Instead of being sold or lost to a bank, it has been used for decades to help change thousands of lives through the power of Jesus.

4. Invite Other Ministries To Share The Use (And The Bills) Of Your Property

When you find other churches or ministries that can use your property during your empty hours, they get a blessing, your church gets help paying the bills, and the property gets used for more ministry.

Plus, after working with them it can become a natural launch-point for giving the property away to a ministry that your church members already know and love.

5. Partner With Another Church As A Multi-Site Campus

If your reaction to multi-site is to bristle about it being a “takeover” by another bigger church, I have three responses:

First, I understand. I’ve seen some predatory behavior in this arena, too.

Second, it doesn’t have to be predatory. Plenty of multi-site churches are truly collaborative. And many are happening from the partnership of small and medium-size churches, not just one big church consuming the others.

Third, even if it is a church takeover, how is being taken over by another church worse than being taken over by the bank? As long as the church is doing good kingdom work, we should be grateful that a strong church is using our former property, even if they do it differently than we did.

This is not the old-school church merger in which two dying churches try to salvage what they have left. That just prolongs the deaths of both. For a church partnership to work, at least one of the congregations must be strong and thriving.

If there’s a multi-site church anywhere near you, or within your network or denomination, sit down and talk with them before refusing to consider it. There may be a lot more good news there than you realize.

6. Close Your Church And Give The Property To A Church Plant

Yes, there will be a lot of churches closing their doors in the coming decades.

But there will also be a lot of new churches starting up.

Probably not enough to make up for the closures, but we can help increase their odds of survival by helping them with one of the hardest aspects of a church plant – a place to meet.