These dead bones can rise again: preventing church closures in North America

Abstract

Within the United States most denominations are experiencing church closures and some of them at alarming rates 1 .Dr. George Barna first pointed this problem out two decades ago with Dr. Stetzer reinforcing it in 2007.According to Dr. Ed Stetzer, one who has been serving churches for twenty-four years, and is a seminary professor as well as an author of many books on church revival, seventy to eighty percent of North American churches are stagnant or declining and 3,500 to 4,000 churches close each year 2 .In response to these shocking statistics, this study first takes a broad sweep of the identifying markers of this epidemic in an attempt to answer why.Then the scope of this research was honed further still and came to rest on churches that rely on the impact of their leadership-and especially those dependent on volunteer leaders.In light of Christ's example, the question is asked: Which aspects of leadership should the pastor and the leadership teams focus on in order to turn a failing church around?The author of this paper, after realizing that these dying churches look like dried up bones scattered all over, remembered Ezekiel 37. The image of churches drying up and becoming dead caused this study to seek an alternative.Therefore, this paper will incorporate twelve personal interviews with pastors who have been successful in turning around failing churches.In addition, the research utilizes data and theory from many different leadership sources, both secular and spiritual, in its search for a prognosis and 1 George Barna, Turn Around Churches (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1993), 31-41.Also Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson in Comeback Churches (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2007), 17-25.They both agree this is a problem that is not being resolved today.

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