This past week I spoke at both churches on the need for change. I talked about the life cycle of a church — the process from birth to death.
Very few churches ever break this life cycle. From the energy and faith of the launch (birth) of the church, through stages of growth and maturity, into a season of maintenance, decline, and eventually death, churches have many opportunities to change the path. And yet, few do.
I’ve spoken with many church planters, and they’ll all tell you that their church will be different. And yet, 20 or 30 years later, they find themselves moving along the life cycle just like most other churches.
I gave some startling numbers from the Schaeffer Institute. I said that 4500 churches closed every single year in North America. Four. Thousand. Five. Hundred. Churches. Every year.
Well, it turns out I was wrong on those numbers. There’s a new post over at 9marks.com called “Don’t Make Your Pastor A Statistic” that makes me shudder. According to Thabiti Anyabwile, it’s closer to 4,000 churches closing their doors every year. Now, to be fair, my numbers were for North America. This post doesn’t say if the 4,000 is the entire world or just North America. Either way, they are frightening numbers. 4,000 churches enter the death stage in the church life cycle every year.
In my message this past week, I presented five key elements that are found in churches that are able to break that cycle. The most important factor in every church that was able to break the cycle that leads to death is leadership. As I read the 9marks.com article, I’m reminded again of just how key leadership is.
According to the post, the state of pastoring is in major trouble. Again, quoting the Shaeffer Institute, the article suggests that 70% of pastors fight depression. 50% of pastors would leave the ministry if they could, but they don’t know what else they would do. 80% believe ministry has negatively affected their families. 40% claim to have serious conflict with church members at least once a month.
Here’s the kicker: over 1700 pastors leave the ministry every month. What?
Something has to change, don’t you think?
I believe God wants to see churches, pastors, and church members break the life cycle that leads to death. He wants to see us go from growth to maturity to more growth and more maturity. But, it wont happen without all of us willing to change how we do church.
I love that I’m part of two churches that get this. I believe both are ready and willing to continue to see the changes necessary so that we can break the cycle.
What do you think when you read these numbers?
