Putting down the horse

Yesterday, Barbaro was euthanized. It was a sad day for many in the sports world. Barbaro was the winner of the Kentucky Derby last year. I'm not really an animal lover, much less a fan of horse racing, but it was a grizzly site to watch the replay of this strong creature break his leg during a race. The problem is that horses do not realize that when the bone in the leg snaps they should stop running. All sorts of problems ensue. Barbaro went through many surgeries, but ultimately could not be restored to health.

I was thinking about how this applies to churches. I reviewed some statistics supplied by the Church of the Nazarene Research Department for various churches. I saw many church that once had a great number of people attending 15-20 years ago, that are now running 15-20 people, or less.

In many ways they are much like Barbaro. They were winners, on top of the world, but something went wrong. Reasons are numerous why churches decline (they have problems, cities and neighborhoods change, the culture changes, among other reasons). I think many of these churches may be beyond repair. It's hard to say without knowing the details, but I will nonetheless make some broad generalizations. Perhaps it's time to "euthanize" some of these churches. Put them out of their misery. Shut them down. Then restart them with a fresh new vision.

I pastored a church that was in mega-decline. It really had never gotten off the ground. It was dying. And, it did die. Now there is nothing in its place. Had the church higher ups listened to my suggestion about a restart before everything fell apart, there may be something there now.