5. The Money Isn’t Remotely Tied to the Mission
How churches handle money is often a subject of scrutiny. And for sure, churches are accountable before God and people about how we use donated dollars.
When a church is thriving, money is being poured into life-change. People who don’t know Christ are coming to know him. Kids are being nurtured in the love of Christ. The church reaches out into the community and makes a difference with tangible needs.
But in a church that’s lost its mission, money gets mistreated in at least two ways.
Where funds are low, everything becomes about keeping the lights on, staying open for X more months or years, and the drive becomes about preservation, not purpose.
But not every purposeless church is without money. Many dying churches are actually rich with cash.
Some have huge endowments, large bank accounts or sit on millions of dollars in real estate.
One of the great ironies of the early 21st century in Western Church is that churches with money and buildings often have no people, and churches with people often have no money and no buildings.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if churches with buildings but no people gave them to planters with people but no buildings?
It’s happening in a growing number of cases, but what if this became a universal trend?
Regardless, if you’ve stopped using money to further your real mission, it’s a sign there will be a church closing.
Help with Reaching More People
I have a bias toward keeping churches alive, and my dream is to see every church grow. If that dream was to come true, we would see no church closing and every church would become effective in reaching the people God so deeply loves.
On September 19, 2017, I launch a brand new online course called Breaking 200 Without Breaking You.
It’s designed to help senior pastors and their boards and leadership team break through the barrier 85 percent of churches never move past: the 200 attendance barrier.
