I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the death (or deep decay) of local churches. More specifically, juxtaposing it with the church planting movement among young pastors.

As I drive around Ft. Bend County and Houston proper I seen many churches that I know are without a lead/senior pastor, or are completely closed up. Teaching at CBS puts me in contact with many pastors and church workers all over the greater Houston area. My students frequently share stories of major leadership problems in their churches and the decay that comes with it.

It’s not just Houston of course. My brother told me a story about a local pastor who took him to San Antonio for some ministry work. While they were there he took him on a “tour of closed churches”. Earlier this year I was in Portland for a class and my prof told me that while speaking a northwestern regional conference for a major denomination, he was told that they had over 50 churches without pastors in that region alone, and another 30 without pastors in the southwest region.

That really gnaws at me. I know there are many churches who are led badly and full of people who are full of wrong ideas about Jesus. I know there are many churches that aren’t really a church as the Bible describes one. There are many who have tossed the gospel out the window and concocted some “Jesus” for themselves that doesn’t make anyone change, loves golf, money, and doesn’t have that big of a problem with adultery or pornography.

But even with all those churches, there still must be a good number among the pastor-less ones who are truly sheep without a shepherd. They can’t all be churches that run good pastors out on a rail.

Then I realized how I never hear anything about those churches, or about how to help them. Sure there are some who don’t really wan’t help. They’ve been hijacked by some misguided and unqualified board of yahoos who are afraid to make the changes necessary to glorify Jesus. But what about the others? Where are the conferences on “Church Redemption”? Where are the paper backs and podcasts and “movements” about this one?

I really only know of three guys who have done something about it. The only one I know personally is Bobby Delgado out at Long Point Baptist Church. This church was toast. It once must have had near 1,000 people. The first time I saw it there were 12 people with a combined age of a million. First Baptist Church (which is geographically close to LPBC), stepped in, brought in Bobby, dumped some needed cash on the place for maintenance, and now they’re slugging it out, helping the people to re-engage the culture after doing nothing for what seems like several decades.

The second is Matt Chandler at the Village. I don’t know Matt, just met him a few times. What’s hilarious (and he’s admitted this) is that he gets all sorts of run in church planting circles…but he’s never planted a church. What he has done is step into what was a seriously messed up situation where the pastor broke his brain, the church was a theological mud pie, and the building looks like a 70′s orange juicer. The Village is now a thriving place with the kind of problems you prefer (because there are always problems…just a question of flavor). In Matt’s defense, he didn’t want the job.

The last is Gregg Matte at Houston’s First Baptist Church. I’ve never met Gregg, haven’t heard him speak, and don’t even know what he looks like. What I do know is that he had what was apparently the college Bible study equivalent of New Year’s Eve in Times Square and left it to pastor a huge (and hugely un-led) church in Houston. He’s a relatively young guy who stepped into a HUGE set of shoes. We’re talking a MASSIVE church with a massive budget and buildings and staff and all that jazz. Some might salivate at that, but not me. I go with Biggie, “Mo Money, Mo Problems”. Nonetheless, I’ve not heard a single negative thing about FBC since he’s been there. Quite the opposite. I know several folks who would never have gone there before who are now tied into a vibrant fellowship. The church is also active in what appears to be all the righteous ways. This church went years with interim pastors and the ubiquitous “pastor search commitee”. God has used him to help them turn the corner.

I don’t see a clear solution to this. The only think I can think of is to start an org whose focus is to provide hurting churches a place to contact, a trustworthy source for guidance. I suppose some try their denominations, but from my outside perspective that doesn’t seem to have had much success.

In the end, I know that Jesus cares more about His bride than I ever can and that’s a very comforting thought. And I know that the church is, in one sense, flawed by design. We are going to mess stuff up. If it wasn’t the case then the NT writers wouldn’t have given us so much encouragment about loving and caring for one another. That was how Jesus summed up all of His teaching “Love one another as I have loved you.” Nonetheless, I do care enough to be haunted by the thought of so many people gathering together and having no idea where they are headed, or how they’re getting there.