I was stunned.
When I wrote Autopsy of a Deceased Church five years ago, the response took me by surprise. While all authors expect or hope their books will be bestsellers, I frankly didn’t see it coming. Hundreds of thousands of book sales later, Autopsy became the all-time bestseller in the genre of church leadership.
Why? Why did church leaders, both vocational and laity, respond to the book with this level of interest? The concept was simple. We interviewed church members of churches that had closed their doors or died. We performed an autopsy of deceased churches. We found out why these churches died.
After about a year of receiving questions and comments from readers, I saw a common theme emerging. The readers wanted to know what they could do to prevent their churches from dying. Ironically, a book about the death of churches became a book about hope for churches.
While the sales of the book remain strong to this day, I think it’s worth noting what we have learned in the five years since I wrote the book. On this fifth anniversary celebration of Autopsy of a Deceased Church. Here are six things we’ve learned.
- Most members of dying churches didn’t see it coming. Many of the members were still dealing with the shock of the death of their churches when we interviewed them.
- Many of the members and leaders of these churches would have begun revitalization efforts if they knew how. I am so grateful for the revitalization revolution taking place today. Churches have resources and knowledge they didn’t have five years ago.
- “Minor” issues kill churches. Most of these churches did not die because of some major heresy. They did not die because of a mass exodus of the population surrounding them. They died because they lost their focus. They died because they fought over things that really did not matter. They majored on minors to the point of death.
- The silent majority killed churches. Some members saw the problems. They knew the power brokers in the church. They knew the personnel committee ran off a pastor without cause. They heard the constant chorus of not-so-well-intending critics attacking church leadership. But they said nothing and did nothing. Their silence was a dagger in the back of these churches.
- Some members waited for the silver bullet. Many of them said they kept waiting on that young pastor who would attract new young families. Some of the churches got those young pastors, and they ran them off when change began to take place. Most of the churches, though, never got the young pastor. They waited until death.
- A church does not have to die. Death is not inevitable. But most of the members of these churches would rather see the church die than change. They got their wish.
Thanks to all of you who purchased a copy of Autopsy. I am honored and humbled by the response. Now, for the first time ever, we have a video resource for the study of this book. Perhaps it’s time take a group through this book and see what God will do to move your church in the right direction.
I pray your church will not be the next autopsy performed.
Exactly; no church located in a zip code whose pooulation is stable or growing must die–though demographic trends can require a congregation to learn how to fish for different fish for a time.
Again, the simple-though-not-easy change equation: (Dissastisfaction x Vision of preferred future x Knowledge of first steps) > Resistance = Change. Autopsies are audits/diagnoses/assessments but done too late. Restoring health in near-death experiences requires the management function to discover causes of that experience, leadership to prescribe therapies for those causes, and administration actually to treat those causes–and in such a way that resistance to restored health is overcome and vitality truly is restored.
It would be interesting to learn which revitalized congregations now thriving did not follow that pattern back to spiritual and/or organizational health.
I haven’t read the book, but I am struck by the six symptoms published here as laying the blame entirely on the laity. Was there no leadership to deal with these problems? Did all these things happen with no remedial action from church professionals? Was there really no reason for chasing off a pastor or did no one investigate issues from more than one side? Did the pastor gain the support of factions, basking in the comfort of supporters and allowing small differences to fester? Were evangelism efforts aimed only at the demographically familiar? Did the regional body train pastors for the conditions facing small churches in areas of demographic change so the pastors could, in turn, train congregational leaders? Did the regional body decide that the demise of a congregation would benefit them—a problem rid of? —a shot of financial penicillin for their own financial woes? —the people more trouble than they are worth? Might there, perhaps, have been a lack of vision all around—everyone focused on what made church life easy and rewarding and comfortable for themselves?
As a lay person, I was shocked to read this in a book used to train pastors and staff serving in regional offices. It was published by the Alban Institute. In short, the advice was to do nothing for ten years. TEN YEARS! I’ve always wondered if the congregations knew these were the instructions to the pastor they called hoping for real leadership.
“You do not have the luxury of giving everyone who asks for help whatever time you have available. Some tough decisions need to be made as to where your Regional Body is going to invest time, energy, and resources. Thinking in terms of TRIAGE is a most responsible thing to do at the present time. Congregations that will die within the next ten years should receive the least amount of time and attention. They should receive time that assists them to die with celebration and dignity. Offer these congregations a ‘caretaker’ pastor who would give them quality palliative care until they decide to close their doors. It is the kind of tough-minded leadership that will be needed at the helm if your organization is to become a Transformational Regional Body.”
