October 22: BEWARE A DYING CHURCH

It certainly sounds contradictory to say a “dying church”. Does it sound better to say “a dying congregation”? No! Both sound dreadfully wrong.
Yet it is not unusual today to see former houses of worship being used as restaurants, museums, pool rooms, and the like. How did that come to be? A place formerly dedicated to the worship of God going to the highest bidder?
It is happening in all denominations. Sometimes the racial balance in a community changes and a congregation refuses to adjust. Sometimes a factory closes and the economic base of the community leaves and the remaining people say they cannot afford this luxury of keeping up a big building. Sometimes the second or third generation of the founders move away and the original care group that kept it active dies.
It is always sad, no matter the reason. Some churches die long before the congregation does. “The church” is the people of God who make up the congregation and when they lose sight of their identity, sad days follow.
You can visit these congregations and see a lot of activity but not experience the holiness of God. This “consumer generation” wants the church to give them what they “want”, not what they “need”.
So you may find a congregation focusing on feeling good or political action or social work or intellectual challenge and feeling good about what they are ‘offering” the community but there is no reality of the Presence of God. It may be a congregation going actively down the road to experiencing “extinction”.
The key to avoiding a dying church or dying congregation? Look for the characteristics described in Acts 2:42-47 climaxing with the last phrase: “and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
This kind of congregation will never die because the church in the congregation cannot die.

“Dear Lord of the Church, You have called us your co-workers in the task
of nurturing the church and building up her impact on the world. Thanks! Amen”