Last week, my wife’s (Karla) mom’s funeral dinner was held in the former fellowship hall of the Nazarene church in her small hometown. Karla’s dad practically built that fellowship hall. Her folks gave plenty of money to see that it was constructed. Before moving in with us, Karla’s parents had been members at that church for 70+ years. Like her parents, the church is dead.  

The Nazarene church has been closed for a few years. The building was sold to another church group. The old fellowship hall is now the sanctuary. The old sanctuary is the children’s area. Upon walking in the door, instead of seeing alabaster boxes, missionary reading books and dusty plastic flowers, there is a coffee shop. The space has been completely changed. By all appearances the church group meeting in the former Nazarene building is doing great. 

Which begs the question: Why is that church thriving when the Nazarene church died?

There are a number of reasons, but here is my outside observer’s perspective:

1. Sacred Cows. Old Nazarene buildings are a pastures for sacred cows. They are everywhere. Aunt Suzie’s memorial money bought the pulpit, we can’t get rid of that. Uncle Charlie bought the pews. They’ve got to stay. Sister Bertha has overseen the missionary reading book table for 40 years, you can’t move it. On and on the sacred cows graze. 

2. Leadership. The current pastor of the new church grew up in that little town. His grandmother was Karla’s recess playground monitor. His grandpa worked with Karla’s dad in the machine shop. He had a stake in the community. None of the Nazarene pastors had that kind of community connection.

3. Reputation. The Nazarene church had been on that location for decades. People in the town knew the church (for good or bad). In a small town, everyone knows everyone’s business. There was a “been there, tried that” mindset.

4. People. If my in-laws are a representative of the people (and maybe they weren’t), they were old school Nazarenes. Good, godly people, but stuck in the mindset of this is “how we’ve always done things.” “A coffee shop when walking through the front doors?  Over my dead body!” I could hear one of them say. 

What if, every few years, Nazarene churches had an evaluation on existing properties, leadership, and community involvement. There could be a survey of neighbors regarding the church to determine an outsider’s perspective. A “secret shopper” could come with unbiased eyes to locate blind spots regarding furnishings, building usage, service effectiveness and church friendliness (every church thinks they are friendly to outsiders, most are not). The results of these tools could then lay the ground work for necessary changes. 

What if district monies were set aside to help cover costs for updating worship spaces, providing new signage and the elimination of out-of-date methods and mindsets. What if pastors were required to be involved in the community activities outside of the church at some level? What if church members evaluated the health of the church and took drastic measures (if necessary) to see the church remade and resurrected (easier said than done).

Many of the 4400+ Nazarene churches in USA/Canada are on life support. Add ten or twenty years to everyone sitting in the pews and estimate who will still be around. Many churches will die. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Karla’s home church proves it is not too late. Changed can come. Re-birth is possible. Even in a small town, new life can emerge. Every church doesn’t need a coffeeshop, but every church needs people and leadership willing to take a “whatever-it-takes,” Jesus first mindset. Without such a commitment, the church is already dead (they just don’t know it). 

Dying Nazarene churches can be resurrected. In fact, they must be, if the denomination is going to survive.