Old Bones & Small Churches

One of the biggest challenges in the Church today is what do you do with small traditional churches.   My denomination, the United Methodist Church, has historically been small membership churches.  For example, in 2019, 62% of United Methodist churches had an average worship attendance of 50 or fewer.  If you are curious about the size of churches that disaffiliated…63% of disaffiliating churches was 50 members or fewer.  Approximately 31% of American churches in general have an average attendance of fewer than 50 people.

Fifty in worship is a big deal because when the number is below that it becomes very difficult to have a full-time pastor.  In 2000 86% of UM Churches with 26-50 in worship had a part-time pastor.  Church Answers Research Group suggests that it takes 80-100 in worship to support a full-time pastor so many of those small churches are punching above their weight class.  Why are part-time pastors such an important marker?   It becomes exponentially harder to revitalize a church when the pastor is not full-time.

So, do we write off one third of all churches in the United States and focus on starting new churches?  Currently three traditional churches are closing for every new church plant.  As someone once put it, “It’s easier to give birth than raise the dead.”  I’m not so sure that it is true: 66% of church plants are non-viable after four years.  So planting new churches is not a sure thing.  Should we plant new churches?  Yes, most definitely but let us be realistic and know that most of them will die as well.

Small churches are incredibly resilient.

On the other hand, small churches are incredibly resilient.  I’m reminded of God’s question to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37:3, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  Ezekiel wisely answers, “You know, O God.”

So, let us say that you are serving a church with under 80 in average attendance.  Maybe you are part-time and you would like to be full-time but don’t want to move. What can you do to bring new life into the church and make old bones live again? 

Let me begin by saying that my entire career was spent in traditional churches that needed revitalization of one kind or another…been there done that.  So, if you are serious about bringing new life to old bones the first thing you have to do is mentally, physically, and emotionally prepare yourself for a long, hard road.  It isn’t easy work, but then God doesn’t call us to do easy things…only hard things are worth doing for the kingdom.  But don’t expect one or two things will suddenly “flip the script” in your congregation. Church renewal takes a lot of grit, grace, and gratitude (someone should write a blog with that title).

Church renewal takes a lot of grit, grace, and gratitude (someone should write a blog with that title).

The second thing I would say to you is that not only is there not a single silver bullet to transform everything in your church but as Ezekiel observed only God knows what it is that will breathe new life into those old bones.  You can do all the right things (whatever you think those are) and still nothing changes in your church.

All that being said there are some general directions I think can be made to help you on your journey.  Let’s call them shifts that increase the chances of your church being revitalized. 

Here is number one:

Elevate Mission Over Methods

During the pandemic we all had to learn a new method to get the word out and gather together in a safe way.  If you were like me you had to take a crash course on live streaming and YouTube became your new best friend.  Methods took front row in most of our churches.  In places that refused to adapt, well most of them are now closed. 

We have all had that experience of walking into a church and literally smelling the age of the church.  Too often the church is more museum than mission.  I cringe whenever I see a plaque on a piece of furniture or a picture frame because I can see the battle ahead if it were to ever be removed.  We too often focus on preservation rather than mission.  I served a beautiful church that was a historic building.  It was wonderful until you wanted to change the color of the paint or modify anything inside or outside the building.  Use the history of your church to point it forward not backward.  Every church at some point focused on mission, reaching the community they were in, call people back to that original mission and the method will become clear.  Always be ready to sacrifice methods for the mission. 

Step 1: Have an open and honest conversation about how to honor the past without living in it.  What does your church want to offer to the community that they need?  That’s your mission.

Embrace the Truth of the Gospel

I found a WordPress sample website called Church Lite.  Here is how they described it:

“Church Lite is a modern and feature-rich, professionally designed, clean and polished, flexible and amazing, popular and engaging, intuitive and easy to use, lively and highly responsive church and religious WordPress theme specially created for church, religious or non-profit organization website.”

You need to do things to attract people to your church, being modern and popular, engaging and all those other things are great. But you had better have something real to keep them coming back.  The Church exists to make disciples but too often we settle for church-lite and disciple-lite.  There is a point in the gospels when the crowds that followed Jesus began to shrink because he was calling them to hard things.  WordPress description of Church Lite probably gathers a crowd but does it change people’s lives for the better? 

The scriptures speak of picking up crosses and bearing one another’s burdens.  If your church is not calling people to sacrifice as part of discipleship then you’re probably not embracing the truth of the gospel.

Faith vs. Belief

The third thing that I’ve seen in vital churches is a focus on faith rather than belief.  What I mean by that is that many churches are characterized by their positions on what is culturally right or wrong, liberal versus conservative, or one Doctrine of Interpretation over all others.

Don’t get me wrong, belief is important.  You should be able to defend your viewpoint but you could be wrong.  The scriptures warn us not to think too highly of ourselves and I’ve met too many close-minded people who think “right belief” is what it means to be a Christian.

Renewal takes faith.  Train people to trust in a living God.  Help people discover what God is leading them to do in this generation.  Jesus lifted up the doers of faith, feed the hungry and clothe the naked and so on, not the thinkers in Ivory Towers.  Elevate faith and belief will fall into place.  As faith grows the desire to know more will lead them to reading more scripture and prayer.  Trust the Holy Spirit to do its work.

Curiosity Over Criticism

One of the common characteristics of vital churches I’ve experienced is they are curious rather than critical.  Unchurched people believe all Christians are judgmental and out of step with the real world.  They look at the church and see critics but vital healthy churches are curious churches.  They want to get to know people, especially people different from themselves, and that starts with a non-judgmental attitude.  I’m old enough to remember when pastors refused to marry couples who were living together.  “You will have to live apart for a while before I will consider marrying you.”  Other than being bad theology it is just bad strategy.  My grandmother was the best Christian I’ve ever known but in her later years she met and moved in with a man.  They never married because it would have affected their social security benefits.  Be curious, not critical.

There was a time when sermons against tattoos were common.  There is a scripture in the Old Testament that appears to prohibit them (Leviticus 19:28).  You can be critical or curious.  I’ve gotten into great conversations with people over their tattoos.  Nearly every tattoo has a deeper story that can build relationships and bridges if you choose. Choose to be curious.

The same is true for the church down the street that’s growing.  You can say they sold out or they’ve embraced entertainment or another criticism of one kind or another or you can get curious.  What about that church, is attractive to folks?  Is there a lesson for us in what they are doing?

The small church has a number of things going for it over the large church which is a topic for another blog.  We need all kinds of churches and all sizes of churches to fulfill our calling to reach the world for Christ. The goal should not be to be big but rather healthy and vital and let God do the rest.  I leave you with the wisdom of Thomas Merton:

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope.” 

Thomas Merton

Until next time, may God grant you the grit, grace, and gratitude to thrive where you have been sent.