The North American Mission Board’s Replant team has consistently called attention to a sobering reality: across North America, 80 percent or more of Southern Baptist churches are plateaued or declining and need some form of renewal. Other Southern Baptist leaders have reported the same widespread pattern among established congregations. (NAMB; The Baptist Paper)
That statistic means renewal is not a conversation reserved for a handful of churches on the verge of closing. It is a conversation most of our churches need to have.
The question is not simply, “Is our church still open?” It is not even, “Can we still pay our bills and hold worship services?”
The more important question is: Is our church spiritually healthy, making disciples, reaching its community and developing the people necessary to carry its gospel witness into the future?
A church can be busy without being healthy. It can maintain its programs without advancing its mission. It can remain financially stable for several years while experiencing significant spiritual, relational and missional decline.
So, how can you determine whether your church needs renewal?
Begin With the Right Definition
Renewal does not mean everything in the church is broken. It does not dishonor the people who have served faithfully or erase the good ministry that has taken place.
Renewal means recognizing that something must be strengthened, corrected or changed so the church can pursue Jesus and participate more faithfully in His mission.
Every church needs ongoing spiritual renewal. But some churches need a more focused and intentional season of congregational renewal.
The challenge is recognizing that need before decline becomes a crisis.
Look at Direction, Not Just the Present
One year of data rarely tells the entire story. Churches experience pastoral transitions, community disruptions, economic challenges and unusual seasons.
The better approach is to examine the church’s direction over the past five, ten or even twenty years.
Consider:
- Average worship attendance
- Baptisms and professions of faith
- Membership and ministry participation
- Giving and financial reserves
- Number and age of active volunteers
- Children, student and young-adult participation
- Pastoral and staff transitions
- Community demographics
- Conflict and member departures
Numbers cannot measure everything that matters, but they can reveal patterns that should not be ignored.
A church averaging 100 people today may appear relatively stable. But if it averaged 250 fifteen years ago, 175 ten years ago and 125 five years ago, the church is not stable. It is declining.
A church should not allow gradual decline to redefine what it considers normal.
Ask These Diagnostic Questions
1. Are We Regularly Reaching New People?
A healthy church should expect to see people coming to faith, being baptized, growing as disciples and joining the mission of the church.
The absence of baptisms does not automatically mean a church is unhealthy. But several years with few or no baptisms should lead to honest examination.
Are members sharing the gospel? Are they inviting people? Are guests attending? Are people entering the church and becoming connected?
If the church is not regularly reaching anyone beyond its existing relationships, renewal is needed.
2. Is Our Attendance Plateaued or Declining?
Plateau is often more dangerous than it appears.
A plateaued church may still have enough people, money and activity to feel comfortable. Because there is no immediate crisis, leaders assume everything is fine.
But plateau frequently becomes decline when it is left unaddressed. Members age, families relocate, leaders step away and giving begins to decrease.
If attendance has remained flat or declined while the surrounding community has grown, the church should ask why it is not participating in that growth.
3. Are We Developing the Next Generation of Leaders?
Look around the church.
Who will serve as deacons, teachers, ministry leaders and committee members five years from now? Who is being discipled and equipped to carry responsibility? Are younger adults being given meaningful opportunities to lead?
When the same small group of people carries most of the ministry, the church may be closer to a leadership crisis than it realizes.
A congregation without a leadership pipeline has a limited future.
4. Does Our Congregation Reflect and Reach Our Community?
Communities change. Churches often do not.
The people living around the church may be younger, older, more diverse or from different economic and cultural backgrounds than the congregation that originally established the church.
The question is not whether the church’s current members still love one another. The question is whether they love their neighbors enough to know them, understand them and adjust their ministry to reach them.
If the congregation no longer knows the community or has little interest in reaching the people who now live nearby, renewal is needed.
5. Are We Organized for Mission or Maintenance?
Every church needs policies, committees, meetings, facilities and financial systems. But those structures exist to support the mission. The mission does not exist to support the structures.
Ask how much energy is being devoted to:
- Maintaining buildings
- Filling committees
- Preserving programs
- Managing internal preferences
- Discussing problems
- Resolving recurring conflicts
Then compare that with the energy being devoted to evangelism, discipleship, community engagement, missions and leadership development.
If the church spends most of its time maintaining itself, it has turned inward—even if its calendar remains full.
6. Are We Willing to Tell the Truth About Our Condition?
Declining churches often explain their circumstances by pointing outward:
“The community has changed.”
“People do not attend church like they used to.”
“We have had several pastors who did not work out.”
“Younger people are not committed.”
Some of those observations may contain truth. But they can also prevent the church from examining its own decisions, attitudes, conflicts and resistance to change.
Healthy diagnosis asks a harder question: What have we contributed to our present condition?
A church that cannot discuss its problems honestly is not ready to solve them.
7. Are We More Committed to Our Preferences Than Our Mission?
Every church has traditions, memories and ministry practices that people value. Those things are not automatically wrong.
The problem comes when preserving them becomes more important than reaching people.
Listen to how decisions are made. Does the conversation center on what members prefer, what the church has always done and what longtime leaders will permit? Or does it center on what will help the congregation obey Jesus, make disciples and reach its community?
A church may say it wants growth while rejecting every change that growth would require.
That church does not merely need a new program. It needs renewal.
8. Do We Still Have the Capacity to Sustain Our Current Ministry?
Decline eventually creates a gap between the church’s ministry structure and its actual capacity.
The congregation may have:
- More building than it can maintain
- More committees than it can staff
- More programs than it can support
- More expenses than giving can sustain
- More leadership positions than qualified leaders
- More expectations than the pastor and volunteers can meet
When this happens, leaders often work harder while accomplishing less. Fatigue increases, morale falls and the church becomes focused on survival.
Renewal may require simplifying the organization so the church can redirect its limited energy toward the mission.
What Does Your Diagnosis Reveal?
One warning sign does not necessarily mean a church is in serious decline. But when several of these conditions are present—and have persisted for years—the church should not dismiss them.
A church experiencing early plateau or decline may still have significant people, leadership and financial resources available. This is often the best opportunity for renewal because the congregation still has choices.
A church experiencing prolonged decline will require more significant change and outside assistance.
A church experiencing severe decline, depleted leadership, financial instability and deep community disconnection may need to consider much more substantial options for its future.
The longer a church waits, the fewer choices it will have.
Renewal Is an Act of Stewardship
Recognizing the need for renewal is not an admission that the church has failed completely. It is an act of faithful stewardship.
God has entrusted every church with a gospel witness, a community, people, property, finances and ministry opportunities. Church leaders are responsible for examining whether those resources are being used effectively for His mission.
The real danger is not admitting that renewal is needed.
The real danger is recognizing the warning signs, refusing to respond and allowing another decade of decline to pass.
So, does your church need renewal?
If it is no longer reaching people, developing leaders, engaging its community or sustaining a healthy ministry, the answer is yes.
Do not wait until the church is in crisis to begin the conversation. Honest diagnosis today can preserve ministry options, strengthen the congregation and position the church for a healthier future.
Once a church recognizes the need for renewal, the next question becomes: Now what?
That is where the renewal journey begins.
Bob Bickford
Executive Director
Nashville Baptist Association