There are churches all across America going through tough times. It is possible that your church falls into this category. The church you love and have worshiped in for many years has been slowly losing its effectiveness in reaching the community. After years of service and sacrificial ministry, after many lives and families have been impacted, the end seems to be lurking just outside the doors. The once lively and vibrant building you call your church home seems more like a museum. Your church may even be wrestling with the idea of closing its doors.
- What are you to do? - Where do you go for answers? - Is there any hope? - Have you considered becoming a legacy church?
To leave a legacy is to pass on to future generations something of great significance. Leaving a legacy should be the hope of every church! If your church can give birth to a new church, that new church can carry forward your values and beliefs and continue to fulfill your mission to bring life-change to the community.
This book was written to offer hope, wisdom and courage to leaders who must consider the pathway of becoming a legacy church.
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Stephen Gray is a Senior consultant with New Church Specialties, a company that trains coaches and assists pastors world-wide to Start, ReStart and ReFocus their churches. He is currently serving as the Director of National Missions for the General Association of General Baptists. He has planted churches in Nebraska and Missouri and transitioned churches in Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska.
Franklin Dumond has served as a pastor for over 30 years in rural, urban and county seat locations. Currently, he serves as Director of Congregational Ministries for the General Association of General Baptists.
Product Details
Paperback: 115 pages
Publisher: Churchsmart Resources; First edition (February 2, 2009)
If I could send this book to all pastors I would do so with great joy. Reading and acting on its contents would save many a frustrated pastor and might keep congregations from closing their doors. The book is perfect for those churches nearing the end of their natural life as well as churches at their peak growth and success. Complacency is so easy when things are going well but that is the perfect time to look toward the future and consider how prepared my congregation is to face possible hard times and declining enthusiasm. A companion book for churches on the edge is "I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church." Both these authors have the experience and insight to help us in leading our congregation.
I read this book in just one setting. All I can say is, WOW! It's no wonder Dr Stephen Gray is having so much 'over-the-top' response from this effort. "Legacy Churches" is what tens of thousands of churches have been desperately praying for... for years. It is truly turning Christendom upside down in its quest of expanding the kingdom.
With a realistic and simple approach, the authors tackle the difficult and specific aspects of respectfully celebrating the end of one era of a church and the excitement of the birth of an amazing and effective way of reaching more people for Christ... Church Planting!
This book is NOT about closing dead churches down. On the contrary, it is about celebrating the heritage that older churches have had over the years. It is about taking that foundation and building on top of it. It's about LIFE... it's about more changed lives... it's about a 'mature' church leaving a Legacy that is way bigger than it could ever accomplish on its own.
It's a great, short read and I highly recommend it. There are literally tens of thousands of churches that not only need to read this, but to implement it as well.
According to one estimate, in the U.S. alone, more than 3,200 churches close their doors every year. On average, that's 267 churches every month, 62 every week, and 9 every day. Recent editions of the directory Churches of Christ in the United States indicate that hundreds of our congregations have closed over the last decade.
In their book Legacy Churches, Stephen Gray and Franklin Dumond ask a hard-but-important question: What should church leaders do when the congregation that they love and have been a part of for many years is slowly but surely dying?
The authors begin with the story of Moses who was succeeded by Joshua as leader of the ancient Israelites. They point out that just as the death of Moses did not mean the end of God's plan for his people, the closing of a congregation does not mean the end of Christ's kingdom. On a related note, they emphasize that the obvious decline of a church is not necessarily the result of unfaithfulness. None of the churches of the New Testament exist today. But who would insist that all of those congregations were spiritual failures? Observation over a long period of time indicates that virtually all churches experience a life cycle that features a number of stages. These include birth, growth, maturity, plateau, decline, drop-out and, finally, death. Much like people, all congregations eventually go into decline and die.
Next, Gray and Dumond discuss three unique temptations encountered by churches in the last stages of the life cycle. First, churches are tempted to fire the current preacher and hire a new one. Their assumption is that if they can simply find the right minister, then their congregation will become healthy and will grow once again.... This growth-by-preacher strategy is fatally flawed at a number of points. It overlooks, for example, that the new preacher didn't create, and can hardly undo, the non-growth systems that lead to the downturn in the first place.
Second, churches in steep decline sometimes believe that their better days will return if they will build a new facility in a growing part of town. But the growth-by-construction strategy confuses physical structure and location with the church. As the authors point out, a dying congregation in a new facility is just that. They conclude: "Growth by construction is never a good strategy for a church in decline" (46).
Third, churches in the last stages of the life cycle sometimes want to merge with another congregation. But as the authors point out, this strategy frequently ends in disaster. Why? Because in a merger, the two groups show up with alternate visions of what it means to be a church. Also, the leaders of the respective groups tend to compete for control of the newly formed congregation.
How can a church determine if they should consider making plans to close? In response to that question, Gray and Dumond name "Six Indicators of Potential Closure":
1. Public worship attendance has drastically declined. 2. Staffing of essential ministries is no longer adequate or effective. 3. Annual income is no longer adequate to do effective local ministry. 4. The church has not consistently grown over the last five years. 5. The age or tenure of the membership is unusually high. 6. Survival has become the main mission.
The authors contend that when a church exhibits several of these indicators, leaders must not panic, but plan. Rather than survive at all costs, congregations nearing the end of their existence should become "legacy churches." Specifically, they should use their financial assets to fund the start of one or more new congregations. In this way, the "spirit and the purpose of a faithful church" can be carried on "even if the worshipping congregation cannot be sustained" (65).
The final chapters of the book offer specific recommendations for the process of closing a church. The authors describe the legal and financial tasks that should be done. Above all, they urge congregations to host a closing service. They even provide three different outlines for conducting a unique and meaningful celebration of faith.
Appendixes include "Frequently Asked Questions," which covers much of the content of the book in Q&A fashion, and "Life Cycle Survey," a tool that can help a congregation determine its current position.
Legacy Churches is an excellent resource for leaders in congregations that have entered the last stages of life. These churches should not slip away in shame. Instead, they can and should close with dignity and a sense of hope for the future.Read more ›
This book is extremely helpful if you are discerning closing your congregation or if you are going through the process. I have 2 other books about the process of closing a congregation because I am a pastor going through that process with my current congregation. I wish I would have read this book first, right when my gut told me that the conversation needed to start. There are guides for how to tell the current health of your congregation, the realistic options for the future and a realistic understanding of how most congregation become faced with the question. But, then, there is what makes this book so wonderfully different from the other 2 books - it helps leaders that will read this book have ways to help the congregation really understand the importance of being a legacy congregation and not just a hospice congregation. There is something faithful, grace filled and God centered when a congregation can make the decision to leave a legacy instead of just slowly fading away until there are no more fund and no ministry can come out of the closing of your congregation. I really do love this book. It's a must read. And, I would say even for pastors in congregation where everything seems okay. It gives a warning that congregation decline is possible for even the largest of congregations.
