Your Congregation is Dying
by Rev. Terry Cripe
October 2007

Depressing thought, isn't it? But it is true nonetheless. If it is any comfort to you, your dying congregation joins the likes of the church at Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, Thyatira, and a very, very long list of other ecclesiastical corpses. The Preacher reminds us, ''There is a time to live and a time to die.''

While I was in seminary, a discussion developed on the merits of exercise as related to health. A professor said he believed that since God had decreed the length of one's life, exercise was, well, a futile exercise. I thought about that. But I came to a different conclusion. God has decreed the length of one's life, granted. So if a person has another five or ten years remaining, would there be any difference in the quality of that life if one exercised or not? From my visits to the hospital, I have to come down on the side of exercise and diet. Dying out of shape can be more miserable than dying in shape. But we are all dying, some of us are just further down the road than others. So let that thought temper your reaction when, in a panic, someone comes to the conclusion that your congregation is dying. We cannot hold death at the door forever, but congregations can live in reasonable health until the end finally comes. What are the signs of a healthy congregation? First and foremost, it is a congregation where God's unearned love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus is proclaimed faithfully. Where the Gospel is no longer preached, a congregation falls into spiritual sickness. No amount of Natural Church Development, Intervention, or church growth principles will help. In fact, they might make things worse by masking the real problem or giving a false sense of hope.

Secondly, a healthy congregation is one where faith in Christ is being exercised in love. A faith that is only words without deeds, is no faith at all, just as Martin Luther said. Observing the symptoms of that unhealthy condition is quite easy. Members happily chat among themselves while the visiting family is left to talk among themselves. An inner circle of the faithful develops which excludes others, yet the inner circle wonders why those same others don't get involved. Members never think beyond their own congregational survival interests, so friends are never invited, acts of mercy to benefit the neighbor are never carried out. Life under the cross is avoided. Bible study attendants are few. Pastors frantically present one miracle cure after another, but to no avail. Their first love, Christ Jesus, is gone. OR the congregation is racing about in high gear, involved in one project after another, energized by their pastor's driving enthusiasm centered in an array of ''musts,'' ''have to's,'' or ''oughts.'' The leadership views members only as means by which their collective self-imposed goals can be reached. A high level of activity is mistaken for a high level faith. A protracted death follows. The Ohio District has an interesting mix of dying congregations. Some are healthy and physically young. Some are healthy and physically old. Others are unhealthy and physically old, while still others are unhealthy and young. But every last one is dying. We are only cells of the Body. The Body of Christ lives; cells die off and are replaced regularly. Some will die of ''natural'' causes. Others will pass out of existence before their time. Our goal is that, by God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we would be a District of healthy congregations that, until their last breath, live the faith that was delivered to them and share that faith so long as life remains.