—Transforming Regional Bodies,
co-authored by Roy Oswald and Claire Burkat (2001)
It would follow that congregational leaders who are not in on the plan would become frustrated with a pastor providing only palliative care.
I hope your book covers some of this. Change is work. Everyone—leadership and laity—must be partners.
Ms. Gothwald,
Two things I would like to note, possibly for your benefit, although you very well may have already thought about them. First, as a Baptist, Mr. Rainer’s sampling probably was overwhelmingly Congregational in nature, and secondly, the church is the laity. As far as I know neither Peter, James, Paul, or anyone else in that generation was selected by a personnel committee nor paid via check. And while my tongue is wedged in my cheek a little on that last, I don’t think I’ve been in too many churches where the death of the body could be blamed on the staff.
I don’t know about your experience, but every church I’ve been a part of was led by a power group within the laity, not the pastor.
If you have ever watched a shepherd and his dog in action you will see just how many churches operate. One or two sheep often break away but if nothing is done then the rest will follow. The shepherd /pastor’s job is a highly skilled one.
Point four is particularly insightful. This is one of the hidden values of a new members class which, in addition to presenting the doctrinal beliefs, can help remedy this by addressing the church’s culture and DNA. Once you have the buy-in from supporting leaders I believe it’s ok to simply say, “that’s not how we do things around here”. We graciously, but relentlessly have to remind people, even old-timers, of how Jesus instructed us to handle conflict. Thanks for the article and encouragement.
Thank you, Bobby.
Thom,
Your wisdom never ceases to amaze me. Thank you for sharing these 6 new insights. Autopsy of a Deceased Church has made in indescribable difference in many of the churches that I serve. Please keep these valuable truths coming.
Larry
Your words are incredibly encouraging and humbling, Larry. Thank you.
Leadership does whatever they and the unofficial power structure want to do. They usually meet in secret, may (not) release a set of minutes, and are not typically approachable. Ideas from others are frequently summarily rejected based on who offered them and their donation level. The older generations (even our parents) protect(ed) this structure so as to not rock the boat, and the younger generations who didn’t like this arrangement left churches as well as the faith.
This is so often true. Of the leadership “says” they are elder led but really the elders are just “yes men” for others who make decisions as they are told, “obey your leadership, those whom God has anointed and called.” Now this is scary.
Absolutely True.I have seen it time and time. True colors come out eventually from pastor and some valued team members The rest of us just carry the weight and cost of supporting the church.
Than k you again for your insight on these and others. Unfortunately, and I hope i am wrong, think that my church that I have been attending is rapidly falling into this category. After several near deaths, hitting walls, ect. we had some success, ven purchasing some property to build a larger church. BUT, with the passing away of 10 percent of the membership at that time, one pastor moving on, one pastor coming in that was ‘retired’ and not wanting to do much but preach, a music/youth pastor going to greener pastures, promoting a youth person that was part time, him leaving a year later and hiring a young inexperienced youth/music that ended up getting way over his head, going out after 8 months, getting a very friendly music person for a couple of years and him leaving and the pastor who was retired, going back into retirement, wow, a lot over about 6 years and a lt of areas fell by the wayside, visitation, community relationships, etc. we are looking again for a pastor to shepherd us, and i hope and pray, get them on board to try to save us from being deceased.
My prayers, Scowin.
Thanks Thom, I read Autopsy in my last congregation with a team of very dedicated volunteer leaders. Most of them denied that some of the characteristics described our church or made excuses for why our church fell in that category. But there were a few who got it and were invigorated to make changes within the church. Interestingly, some of the most vehement deniers eventually left the church because they just couldn’t accept the changes that were called for.
So sad. But much too common.
Thanks once again for your wisdom and research! I read the very insightful and informative book right after it came out and gave a bunch of copies to some church leaders.
I just read another book that was released 4/1/19 that would also be an incredible help to all churches. The book is: Empowered: Why We Need Spirit-Filled Churches. This book was written by Kie Bowman, who is the senior pastor of Hyde Park Baptist in Austin, Texas. In his book , Dr. Bowman does a masterful job of connecting the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to corporate prayer.
I agree with the premise of the book that when a church becomes prayer saturated and prayer driven, the power of the Spirit becomes real and a ton of problems are solved.
Good word, Tom.
My first thought is that these reasons seem to leave God out of the equation.
For those with a Calvinist bent, what if there simply are no more elect in given community? For those with an Arminian bent, what if folks are exercising their free will and simply choose to reject a given church?
I guess I am saying the emperor has no clothes at times. While we can certainly benefit from learning how to do church well, that does not come with guarantees that God will then move in the way we preselected.
