Hundreds of churches will be closing there doors this year. I’m not about to call this a good thing, but it is inevitable. The fact is that no big news is coming out of the Jerusalem Church these days, or Corinth or Laodicea.
We like to talk about churches as “bodies” or “plants,” but we forget that all life dies. Some churches die in explosions of controversy. Others fizzle down to a few gray hairs paying exorbitant bills.
Perhaps today we should also talk about churches as stories. Essential elements of stories include Setting, Characters, Conflict, and most importantly the plot–beginning, middle and end.
Leaders could cast a vision the churches whole story: How did your church begin? What God has done through it in the past? What would it look like for the church to end well?
Great stories require great endings. A church might reinvent itself to by handing over the reins to a new generation, or selling the property and giving the money desperate church planters.
A church’s death could actually be the most powerful thing it does for the kingdom.
How do you want things to end?
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