Can these bones live again?

Ten keys to turning declining churches around.

Stephen Grunlan, DMin, is senior pastor of Grace Fellowship, Overland Park, Kansas, United States.

Would you be open to a move?" asked the district superintendent. I asked a few questions about the church and then politely declined.

However, the superintendent wanted me to know about the church in San Diego. It was a church in a good location with excellent facilities. Once its membership had been 200, but it had begun to decline. Now there were only about 50. Yet the more the superintendent talked, the more interested I became. I told him I would pray about it, talk to my wife, and get back to him.

I thought of my own church. It had also declined from 200 to about 100. Nine years after I became the pastor, the weekly worship attendance had risen to almost 800. Similarly, the church I had pastored before experienced very significant growth.

When I accepted the calls to my first two churches, I was not looking for declining churches nor was I interested in a turnaround ministry. These were the churches that had been available and the call had come to me. Now with this "feeler" from California, I was in a position to choose a turnaround ministry. As my wife and I prayed, gathered information, and visited San Diego, we came to believe that this was where God could use us. We felt uniquely prepared.

We have now been in San Diego for almost four years and we have seen attendance triple in this transient, multicultural setting. As I have sought to turn the church around, I have reflected on what worked in my previous ministries and what is working here. All three churches have been quite different from one another. One was a suburban church, one in a large town, and one in an urban setting. In all three situations I have noticed or identified ten keys common to turning the churches around.

1. Build hope

When a church is in decline, people begin to lose confidence. They wonder what will happen to them and their church. Often key people leave and those who remain feel abandoned. They begin to ask quietly, "Will the church ever again be what it once was?" "What's going to happen to us?"

In all three of my churches I realized that the people needed hope. Building hope requires three approaches.

First, God. I reminded the congregation of who God is and what He had done and what He could do. I pointed to the promise of Jesus, "I will build my church." I told them that the church is where Jesus is working and that working together with Jesus and one another the church can be built.

Second, I pointed to the assets and strengths of the church. All three churches had good people, good facilities, and good locations. One church had a strong, dynamic missions program. Another church had a strong children's ministry. And the third had a good education program and a school with real potential. I reminded them of the tremendous resources they had. I held up each of their strong ministries as an example of what they could do.

Third, I built hope with stories and examples of other churches and minis tries that had turned around and come back. As hope was rekindled, churches were able to move ahead.

2. Develop a vision

Growth requires vision. When I took up my first church, nobody was talking about vision. I did not know what it was. But I did know the church needed a direction and a goal, and I did know where I wanted the church to go. Unfortunately, I thought I could impose my view on the church. While that church did grow, and when I left it was larger than it had ever been, I nevertheless felt a sense of failure because I did not develop a collectively owned vision.

I took up my second church a little wiser. Soon after I settled in, I scheduled a Board retreat. Our primary agenda was vision and direction for the church. The church leadership became part of the process. With the leadership sharing the vision, we moved ahead quite well. However, we also lost some people who did not understand where we were going or how we would get there.

When I came to my current church, I first worked through the vision with the leadership and then went to the congregation. So I was able to get everyone on board, and everyone knew where we were going and how we would get there. Vision is critical for focusing limited resources and personnel.

3. Look forward publicly, look back ward privately

Problems plagued my last two churches, where both my predecessors had been forced out, with members supporting them and opposing them. There were misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and tension. These needed to be addressed, but not from the pulpit. The pulpit is a place to look ahead. I never discussed the past publicly. Rather I pointed to a future that we could all share together.

However, I did spend significant time looking back privately. I let people talk through their hurts and frustrations. I listened to their stories of what had taken place. While I tried not to take sides, defend, or blame, I did acknowledge hurts and grievances. It was important that I not ignore the past. But I dealt with it one-on-one or in small groups, while I devoted the pulpit to looking ahead.

4. Fix up the facility

The first thing that struck me with all three churches was the disrepair of the facilities. I suspect this is true of most declining churches. Budgets are tight, and incentive is dwindling. Unfortunately, peeling paint and scruffy grounds send a message to the community: the church is dying.

Within weeks of arriving at each church I began to concentrate on the most urgent repairs. We were able to do quite a bit with a few gallons of paint and some volunteers. We also adjusted budgets so we could bring in professionals to handle improvements that the volunteers could not.

Most of these initial efforts had to do with the outside of the facilities. We wanted to send a message to the community that we were alive and well and open for business. The message went not only to the community but also to the congregation. Pride and confidence in the church returned. The more we fixed up, the more people wanted to fix up. They were seeing progress and wanted more of it.

5. Build on strengths

Declining churches often think they need more programs to attract more people: singles' ministry, youth ministry, ministry for the homeless, etc. However, a declining church with diminishing re sources cannot be all things to all people. And when we want to turn things around, we need to be something to somebody. We found that the best way to do this was to build on our strengths. In the first church, we had an excellent Bible study class with great teachers. We also had a good preschool and an ad equate children's club program. So we decided to focus on young families be cause that was the group to which we were best equipped to minister.

In the next church, we also had strong children's programming, and once again we focused on young families. That church also had a number of gifted musicians and vocalists, so we focused on music and worship minis tries. With a dynamic music program, we attracted musically inclined people. We also had a retired pastor in the congregation who worked with seniors, and so we focused on that ministry. The congregation was a caring group of people, and we began to minister to military families in the community. In each church we had to decide purposely not to do some things. In the second church we put few resources into youth ministry while focusing on young families with children. We lost a couple of families with teenagers to a larger church with a dynamic youth ministry. However, we gained more families with our children's ministry. Then, as those children approached the teen years, we hired a youth pastor and developed an effective youth ministry.

