by: Rev. Jim Keat
The church is dying. Or at least the institution we often call “the church” seems to be in decline. (Don’t believe me? Stop by almost any four walls with a steeple on a Sunday morning or read anything by Ryan Burge.)
This terminal condition often raises concern among Christians (and especially pastors), leading us all to try every variation of CPR we can imagine in hopes of bringing this thing back to life, or at least keeping it on life support for at least one more generation.
But what if the church dying is a good thing? I mean, isn’t death an essential moment in the whole Christian story?
Rather than trying to revive the church, instead we should compost the church.
Think about it.
Compost isn’t just the thing we use to grow something new. Compost is the result of other things that have died that create the conditions for something new to come to life. When you hold an apple in your hands you are not just holding an apple but all the things that died and became compost to make it possible for this apple to exist.
New life does not emerge in a vacuum but is the direct result of the things that have come and died before.
Abundant life is possible, but only because of the reality of the broken branches, soggy leaves, composted food, and worms digging through the dirt. (And water and sun and someone to weed the rows — the metaphor just keeps going!)
My friend Ashley Dargai writes about this sort of thing quite often, prophetically and pastorally declaring that “everything is crumbling.” But rather than seeing this as the end of the world, it just might be the possibility of a new one to continue to emerge.
I’m not saying that you should just give up on trying anything new. But I am saying that if we believe that neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God, perhaps the same is true for our churches. Whether dying or thriving (or somewhere in between), rather than assuming success is an increase in Sunday morning attendance (or if we’re honest, an increase in the offering plate), we need to discern the role we are to play in this particular season. Because even when we’re dying we might be helping something else come to life.
Most importantly, you don’t have to go through any of this alone. Convergence is here with coaching and consulting and an incredible online community called The Commons. We want to be with you now and every season ahead.