Navigating Church Decline and Closure with Dr. Stanley Granberg

In this episode of The Last Service Podcast, host Matt interviews Dr. Stanley Granberg, founder of Heritage 21, an organization dedicated to helping declining churches make critical decisions about their future. Dr. Granberg shares his extensive experience in church planting, missions, and organizational leadership, offering valuable insights into the challenges facing aging congregations.

Key topics discussed:

1. The Quick 50 Assessment: A simple tool to determine if a church needs to consider its existential future, based on three factors: church age, average member age, and attendance.
2. The threshold for church survivability: Why 60 in attendance is a crucial number for church sustainability and the shift from public to private spheres.
3. The concept of "stewarding God's mission" and how it applies to churches in various stages of life, including decline.
4. The five systems that impact church health: theological, missional, leadership, relational, and physical.
5. The importance of perspective and making proactive decisions before reaching a stage of "leadership dementia."
6. A case study of a church closure that resulted in positive outcomes and the continuation of God's mission through new church plants.
7. The challenges of conflict resolution in declining churches and the impact on closure decisions.
8. The inevitability of system failures in churches and the opportunity for renewal.

Dr. Granberg emphasizes the importance of courage, facing reality, and putting plans on paper to gain perspective when dealing with church decline. He encourages church leaders to view their situation objectively and make informed decisions about their future.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. The Quick 50 Assessment (50 years old, 50 average age, 50 or fewer in attendance) is a useful tool for identifying churches that may need to consider their long-term viability.
2. Church planters consider 60 in regular attendance to be an indicator of viability. 60 feels like a crowd and has adequate energy to do ministry.
3. Addressing church decline requires a systems-thinking approach.  Churches are a network of systems.  Like organs in a body, the systems will eventually fail.

Resources:

Empty Church: Why People Don't Come and What to Do About It by Dr. Stanley Granberg

Heritage 21