What Gets Rewarded Gets Repeated:
The Need to Celebrate Churches That Close Well
Church planting and church revitalization have long been celebrated priorities in our denomination—and in most others. Vision for new churches is passionately cast, and the church planting movement has gained real momentum. I was part of that movement, having planted one church myself and served on the church planting team in my district. Church planting successes were regularly highlighted at ministry events and featured prominently in denominational publications.
Alongside planting, church revitalization has also been lifted high. At conferences, in podcasts and articles, and through ministry publications, stories of dramatic turnarounds are given center stage. These accounts inspire faith, courage, and hope—and rightly so.
What is noticeably absent, however, are stories of churches that are assisted in closing well. Painfully few articles are written about healthy, faithful closures, and I have never attended a ministry event where the closing of a church was acknowledged—much less celebrated.
Recently, our superintendent shared a remarkable story of an almost-certain church closure that turned into a miracle revitalization. I rejoiced along with everyone else in the room as honor was given to the pastor who led that turnaround. As the story was told, the superintendent explained that, as a last resort, he had contacted a pastor and asked if he and his wife would consider going to a church in dire condition. If nothing could be done, the district would close it. The superintendent’s hope was that our denomination would not lose its presence in that community.
The couple agreed to go. After several years, the church grew from six people to over one hundred in average attendance and became a healthy, thriving congregation. Eventually, the older couple handed leadership to another pastor, and the church continues to do well.
You could feel faith rise in the room. “Yes, it can be done. Yes, it could happen at my church,” people thought. It was a powerful story, shared with the hope that it would be repeated throughout the district. And the vision was caught.
There is a familiar principle in leadership and management literature: “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” This idea is foundational to shaping organizational culture. Choose what you reward, highlight it publicly, and it will be repeated. So the question must be asked: What do we reward in our denominational culture?
At present, we reward church planting and church revitalization.
That emphasis—good as it is—has an unintended consequence. No one wants to be associated with a dying church. The rewards go to the revitalizer.
I am not suggesting we stop telling stories of successful revitalization or church planting. Those stories matter. They should continue to inspire faith and risk-taking. But I am suggesting that we also lift up churches that have served well, lived well, and now die well. Congregations that have faithfully carried out their calling for decades deserve to be honored—not quietly erased.
Reward the revitalizer. Celebrate the risk-taker. Honor the pastor who turns things around. Let those stories continue to build faith. What gets rewarded gets repeated.
But at the same time, the thoughtful, strategic, compassionate closing of a congregation should also be rewarded. I long to see faith rise in pastors of dying churches—faith that closing well can be a holy calling. I want to see stories in ministry magazines, recognition at district meetings, and affirmations spoken about churches that ended their ministry with courage, grace, and faithfulness.
We need a broader definition of success.
Closing a church well should be considered as faithful as revitalizing a church. Celebrating a congregation’s life and ministry is success. Failure should be defined not as closing, but as drifting—limping along, consuming resources, and making little difference for the kingdom. Success may mean recognizing the writing on the wall and acting upon it with wisdom and care.
Church boards and congregations need permission to see closure not as defeat, but as a faithful conclusion to a meaningful life.
When pastors and lay leaders are surrounded only by stories of revitalization, encouraged exclusively to attend turnaround seminars, and repeatedly told that there must be a denominational church in every county at all costs, they conclude that staying open must be God’s will—no matter the reality on the ground.
That paradigm must shift.
Many churches are closing. Few are closing well. And of the few that do, how many are acknowledged?
Not every pastor and family are gifted to be revitalizers—just as not every pastor and family are gifted to guide a congregation through a faithful ending.
Let us begin to reward good, strategic, compassionate church closures. Let us encourage pastors and leaders to believe that the Father may desire to use them to bless congregations in their final months and years. Let us offer training and support to those who are called to lead during a church’s final days. And when that happens, let us lift them up as ministry heroes as well.
What gets rewarded gets repeated.
~ Pastor Rick
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