Chris Northcott Book Summaries

Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 12 Ways to Keep Yours Alive

Thom S. Rainer. B&H Publishing, 2014. 112 pages.

Jesus promised that he would build his church, and that all the powers of hades would not conquer it (Matt 16:18). While this proves true of his church as a worldwide entity, he made no such promise to individual congregations—in fact, he threatened to snuff out churches that failed to pay attention to his words (Rev 2:5). Some of the churches well known in the New Testament—such as that in Corinth—disappear from record in the second century.

The death of congregations is a fact of modern Christianity. Congregations that have stood faithful for centuries find themselves diminished to the point where the final few acknowledge that the doors must be closed once and for all.

Thom Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church provides an analysis of how this happens. Rainer, a researcher and consultant connected with the Southern Baptist Convention, investigated fourteen “deceased” churches he had connections with through his consultancy work. All these churches were in the United States, and from a range of denominational backgrounds.

Rainer found ten common causes of death that appeared regularly in the “autopsies” he performed. These ten form the titles of the short chapters of part one of this book. In each of these, he challenges readers to prayerfully consider making a commitment. The commitment requires the reader to look ahead to the future, seeking to avoid the causes of death in their own churches. Each chapter also includes a few questions for reflection.

  • Slow Erosion. People failed to notice and act on the decline of ministries, prayer, outward focus and connection to the surrounding community.

Much like the returnees from exile who paid more attention to their own homes than to God’s temple (Haggai 1:2–4, 9).

  • The Past is the Hero. Churches looked back to how things were during a “golden age” in their past. This great past defined how they wanted things to look again, and they refused to look forward with preparation to doing things any other way.

Contrast this with the “heroes” Hebrews 11 who in faith sacrificed the comfortable things of the life they knew in order to obey God and receive things he had promised for their future.

  • The Church Refused to Look Like the Community. When the community around the church changed (ethnically, age-wise, or socio-economically), the church failed to connect with it and make new believers an integral part of the church community.

Churches must be motivated to look to the interests of others if they are to reach those God has called them to minister to (Philippians 2:1–4).

  • The Budget Moved Inwardly. As finances grew tight, expenditure that did things outside the church was cut before anything that affected people inside the church was (including staffing and building expenses).

Churches must take care not to be like the rich young ruler of Mark 10:21–22, failing to obey Jesus because they loved the comforts brought by their wealth.

  • The Great Commission Becomes the Great Omission. Christ’s command to “go” while making disciples and teaching and baptising them, is forgotten and dropped.

Churches must not disobey or outsource the commands of Matthew 28:18-20, to go, make disciples, baptise, and teach.

  • The Preference-Driven Church. Personal preferences of church members get in the way of making room for new or potential members by doing things differently for their sakes.[1]

Christ is our example to model after, who sought the best for others at his own expense (Philippians 2:5–11).

  • Pastoral Tenure Decreases. A pattern (downward spiral) was evident in the churches Rainer autopsied. New pastors would begin a role well, but not be permitted to lead in a way that ever changed anything. Pastors would become disillusioned and leave, or be forced out, or find their financial support reduced due to a still-shrinking congregation. The short tenures had a detrimental effect on the churches.

Pastors must have scope to fulfil their ministry role as an evangelist (2 Timothy 4:5), and churches must support them in this.

  • The Church Rarely Prayed Together. Not in a substantial and meaningful way, at least. Their best days of their churches had been when there had been times of eager and sustained prayer by large swathes of the church, together.

The first Christians did not merely “do” prayer, but they were “devoted” to it (Acts 2:42). There’s a big difference in those words!

  • The Church Had No Clear Purpose. There was no compelling mission that the church together was committed to. A sense of routine kept the activities going, rather than being driven by magnifying the glory of God or carrying out the Great Commission or serving the local community.

Churches must understand their purpose as the Philippian church did: their “partnership in the gospel” with Paul as a missionary and church-planter and charity/relief organizer (Philippians 1:3–5).

  • The Church Obsessed Over the Facilities. The physical building and the things in it consumed too much time and attention from the church, and was the cause of frictions within the church family.

Jesus warned people against being too fixated on material things, and churches must heed that warning too (Matthew 6:19–21).

Rainer also offers direction for churches that are dying. In brief, here are his points.

For Churches that are “Sick”, Rainer noted that these churches don’t have a clear plan for making disciples, even if there is a lot of ministries and activities otherwise. Here is what he recommends.

  1. “Pray that God will open the eyes of the leadership and members for opportunities to reach into the community where the church is located.”
  2. “Take an honest audit of how church members spend their time being involved.”
  3. “Take an audit of how the church spends its money.”
  4. “Make specific plans to minister and to evangelize your community.”

For churches that are “very sick”,…

  1. “The church must admit and confess its dire need.”
  2. “The church must pray for wisdom and strength to do whatever is necessary.”
  3. “The church must be willing to change radically.”
  4. “That change must lead to action and outward focus.”

For churches that are terminally dying, Rainer makes four suggestions to help the church to die well and for some good to come out of it.

  1. “Sell the property and give the funds to another church, perhaps a new church that has begun or will soon begin.”
  2. “Give the building to another church.”
  3. “If your church is in a transitional neighbourhood, turn over the leadership and property to those who actually reside in the neighbourhood.”
  4. “Merge with another church, but let the other church have the ownership and leadership of your church.”

Rainer’s Autopsy of a Deceased Church offers a short and sobering analysis of churches that have failed. The reader may feel a sense of foreboding before or after reading it, but the book offers instructive advice on remedying the decline and realistic hope that a church can flourish again.

Remember Christ has promised to build his church. He is the one “who walks among the golden lampstands” (Rev 2:1), to judge or to uphold congregations. That is reason to shake off presumption and look clearly at ourselves and our churches, and it is reason to have hope that churches that are both faithful and zealous will be found pleasing to him, and will see the nations added to their number (Isaiah 60).

Autopsy of a Deceased Church is available from Fishpond and was priced at NZ$32 in December 2024. I bought my copy electronically for my Kindle from Amazon for around NZ$20.  It can also be read online at Archive.org.

[1] One question that this raised for me, however, is to what extent a church might reasonably uphold its own ethos rather than simply changing every time it is felt new people might like something else. Rigidity is not the only way to describe maintaining what might otherwise be a healthy communal self-discipline otherwise known as tradition.