When we focus on strengths, we may have to treat some ministries with benign neglect. We need to guard against allowing ourselves to be spread too thin. We need to say "no" to the good so we can say "yes" to the best.

6. Preach with dynamism

In each of my churches, I realized some changes had to be made quickly. That meant killing a few sacred cows, upsetting a few applecarts, and stepping on some toes. Where was I going to get the authority to do this? What could I give the people in exchange for what I would need to take from them?

One thing I could give was dynamic preaching. I put a lot of effort into my sermons. I listened to professional storytellers, which helped me to tell better stories. I listened to the tapes of the most popular preachers not to imitate them, but to learn from them. I made a commitment never to bore any one with a sermon. I learned to use good humor. I made sure my applications were practical and relevant, that I was answering the questions people were asking.

A strong pulpit ministry gives the pastor authority to make necessary changes.

7. Emphasize prayer

Ministry is a spiritual endeavor and requires spiritual power. Not just the prayer of the pastor, but the prayer of the people. While that should be obvious, it was not so to me when I entered the pastorate. Of course, I believed in prayer. I even fasted one day a week. And we had a weekly church prayer meeting. However, in my first church I did not put a strong emphasis on prayer.

In the second church, I began to recognize the need for prayer as a church family. I preached on prayer and fasting. We set aside days for prayer and fasting. We began a number of prayer groups and prayer chains. I was learning.

When I received the call to the present church, I said I would come only if they agreed to hold an all-church prayer meeting every Sunday evening and if the leadership would commit to attending it regularly. They did, and we did. We also started a Pastor's Prayer Partners' ministry. We recruited a Sun day morning prayer team to pray for the services. We also had days of fasting and prayer, and we began prayer teams for each of our ministries.

8. Go for quick wins

When I first entered the sanctuary, I could not believe my eyes. The padded pews were covered in a bright orange velvet material. The carpet was brown with orange speckles that matched the pews. The walls were covered with a gold, textured wallpaper. It was a 70s decor. Unfortunately, we were in the 90s.

However, I should not have been surprised, since my first church had been graced by an indescribable green carpet with drab olive walls. My second church had pea green walls and padded pews covered with gold vinyl material and more green carpeting.

This gave me opportunities for quick wins. People who are losing hope need to see progress to encourage them. Redecorating the sanctuaries was under my control. It did not depend on visitors, growth, programs, or anything else.

In one case all I was able to do was repaint the walls, but it made a dramatic difference. The walls were dark, and we painted them white. It made the sanctuary look larger and brighter. It had a dramatic effect on the congregation. In the present church, we reupholstered those bright orange pews. In each case redecorating had an immediate impact. As people see progress, any progress, especially after a period of decline and decay, they will respond positively.

9. Move "church fathers" in or out

Being naive, I did not realize what church politics could be like. I thought people would want to follow the pastor and move ahead in God's work. I soon learned every church has people with significant influence or control in the congregation. These people can make or break a ministry. In my first church, three families had a great deal of influence. In my youth and naivete' I thought I could control them. Even though attendance was growing and budgets were being met, I never really became the leader of the church. I only led the new people who came in under my minis try. I tried to out-power the controlling families and did not succeed. I realized my ministry could only go so far.

In my second church, two older men all but ran the church. I spent quite a bit of time with them, listening to them and sharing my vision with them. These two men lined up behind me and supported me the whole time I was there. They were the key to a million-dollar building program that went amazingly smoothly.

At my current church, one man had considerable influence. I tried to make him an ally. Things were moving in the right direction until a decision was made to change something that was very important to him. At that point he began to oppose me publicly. My wife and I took him and his wife out for lunch. We kindly and politely explained to them why we were making the decisions we were. We acknowledged that this was an emotional issue for him but explained that, given the process it had gone through and the support it had in the congregation, he could not oppose it. In essence we told him he had either to leave the matter alone or leave the church. As it turned out, the change was quite successful and the man still at tends the church.

10. Develop new leadership

In my present church, a steering committee was appointed to run the church for the first two years I was pas tor. The committee was made up of people who had not been active in any of the factions related to the previous pastor. Because they were perceived as neutral, the congregation supported them. After two years we elected a governing board with a third of its membership drawn from those who had joined the church during my first two years there. With my first two churches, I had sought to move people who came into the church under my ministry into leadership as soon as possible. There were at least two advantages to this. First, they tended to buy into my vision and leadership. Second, they were not part of any church traditions or factions.

How do you move new people to leadership? As a pastor, you can work through the nominating committee. Declining churches often have factions, and new people are seen to be neutral and so tend to be acceptable to all factions. In my present situation, most of the previous leadership had left before I came, so there was a leadership vacuum. People recognized we needed new people to form a leadership team.

Conclusion

Some believe it is easier to plant a new church than to turn around a dying church. There may be occasions when this is true. But think about Ezekiel the prophet. He comes to the valley of dry bones, and the Lord tells him to prophesy to the bones. As he does, the bones come together. Flesh and muscle and skin cover the bones, but they are still dead bodies. God asks Ezekiel, "Son of man, can these bones live?" The prophet responds, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know." "So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood on their feet, a vast army" (Ezek. 27:3,10). I believe God is still in the business of drawing together, breathing into, and raising up dead bones. I believe He is looking for people to raise up the dead bones of dying churches. I know it can be done.


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Stephen Grunlan, DMin, is senior pastor of Grace Fellowship, Overland Park, Kansas, United States.

January 2000

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