The first edition of Turnaround and Beyond: A Hopeful Future for the Small Membership Church was released in 1995 and was re-released and updated in December 2008.
In the study Ron sought to explore strategies that enabled struggling and often run down small churches to experience lasting turnaround.
“Turnaround” has gone by various terms in the past
- church revitalization
- church transformation
- church renewal
- church survival
- church turnaround
In the 1980s, church growth studies assumed or believed that sustained growth would last about 25 to 30 years and then plateau and decline unless a new cycle of church growth began with intention to reach new people.
Due to rapid acceleration of society and the new challenges of financial survival, that cycle has shortened considerably. Some think 10 years, others think 3-5 years. In either case, there are plenty of smaller churches that need to experience a fresh cycle of growth.
This chart of a church life cycle may be familiar to you:
(Source: Life Cycle of a Congregation, Alban Institute)
Churches have a typical pattern of church growth and church decline that progresses one stage at a time. The study goes on to show how movement between stages are marked by cycles of rising to the new challenges in front and dying to the old ways. Even in the decline side of the picture, the new challenges rising up are perceived as insurmountable and the risk taking liberties once valued in the past are dying off as risk is managed and even over controlled.
(Source: Life Cycle of a Congregation, Alban Institute)
The question that Ron Crandall seeks to answer in his book is how do churches that are on the decline side jump start a new cycle that help a small church arrest it’s decline and experience a new wave of transformation that “resets the clock” and starts a new wave of church growth.
Did Saint Francis of Assisi get it wrong?
Our church is familiar to many in the us as it is declining at a very negative rate. WHAT TO DO????? I’ve been a Christian since 1964
So many dynamics come into play with the decline of churches that it’s hard to answer your particular question.
The general answer is to seek how to start a new growth cycle.
What that looks like in your church’s context is something unique to God’s calling for your church.
As Crandall found out, there are several factors in terms of vision, leadership, evangelism, and conflict management that all come into play.
Chris.