Maybe the folks in my grandparent’s generation got it right: maybe we really are called to be faithful, not successful. Success then comes at the moving of God’s hand, not because we ticked off a certain number of Things To Be Changed or Things Never To Be Changed.
Maybe we really do have to get back to preaching repentance for sin and faith in Christ instead of worrying about having a cool praise team dressed just right with the really good haircuts.
One problem I saw at my last church was when senior staff and elders (lay leadership) didn’t want the church as a whole to know that the church was dying. And refusing to accept help or advice, especially any type of outside help like Church Answers., when they could no longer hide the issues. Pride and defensiveness can stand in the way of turning things around.
So true.
Churches die for one reason: they are no longer focused on Christ. This may present in many forms but it all comes back to the same thing. If you lose focus on the life-giver then you have no life.
I like the book alot. Yet I am reminded of this quote, “culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker. If the culture of a church is severely dysfunctional no amount of strategy or planning will keep it from dying (actually or functionally).
Good point, Tim.
“. . . but group status quo snacks on culture all day long!”
Can have the best strategy ever devised and seek to develop a culture to execute it; but, if the group does not want to–for whatever its reason/s–neither strategy nor culture have helped. It is management AND leadership AND administration that overcome resistance, as they work together to do so.
(Problem x Solv x Ing) > Status Quo = Change.
P.S. the quote is ascribed to Drucker but the research of others cannot actually find that he said/wrote it.
Many little groups look at churches (all over America) as their little building. They have been there a long time, have attended for 20-30-40 years, have given a lot of money to the church, and they operate and act as if they own the place. It is Jesus’ church: whether Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Pentecostal. Whether 20, 50, 100, 200 or 500 people in it. But the old timers don’t want to change and they fiercely resist any pastor attempting to lead change in order to grow. Decline of many churches, right now at this very moment and season and in the coming decades, should come as no surprise to anybody. A church is to be outward focused, but for many groups, the focus is not this in any way, shape, or form. Some think if they get some young, energetic, great speaker pastor that they will grow, by leaps and bounds, very quickly. This is a fallacy. Everybody has to pull in the same direction, all have to work and want growth, newcomers have to be truly welcomed, affirmed, and encouraged to get involved. And churches have to adjust when the growth begins and continues. Many groups in America (and churches would spit bullets at you if you said this face-to-face with them) are not churches; they are social clubs where ppl meet weekly. There’s no worship of Jesus. They can’t deal with preaching that hits on their sins. There’s no plan to reach out into the community. They are spiritually dead and in time they will be numerically dead and close. All churches? No, not all. A small percentage are growing, doing great things for the kingdom, and moving forward. But more are dying than not. Pastors, keep on keeping on. Don’t let the critics, naysayers, and difficult people in your churches beat you down and make you quit. Pastor for Jesus and Him alone! Thom, thank you for your fine work. Keep on doing it. You serve a vital purpose.
So, shouldn’t a healthy church should be growing? Jesus told some very bold parables about trees not bearing fruit, husbandmen not increasing the crops when the master was away and gaining interest on your talents instead of burying them in the ground. A church not growing is serious disobedience to the great commission. It does begin with the pastor who one day will answer like those in the parable to their calling and commission. Of course everybody is responsible – some plant, some water and God gives the increase but if a church is not growing there is something wrong. And yes, there are practical considerations. I’ve met so many pastors who don’t do the work of evangelism and blame the lack of people coming to Christ on sovereignty. There will be a reward one day in the form of a crown for Soul winners and the pastor should be the leader in this. My church growth professor in seminary used to say “a church grows because the pastor wants it to”. Of course God does the saving but we know He has said He wants to go into the highways and hedges and compel them to come. Research says that a church should basically grow by 10 percent a year if the younger families are just having children. If a church is not growing at better than 10 percent it might be time for pruning, investing and doing the hard work of evangelism because one day the Master will return and expect an increase!
Chris –
I would love to see the source for the research you noted.
Your insight is valuable, thank you. What most members of dying churches don’t realize is just how hard the revitalization process can be. We are 2 and a half years in. Many have left, it was just too much for them, they wanted the comfort of how they had always done church. . . Those who have stayed have been hurt and lost close friendships. . . But, God is good and faithful. We see hope in the future and God working in our midst. I’m thankful to have a pastor that is a strong enough leader for the task.
The book is a well-deserved success. I appreciate your willingness to always stay close to the ground level, seeking what the real issues are, and not merely trying to rely on favored talking points. I have continued to hold on to several things I learned from your book, not the least of which is the crucial importance of a mission-focused mindset. Blessings on your work, Thom!
Thank you so much, Mark.