Thom Rainer's New Book Examines a Church Autopsy

 

by Bob Smietana
The church was dying and didn’t know it. Attendance was down, the building was mostly empty, and the glory days had long since passed.
As a last resort, a church member asked Lifeway Christian Resources president and CEO Thom S. Rainer for some advice. Rainer spent a few weeks studying the church, then recommended a number of changes.
But church leaders rejected them.
As he walked out the door, Rainer knew it was simply a matter of time before the church died. Afterwards, he and a friend performed a kind of autopsy on the church – reviewing its last few years to find out how things went wrong.
Lessons from that church autopsy – along with about a dozen others – are included in Rainer’s latest book, Autopsy of a Deceased Church, out this month from Nashville-based B&H Publishing.
It’s meant for ailing and healthy churches alike, Rainer said. “Even healthy churches need to learn from autopsies,” he said, “because they can tell us paths of prevention.”
Rainer found 10 factors – from slow erosion of the congregation and too many short-term pastors to a lack of prayer and neglected facilities – that cause churches to decline and die.
Read the rest of the article from Bob Smietana, Facts & Trends‘ senior writer, at Lifeway NewsRoom.