Choices that Close Our Congregations

Maybe it won’t happen in 2024 or even five years from now. But I can tell you for sure that there are decisions congregations will make that will eventually close their churches.

I don’t have the authority to close a church in my role with our Presbytery. I wrote about this previously. But I’m noticing that congregations continue to make decisions that will result in closing their churches sooner than later.

Note: Sometimes closing a congregation is the most faithful choice a congregation can make. Hope to see some of you at the January 17 conversation with Mark Elsdon, editor of the book Gone for Good: Navigating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition. Maybe there’s still time to register here.

Churches: Please Make Good Choices

Congregational leaders make decisions every day. Their governing boards exist to make decisions on behalf of the congregation. Here are some choices that are – actually – decisions to close:

• The decision to hire available retired pastors instead of available fresh-out-of-seminary pastors because retired pastors don’t require medical benefits (and are subsequently cheaper.)
• The decision to sell church property to support the current budget rather than using the funds to serve the community/expand the congregation’s community outreach.
• The decision to ignore the disabled members of the congregation because “there are only three of them.”
• The decision to cut funding to the food bank instead of the paid choir members.
• The decision to shut down the church preschool because all the students were Muslim and “their parents were never going to join the congregation which is why we started a preschool – to get young families.”
• The decision not to install an elevator in the new construction “because we don’t have any people who use wheelchairs.”
• The decision for leaders to cling to their roles without recruiting and training their replacements claiming “no one will do it if I don’t.“
• The decision to keep the same “mission projects” year after year even though they have zero impact in the community.
• The decision to look down on neighbors who don’t have our education or our status.
• The decision to tolerate church bullies.
• The decision to ignore deep conflict.
• The decision to delay essential building maintenance.
• The decision to refuse Cost of Living Adjustments for church staff.
• The decision to serve ourselves and ignore the needs of our neighbors.

A point comes – after we’ve been making bad decisions for too long – when we will not have the capacity to recover. And then the healthiest choice might be to discern what life-giving legacy we can leave for others to come after us.

It’s January, folks. A new beginning. What choices will we make that help us be a healthier church in 2024?