In our national church newspaper this week there is a request from a congregation in a far-off place for a new roof for their building. It's a congregation of "5-10 members" (what, at that point you aren't sure by a margin of 100%???) asking for $15,300 to replace the roof.
Stuff like this drives me nuts. Here we are, in a time in which money is scarce (or, at least, nobody wants to let go of what they have), and a near-death church thinks that the best use for other peoples' money is for them to build a roof for a church that probably will not exist in 5 years.
Now, maybe I'm wrong, and this is simply a church that is being launched and needs helping getting off the ground. There's about a 3% possibility that this is the case. But more than likely, this is a church of a few folks who have done no evangelism, no outreach, and are hunkering down in their little building, a survival mentality taken to the end. To their mind, their survival for a few more months or years will only come if they have a building (that which they think gives them respectability) when in fact with 5 or 10 people they could easily fit into the living roof of most houses and survive for just as long.
But here's the thing...is what this church is asking for any different than what we do with most end-of-life decisions? I have seen in several places (though, this being a blog that nobody reads, I'm not spending a half-hour tracking down the source) that approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of all health care costs are incurred in the last six months of life. What happens (and I've seen this firsthand many times) is that we hope to keep a patient alive for an extra month or two by pumping them full of drugs, by costly and time-consuming dialysis, by a half-dozen trips to the emergency rooms after yet another fall. In the end, of course, the patient dies. Death, in this life, wins in the end.
Something is wrong with how we look at death. For Christians, death should never be a fear. At this age of my life I'd like to think that when death is imminent, I'm ready for it and won't keep trying to hold on. Take me Lord, I'm ready to go. Some, of course, aren't likely as ready for death and want to hang on. But Christians should never have this mindset.
But with churches, are we willing to let go and let them die a natural death? Or do we have the same mindset we have with our bodies? Why don't we feel as if we can let go? Or at least 'transition' to a new place (e.g. meeting in a home, or collectively joining up with another congregation) much like a person can transition to hospice? Back when I was in seminary I preached at little congregations and one Sunday I was invited to a church in a small town. The building would have seated probably about 150, but there were four people that morning, two older couples there who were 'determined to keep the doors open' for as long as possible. So they kept up the church act with preachers coming each week to preach at them, so they could feel they were doing their worship. I found out that there was another healthy Church of Christ, but a black church, on the other side of town but they refused to join. To them keeping their little church alive was more important than accepting death or being in a healthy fellowship.
Nobody wants a church to die...it might seem as an act of failure. But as we come close to Easter next weekend, can we see that a seed must die so that something greater than live? I'm really tempted to write that little church and humbly suggest they fold. Maybe that's not my place...but maybe nobody has told them how foolish their plans are.
