Legacy Churches
Met a guy last week that has written a book. It seems everyone but me has written a book. More on that later. Anyway the title of the book is Legacy Churches. Stephen Gray investigates the idea that old churches need not die and become restaurants or worse.
According to best estimates about 3500 churches in America will die this year! That is huge. It is true in every denomination and every non-denomination or interdenominational network. Churches tend to live for a season. In the Protestant world it is hard to find a living, vibrant church that is more than 100 years old. That is being generous. Most are under 50. Even that seems to be a stretch. It seems that 30 to 50 years is a generation in the church world. Again, I know there are a few exceptions like FBC Dallas, TX, but not many. So what do we do with those churches and especially the buildings. Here are a few suggestions:
1. If you are pastor of a church that has passed its generation and is living on borrowed time. You have a huge building but less than a 100 people in worship, or fewer in most instances. You find yourself out of step with the people around you either ethnically or generationally. Consider bringing in a pastor to start a new church. It will mean sacrifice. Name change. Remodeling the building. Changing worship styles. New leadership. But what is better for the church to die and leave the community without a Christian witness or to birth something new that may last another generation to witness to the community. Too many of us are content to let our church die out of pride. because we think if another pastor builds something then I must have done something wrong.Not the case. It may be that the church and community just needs a new infusion of energy and ideas. You can still leave a legacy. A legacy is something that you pass on to the next generation. Will the message die with you when the church becomes a flea market or will you leave a legacy for the next generation.
2. The second scenario is a church that is in a changing neighborhood. I’ve seen two different things. Some churches just die like the ones I talked about above. There are others that sell their buildings and move to another part of town to reach people like them. That is not always a bad thing. But here is a bad thing. When the building is left with no “body of Christ” to carry on a witness. I have a suggestion. If you are a pastor and you realize the community is changing around you find a pastor of the ethnicity of the people moving to your community. Allow him to start a church in your basement, fellowship hall, or even at another time in your worship center. As that church grows they can purchase the building in the future so that you can make an easier transition to the new community or will carry on the legacy. It can be a win-win for both congregations.
I’ve written about this before but in Atlanta the old FBC property is now AT&T, an Episcopal Church is a restaurant, a Presbyterian church is a bar. What if these churches had decided they were going to leave something as a witness to downtown. What could God have done. The church has abandoned the city. Not God. The shame is ours. We failed to leave a legacy. Then we wonder why crime runs rampant, abortion is normal, and our streets are not safe.
Stephen Gray has written about how to do this in a smooth transition. I wish that more churches could catch this vision. The witness doesn’t have to die in those communities, in fact it needs to live. Don’t you be the one that kills it when it is time to leave a legacy in your community.
