6 Issues To Consider Before Pastoring A Church That Needs A Turnaround

Turnarounds always take longer than our projected timelines. And they almost never happen the way we expect.

Leading a church that needs a turnaround is one of the most challenging, yet rewarding callings a pastor can receive.

I’ve pastored three churches, all of which needed a turnaround, with varying degrees of success (more on that, below). From both my failures and successes, I’ve discovered some universal principals that every pastor would do well to consider before deciding to pastor a church that needs a turnaround.

These can also be helpful points to consider if you’re currently pastoring a church that is in a rut and needs a turnaround. Read More

God may not have called you to lead your church in a turnaround. He may have called you to provide hospice care to the members of a dying church and to help them come to terms with the death of their church. This includes leaving behind a legacy by allowing a new church plant to use their building and eventually turning over the building to the new church plant or allowing an existing church that is connected with the community, which is growing, and which needs a larger facility to use the building and eventually turning over the building to that church. As Thom Rainer and others have pointed out, this is the greatest legacy that a dying church can leave behind when it closes its doors.

Other options are to launch new church plant within the church itself - a second congregation, to negotiate a takeover of the church by a larger, growing church, to merge with another church, or to relocate to another part of the community or to a different community. The later might involve launching a satellite congregation at the new location to test the waters. All of these options will require a degree of cooperation from the existing leadership and church members and have their own drawbacks.