Category: Legacy Churches / Church Closing

Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Legacy Churches / Church Closing Tagged with

10 min 43 s

Rev. Dr. Jonathan New

  • How I think about the church’s capacity to be and to do church
  • The 5 things that bear directly on a congregation’s capacity to be/do church
  • Helping the congregation to increase its self-understanding
  • The pattern of who leaves a church and who stays
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Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Change Management, Finishing and Exiting, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Mission and Vision Tagged with

09 min 54 s

Rev. Dr. Jonathan New

  • What is “faithfulness” for a church?
  • How a congregation’s notion of faithfulness affects the interim experience
  • Telltale signs that a church is coming to its end (It’s not always obvious)
  • Helping a congregation to faithfully think through a “threshold” point where closure is a real possibility
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Posted in Buildings and Property, Church Decline, Denomination Related, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Legal, Mission and Vision Tagged with

13 min 29 s

Rev. Cindy Mueller

  • Definition of a “Threshold” moment
  • Letting go of the notion of having “failed” & navigating with authentic hope
  • Guiding question: “What do you see as your future?”
  • The role of the congregation’s values guiding your decision of what to do next
  • Why navigating the threshold moment takes time – don’t rush it
  • Where to look for help: resource recommendations for navigating the threshold/legacy time
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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Mission and Vision Tagged with

10 min 43 s

Rev. Chris Mereschuk

  • Key questions to build relationships with people at the beginning;
  • How to avoid closed ended questions;
  • Getting the congregation to think more deeply about their future when closure is a real possibility;
  • Helping the congregation get to its “Why”
  • Assessing the capacity of the congregation for ministry; Questions to help a declining congregation think realistically about its options;
  • Questions to help a declining congregation think realistically about its options;
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Posted in Assessments and Evaluations, Buildings and Property, Change Management, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, Church Mergers, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Mission and Vision Tagged with

15 min 33 s

Rev. Dr. Todd Grant Yonkman

  • When the energy gets low, churches often don’t know there are other options to closing;
  • Thoughts on various options: merger restart, adoption, consolidation, redevelopment…;
  • Barrier for vitality is shame and blame;
  • Avoiding the “Twin Titanic” model (throwing a rope from one sinking congregation to another);
  • Key to church mergers: learn to love other things together;
  • The challenge of trying to do vitality work and consolidation work at the same;
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Posted in Buildings and Property, Church Decline, Church Growth & Vitality, External Relations, Healing / Grief Work, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Mission and Vision Tagged with

15 min 33 s

Rev. Dr. Todd Grant Yonkman

  • An inspiring story of a church that sold its building and joined the community;
  • Shift from, “The church is falling apart,” to, “The church is falling open;”
  • Wisdom about the twists and turns of a building sale;
  • The shift from a downsizing to a restart;
  • Selling a building is highly context dependent;
  • Renovating the building without reconnecting with the community is futile;
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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Mergers, Death and Dying, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Financial Management, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 49 s

Rev. Diane Kenaston

How we were able to tell the truth about our reality without also predicting gloom and doom;

My own process from being one of the people in denial about the congregation’s reality, to embracing it and moving forward;

How we were able to build the trust necessary for people to listen to the truth of their reality and move forward;

What I did when I realized that the church was not going to have another full-time pastor after me.

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Posted in Change Management, Church Decline, Church Mergers, Death and Dying, Entering and Engaging the Congregation, Financial Management, Legacy Churches / Church Closing, Managing Expectations, Pastoral Care Tagged with

13 min 37 s

Rev. Diane Kenaston

Simultaneously raising and lowering anxiety in the process of change;

A copy of the letter we sent to the congregation laying out our reasons and reality….

The details of our deliberative and thoughtful approach to ….

The specific steps we took to reduce the congregation’s anxiety level to allow a constructive conversation about our future;

How we named the options we had for the future;

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