For a year, we belonged to an aging churchu. To put it into perspective, we are 50, and we were called young!
My husband worked as a pastoral assistant under the senior pastor who was hired five years ago in an attempt to attract a younger crowd. This church once had 800 members, but that was many decades ago. That number had dwindled over the years to less than 100.
The senior pastor is everything one would expect from a hip, younger crowd. He’s got the long hair, long beard, and tatoos. He’s got the wife and two kids. He’s smart, too. He’s getting his PhD from a prestigious seminary. He convinced the church to disassociate itself from both Baptist conferences, and take the word “Baptist” out of its name, because, well, the word “Baptist” just isn’t hip or cool anymore. He rebranded the church with a hip new name, designed a new flashy website where he could post all his latest sermons, set up a church directory that people can use a phone app to use, hired a children’s minister and planned weekly “youth nights”, and bragged constantly about the church’s ideal location near the town square.
But none of these things impressed enough to bring in the masses. In fact, numbers dropped, rather than grew.
Meanwhile, aging buildings were in disrepair. The old and the elderly, which comprised of most of the congregation, were not being cared for. The woman who had led choir for decades had stepped down and there was no one to replace her. She had also taught the only Women’s Bible Study. The gracious musician who had always led worship had never been paid a salary. The children’s ministry served only a half dozen kids, and that includes the senior pastor’s two sons. Youth nights had zero attendance, although many people prayed youth would come. Meanwhile, Fourth of July celebrations and various other big city events brought thousands of local families within a stone’s throw away of the church’s doorstep, and the senior pastor never once proposed a single evangelistic venture to reach out to them.
In an ideal church, a person’s personal relationship with God should matter first, the care and fellowship of current church members second, evangelism third, and then worry about everything else. But everything falls apart if priorities are backwards.
My husband was released from the church because his skills did not align with the church’s needs. At least, that’s what he was told. In a sense, they were right. There was definitely a misalignment. But the misalignment was on their part, not on my husband. My husband did not care about the dwindling funds that failed to cover the ballooning costs of facility needs and repairs. He did not have the skills, nor the motivation, to do much about the upkeep of the aging buildings. He cared about the people and whether or not they were grounded in Christ. He strove to act on the needs of God’s people, leading Bible Studies and visiting the sick and homebound. These were his priorities.
You see, the church is not a building. It’s not whether or not it has a young, hip pastor or even the size or state of its buildings. It’s not a location. Nor is it defined by its membership’s ethnicity or age group. It doesn’t matter if the church is full of old people or little ones. None of these things define a church body. What defines a church body is the quality of the people who meet together. Are they all gathered together for the same purpose in mind, to worship the same God, with lovingkindness, in Spirit and in truth?
This church reminded me of empty nesters living in a large, oversized, and very old home. Empty nesters who no longer need all that space, and no longer have the time, energy, or funds to keep up with all the home repairs. Empty nesters who are in denial of what they desperately need: they need to downsize!
The sensible thing to do is to give to God what is God’s. The kingdom of God’s people is not defined by a building. It is not defined by a location. It is not defined by a denomination. It is not defined by a hip rebranding or a membership list. God’s people includes all believers everywhere. It includes every body of believers, worshipping together in gatherings, all throughout the city, and the world. The “church” with its newly branded hip name does not own the buildings or property. God does! So, sell the property to another group of God’s people. Sell it to some growing congregation that needs it. Sell it to a growing congregation that may already have the funds to fix all the repairs. and in the meantime, move the current flock to a much smaller, more practical, and more financially sustainable, space. That way, everyone is happy! The larger church gets what it needs, and the smaller one gets a smaller “home” in which to worship.
So what if the “home” is smaller? So what if the location is different? A manageable house of worship means less stress for the pastor, and everyone else! And more time, and money, can be spent on the things that matter.
We’ve heard recently that the senior pastor’s latest move was to hire an executive pastor to manage church assets. Sadly, I am doubtful this latest decision will be any more successful than anything else he has done. The main thing is still not being treated as the main thing!
It is easy to get enraptured by a building. Even Jesus’ disciples got distracted by the beauty of a structure meant as to be a sanctuary of God.
Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.” -LUKE 21:5-6
A structure built by man can be easily destroyed, and it is no substitute for the unperishable gift of eternal life given to us by the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel of Christ!
As the saying goes, keep the main thing, the main thing, and you can let go of everything else!