those rare occasions they tried to reach out, the church members asked the community residents to come to them, to the church. There was almost never any effort to go into the community.
And no one, at any point, ever mentioned the possibility of a willingness to turn over the leadership of the church to the residents of the community. What may seem like common sense to an outsider was treasonous to the church members.
After all, it was their church. The community members had never given a dime to the congregation. Why would they ever consider letting those outsiders take over the church?
The Church Becomes a Fortress
What imagery comes to your mind when you hear the word “fortress”? A medieval castle? Fort Knox? Huge buildings with gates and locks and moats? Something that is almost impossible for the outside world to enter?
Any of those word pictures will work. The key is to keep people and possessions on the inside safe, and to keep people on the other side out.
If you talk to members in a dying church, most will deny that their church is a fortress. But in our autopsy, we found that is exactly what was taking place. People in the community did not feel welcome in the church. Those in the church were more concerned about protecting the way they did church than reaching residents of the community.
You see, these churches really were fortresses. The very thought of making significant changes to reach and impact the community is frightening. To suggest that the church members begin to transition leadership to residents of the community seems absurd. It is our fortress, they say. Outsiders not welcome. We will fight to keep the church just as it is until we die.
And that day is not very far away.
Others First = Life. Me First = Death.
When a church ceases to have a heart and ministry for its community, it is on the path toward death. Whenever local churches are mentioned in the New Testament, they are always exhorted to be other-centered.
Paul told the church at Philippi to look after the interests of others even as it considered its own interests: “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal. Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:1–4).
Did you get that? Vibrant and living churches look after the interests of others. They are concerned for their communities. They open the door for others.
But dying churches are concerned with self-preservation. They are concerned with a certain way of doing church. They are all about self. Their doors are closed to the community. And even more sadly, most of the members in the dying church would not admit they are closed to those God has called them to reach and minister.
Our autopsy revealed, that at some point in its history, the church stopped reaching and caring for the community.
How could we tell? The church did not look like or reflect the community in which it was located. Or if it did, it stopped ministering to those around them.
God called the church to look outwardly.
Our autopsy revealed that the church had become self-centered and self-gratifying.
Prayerful Commitment 4
God, give my church and me a heart for our community. Let me see the people through Your eyes. And give me the courage and the wisdom to let go of this church, so that others who best reflect this community can lead us and teach us.
Questions for Further Thought
1. Does your church try to reach and minister to its community, even to the point of giving up authority to better reach the people? Explain your “yes” or “no.”
2. When does a church act like a fortress?
3. How does Paul’s exhortation to the Philippian church relate to churches today impacting their communities?