Matt Smay

I’ve had several conversations lately with leaders in declining churches that outline a similar story. As with many things in life, churches don’t tend to end or collapse overnight – there’s often a steady and gradual process. We can learn a few things from these common stories:

• Church leaders often look in the wrong places for help. I consistently hear of church leaders that start looking to mega-churches for programs that might help ease their decline, or even create new growth. I have nothing against mega-church programs, but often small churches try to implement one aspect (maybe the curriculum) of a mega-church program without considering the enormous infrastructure that accompanies these programs (staffing, advertising, buildings, marketing, budget, atmosphere, etc…). And there’s one very important distinction between mega-churches and most others – people are still visiting mega-churches in droves, which is not common for smaller, community based churches. Therefore, church leaders should consider looking to the successes of churches that are similar in size, staffing, and most importantly – have overcome similar challenges. For example, doubling a church 2x’s over from 75 to 300 is entirely different than multiplying from 1000 to 4000.
• Usually the decline of a church takes years – even decades. In this period of slow decline, church leaders often hold onto the wrong staff and programs, which further entrenches the church. For example, it might be tempting to hire a new worship leader, keep a long-time staff position, or hold onto the youth pastor (overseeing a small number of teens), but this often comes at the expense of other staff (especially children’s ministry staff). Once a church loses it’s young families, it’s almost impossible to get them back. Since there’s typically a natural affinity or homogeneity between people, in which like tends to attract like, the more young families in a church, the better the odds that the relationships among those families will create a natural momentum and gravity. Therefore, it’s important to always be investing vital resources towards future generations to help keep a church young – thereby, avoiding the loss of an entire generation (a common sign of a church in decline).
• Most church growth happens relationally, even if it’s supplemented by programs. A declining church in most instances loses it’s relational touch with the outside world. In periods of church growth there’s usually something in a church’s DNA that directly links the people of church with people in culture. This is why there are programs out there that can help facilitate church growth – when the programs serve to bring added value to commonly occurring relationships. Some examples are day-cares, food and clothes banks, schools, sport teams, festivals, camps, small groups, etc…
• Not appropriately balancing risk is a common theme among declining churches. Whether a church takes on too much debt to expand the building, or fails to risk at strategic moments can signal the beginning of the end for a church. Maintaining the status quo or simply surviving is not a very inspiring value. The average church attender is often looking for something bigger than themselves to participate in, and a church with a vision for it’s future and a viable mission is invaluable.

As we approach the book launch of The Tangible Kingdom on April 18, Leadership Network has been sending out pre-release copies to leaders and bloggers to get some early reviews of the book for publicity purposes. I’ll be posting links to some of those reviews as I come across them.

If you’re interested in what others are saying about the book, the review by Nick Howard and posted on his blog theosyllabic is highly encouraging, especially considering he articulates many of our motivations for writing the book in the first place.

We’re getting ready to move Adullam into an old church building on March 9, but many have questioned why we would chose to move Adullam into a ‘church’ – making a common assumption that we cannot remain missional in a church building. For the record, we’ve always said that buildings aren’t the issue when it comes to being missional or incarnational.

Of course, there are some bad buildings out there that would be culturally awkward for our people, and there are inherent dangers with church buildings due to the way people tend to identify themselves with their church. It often starts innocently. Once church leaders have a building, they spend significant time trying to fix and personalize the building in order to make it attractive. Not a bad thing, but after people invest significant time, sweat, and resources, there can be a dramatic shift in focus from ‘church as a people’ to ‘church as a place,’ which can reduce the “missional/incarnational impulse” (an Alan Hirsch phrase) to the few die-hard evangelists. Since people outside the church are not drawn to buildings – this becomes the fatal flaw! The stats back this up; the majority of Americans are not driving around their cities trying to decide which church to check out next week.

The main issue for us is how people end up at Adullam. Whether we’re in a house, art gallery, recreation center, or old church, if people continue to find us through relationships, we’re fulfilling our mission to incarnate the gospel in the culture(s) we live. Generally, the following factors tend to help us make our building decisions:

• Location, Location, Location – Since Adullam is a network of communities, finding a location that is central to those communities is critical. Because our gathering is where our communities meet to celebrate what God’s been doing, we’re able to view Adullam as a city-wide movement, which is not dependent on a single geographic local. However, being more central to the city will help us connect with strategic opportunities to be a blessing to the city, especially in The Pearl and at DU.
• Kids Running Wild – If you have children’s ministries that are exploding like we do at Adullam, then finding a building that can serve your kids is a prime consideration. Note: This is why church building with classrooms and nurseries are so specialized. It’s easy to find meeting locations for adults, but when you try to provide diversified children’s ministries, those traditional church buildings start looking more attractive.
• Most Bang for the Buck – Always comes back to monthly costs when you’re in a church plant environment, especially when our values prevent us from spending more than 25% of our budget on facilities.
• Aesthetics – Just like selecting a personal residence, there’s a lot that can be said for finding a building that just feels right. Feel is highly dependent on the context and culture of the congregation, but we’ve found our people are adaptable as long as we prioritize locations that facilitate opportunities for building relationships. Since our new location has a large fellowship area with a full-service kitchen, we’re excited about the possibilities this space may provide.

At Adullam, we’ll keep doing what we’ve always done…building relationships, blessing the city, and avoiding the traps of attractional church. We’ll keep our people from settling into a consumer perspective, while continuing to prioritize our communities as the entry point for people outside the church. If people come to church through relationships, whether we’re sitting in pews or fold-up chairs, singing 3 or 5 songs, or preaching 20 or 50 minutes – it simply won’t matter. It’s true that some people find our Sunday gathering a welcoming place to invite their friends, but 95% of the people entering our gatherings are invited by a friend or acquaintance — keeping us true to our values no matter where we chose to meet!