Anonymous Asks (261)

“Why do some churches grow while others die?”

This is one of those questions for which there is no single definitive answer, especially given the way denominationalism has complicated something God made comparatively simple. First century churches were multi-ethnic, their membership driven by common faith and physical proximity rather than theological hair-splitting or spiritual consumerism.

Thus, we speak of the “church in Ephesus” or the “church in Corinth”, as opposed to the “More Than Conquerors Outreach Ministry Church” or the “Holy City Faith and Deliverance Ministries Center of Love”. Unlike modern churches, first century churches were not building-based. Many met in private homes or from house to house.

Churches die for lots of reasons. Maybe a painfully unmemorable name is one of them.

Biblical Church Death

Churches died in the first century when the Head of the Church removed their lampstand, whatever that means. Certainly, it implies more than extinguishing a candle so testimony would cease; removing the whole lampstand means there’s no place to light a candle even if you wanted to. Is it really the same thing today if one struggling denominational church sells its building to another denomination or to Christians from their own denomination with a different first language? I’m not sure it is. Mind you, one old local church building in my area is now a mosque, complete with men’s and women’s entrances. That’s definitely a removed lampstand.

If we take the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 as suggestive of conditions in various local churches over the centuries, we see a number of errors in practice that can contribute to the demise of a once-thriving gathering: an abandonment of first love, libertinism, apathy, lukewarmness. All require correction or they will mar testimony and eventually stifle growth. John writes in 3 John of a church where one man was so dominant he even controlled who was allowed in. That would tend to shrink your congregation rather quickly.

Practically Dead

There are also practical (non-spiritual) reasons churches grow and die. A church may grow numerically due to the attraction of a strong, charismatic speaker, catchy special music or a well-organized order of service, whether or not the actual content of its teaching is truly biblical. The appeal of such a gathering may be merely natural rather than spiritual, so it may grow quickly and lose adherents just as speedily when something more interesting comes along down the street.

More commonly these days, demographics kill older churches in big city centers, where real estate costs go up over the years, forcing younger families to move to the suburbs. Those who own their own homes are able to stay, but the church ages and dwindles unless something is done to attract new congregants from the neighborhood. Meanwhile, down the street, a Filipino Baptist church temporarily booms because of an influx of immigrants speaking their native language.

Death by Irrelevancy

Some churches lose touch with the times they live in, and become irrelevant. They are doctrinally correct, and may have something going that pushes sentimental buttons for the few old timers who remain, but they have nothing obvious to offer the next generation. Equally, some churches are so in touch with the times that they abandon the truth in favor of the next big swing of the cultural pendulum. Surprisingly, these become irrelevant even faster than those churches that refuse to change at all. Polls show churches that compromise obvious principles of the word of God are dwindling in numbers more rapidly than Bud Light’s market share.

My personal experience is that wherever church leaders concentrate on teaching the word of God without adulteration with the primary goal of building up the body of Christ; where worship and communion with Christ are more important than programs, corporate outreach or platform personalities; and where genuine love and hospitality start with the believers and then spread out to families, neighbors, friends and co-workers; those churches will grow, even if they don’t tick every little box in the process. Equally, wherever churches compromise in hope of increasing numbers, they will eventually pay the price. Numbers are the occasional, uncontrollable by-product of doing the right things, never in themselves the object of the exercise.

What is the Church?

Ultimately, we need to remember that when the Lord Jesus promised, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”, he was not talking about any particular local manifestation of the body of Christ. He is concerned with building that great testimony to his work on earth that transcends all generations, denominations, traditions and theological dogmas. In that great body, each individual local church throughout the last two thousand years has the effective status of a cell. They do a non-trivial job for a fixed period of time, then disappear forever. Usually, there are few left to mourn them when they go.

But when they do their work right, the Body thrives.