1 Cor 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
1 Peter 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
If your church were a business would it be foreclosed or filing bankruptcy? When interviewing you are often asked where you see yourself in five years. Let's look back five years.
Has your church increased in membership or declined? Has anyone been saved or is your baptistery a home to spiders, dead crickets and lizards? Of any new members you received were they new converts or just folks disgruntled or bored at other churches? How many major expenses would it take to totally defund you and force closure? How many members leaving or dying would it take to make you close because you cannot pay the bills?
If these questions fit your past five years what do you think the prognosis might be for the next five, if you make it to five years? Can you honestly say that you are being a good steward of God's resources and spiritual gifts by maintaining your current practices? If someone would ask you to invest in a business and the prospectus given you looked like your church situation would you invest in that business? Would you continue to put money into a business that has declining sales, cannot keep employees and whose capital assets are declining and the real property is deteriorating? Unlikely, unless you would gain some sort of tax advantage by buying a failing company.
You say that the Church is not a business and you are correct though many run their church like one. Still a steward is one who manages assets. As a pastor, you are an overseer/manager or under-shepherd of God’s people and His resources. As a member, you are using God’s gifts and resources to support a ministry. You will be accountable for your stewardship at the BEMA. Thus it makes sense to evaluate if those gifts and resources are being wisely used and if there is no outreach, conversions, baptisms, growth or positive impact to the community are you then being a good shepherd or steward?
A good shepherd would lead his people to where God was working rather than just holding on to his position. Indeed, in a thriving ministry he may find a place where his gifts would be better used and he would be more fruitful and fulfilled. Indeed, several churches merging with the pastors co-pastoring might well see more interest in Christ as it would shock the unbelievers. Seeing your people in a place where they can grow and be fruitful as well should be a rewarding experience.
I know a few churches where five years might be stretching it. Members transferring to nursing homes and cemeteries will cause a closure. Why wait until the bitter end when you can do better? The Churches in Revelation did not make it out of the first century. Many churches are hung up on their being a hundred or more years old, yet if there are only seven members trying to maintain a building it is really a museum, not a church. It could possibly be repurposed into a rescue mission, homeless shelter, food pantry or something else to carry on its memory or legacy. It could be sold and the money given to those types of ministries or missions.
I have been in small church ministry most of my time since my salvation in 1975. I have seen the struggles. I have seen the frustration. I have seen the discouragement when someone leaves the church and no one comes in to replace them. I have been involved with financial struggles. I have been in some very rundown buildings that I felt if I sneezed too hard it would fall down and I have walked on floors that were almost trampolines. I have been in poorly lit buildings that still had the old dark wood paneling and there was no money for remodeling. None of these places would have still been open if the people were good stewards.
I am not talking about the only church of a given faith in fifty miles. I am talking about churches where there are numerous churches of the same faith sometimes within three miles or less in any given direction. I once tried to merge a church of thirteen and one of seventeen that were three miles apart and neither church had a pastor. That was some years ago and I suspect neither may be open now. There were six others that all eight could have merged and had a moderate membership that might be able to grow. None were open to that and yet they will want to be be in Heaven together just not in the same building. They would rather go down with the ship then continue to sail for God. That is sad.
Do I believe the Holy Spirit can bring revival? Absolutely, but that will bring unity, not division. Why has any given church declined to being on a vent? Many reasons, but whatever the reason does not matter when it is obvious that what might have been there twenty to fifty years ago is no longer there.
Some churches try a new pastor every year looking for him to reverse the trend. If the problem is in the pews then having the Apostle Paul in the pulpit will only result in him being fired in a year. If the problem is in the pulpit and the pastor cannot be removed then the people need to move on for their own well-being and growth. Let him have the building and take care of the real temple of God, you.
Luke 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
30 Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
32 Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
The interpretation of this is dealing with discipleship and following Christ, but I see an application here. There was a time in many churches when they had enough nickels and noses to keep things going. Indeed, some of the noses may have given so many nickels that for awhile even as the noses declined they did OK and were not worried expecting a new wave of members. Then it did not happen and now there are few noses and even fewer nickels. At that point, though it should have been sooner, you have to make a good stewardship decision. Are you really able to continue or will at some point the building will be in such shape it will be condemned? That happened in twice my town. Would that be the kind of return on His investment that would elicit praise if you were the man with one talent in the parable? I do not think so.
You can take your twenty or less people to a growing church and get out from out the property burdens. God cares more about you than a building. You may really enjoy the fellowship of new people or if you are so close you can be a small group in a larger body where you can meet in better facilities. One man is going to suggest to his church that they sell the building and start meeting in a nursing home. They keep their seven people together and minister to the folks at the home possibly tripling their attendance and certainly expanding their ministry. That is not a bad idea although it would be better if they exercised that ministry under the covering of another church body.
We are now in a hostile environment. A city or county government could look at your property and decide it could be better used by the public and pay you what is deemed fair and you are out. I sought to get a church to merge with the one where I was Associate Pastor because I could foresee that happening. Most of their small membership were in their mid-70s and above. They had been through five pastors in five years and the building was deteriorating. It was next to a city building that could have easily decided they could use the building for that department. They were not interested and that was long enough ago that I suspect it is closed.
There are unscrupulous people who will come in and bring in people to where they ultimately are the majority. You see it as a revival and then they vote out the pastor and vote to close and sell the church. Someone makes a complaint and sues. You do not have the money or legal power and lose the church. Fifty years ago such a thing would be unheard of and maybe even thrown out of court. Not today.
Still, we are to be one as Jesus prayed and even in the best years, we should not have become so divided. If ten churches in an area preach the same doctrines then nine are redundant and not good stewards. I believe that if God did not really call a church to be built it will one day run out of steam. Church splits means that one or both groups are wrong and God will not bless it. Nickels and noses may seem to look like blessing, but remember Laodicea had plenty of nickels and noses and God said they were bankrupt.
Be honest with yourself. I left a church were the fellowship was good, but they were dying and I was not ready for the nursing home or a nursing home church. Then there were some doctrinal issues that developed. That was the time to leave though I should have left sooner. If your church has no real prospect of being what a church is supposed to be in the next five years then it is time to close the doors. If the Spirit has not caused growth in more than five years then it may be past time to find out what caused the decline. It may not be fixable.
Don’t say that quality is better than quantity. That is just trying to feel good about a bad situation. Jesus looked for both. There were three thousand saved in one day with people being added daily to the church along with maybe half or more of those saved on Pentecost going back to their homes spreading the Gospel. That happened in a very hostile environment. Jesus works in the supernatural and no culture hinders His work or the Holy Spirit. However, our unbelief and our divisions can keep Him from using us.
Indeed, the Gospel is moving faster in many countries that have not had the blessing of being comfortable in fancy buildings and padded pews. We have not been the best stewards in our material blessings as well as our spiritual gifts. That has contributed to the society we now live in and the approaching storm. Now is the time to ask for God’s love to fill us and change us so that we unite as one Body as we were called to be rather than clinging to aging buildings and carnal ideas. Maranatha! Amen!
