Leadership Journal

One church I know took root in a traditional middle class neighborhood and thrived throughout the 1950s. Then neighborhood changed and became a haven for artists, musicians, and New Agers. The church declined in membership and attendance throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

A new young pastor was called to lead a turnaround. He spent time in the coffee shops and storefronts, building relationships. He offered a Bible study in a pub that resulted in several people leaving lifestyles marked by witchcraft and sex and drugs to become Christians. A few of these people were invited into leadership roles in the church.

Some of the longtime members began organizing clandestine meetings to discuss grievances. Their primary concern was not doctrine but that if present trends continued, the church would lose its historic identity as a middle class congregation and become a hodge-podge of misfits who spoke and dressed oddly.

The behind-the-scenes meetings eventually led to open meetings in which the new pastor and new members were weighed and found wanting. The pastor was dismissed. The new Christians left soon after that.

Within a year the church disbanded and the building was sold.

I didn't want that to happen to me, nor did I want my church to stagnate. In 1991 a congregation with 160 years of history called me as pastor. Five years later I began consulting with other congregations over forty years old, many much older. The issue of renewing older churches is both a personal and professional passion of mine.

Long-established churches can harbor some deadly attitudes and habits that distance them from their surrounding community and swat down fresh ideas like flies in the kitchen.

In his book, What Have We Learned? The Best Thinking on Congregational Life (Abingdon, 2001), Lyle Schaller writes, "While exceptions do exist, the general pattern is that congregations that have been meeting at the same address for more than forty years tend to give a higher priority to (a) perpetuating the past rather than creating the new, (b) taking care of today's members rather than seeking to reach the unchurched, (c) maintaining the real estate rather than launching new ministries to reach new generations." He concludes: "Never before in American church history have there been so many congregations that are vulnerable to this 'forty year syndrome.'"

Research indicates that three-fourths of all U.S. congregations are at least forty years old. Daunting challenges await those of us who would transition long-established churches from decline to health. A few foundational principles are key.

Effective renewal leaders measure results in terms of changed lives. They are impatient with "playing church." They know that some churches will be content to discuss change endlessly, if those discussions enable them to avoid taking action they deem risky.

Honest doubts and struggles are one thing; there must always be room to hear and respond to those. But when discussions are ...