Recently, I was thinking about the fact that many family-owned businesses do not survive the third generation of ownership. I wondered if the same held for churches. So I went looking to find out if it was common for Baptist and evangelical churches to turn inward and begin to die after a generation or two.

As it turns out, a lot of them do. It’s a pattern people who study churches have noticed for a long time.

Most churches start with real outward focus. They’re trying to reach people. They’re having real conversations about Jesus. The attention is on folks who aren’t there yet. Then, somewhere along the way, that shifts. The people who are already inside become the main priority. Programs and the familiar things get protected. Money and time start flowing toward taking care of the members instead of reaching anyone new. You hear “we’ve never done it that way” more often as a way to avoid change. What used to be the tools for the mission slowly become the point itself.  In other words, the programs begin to matter more than the people.

This shows up a lot once the founding generation is gone. The people who come after didn’t have to build the church through hard outreach. They inherited it. So the relationships and rhythms they already know start to matter more than making room for new people. Newer churches tend to grow more often. Older ones tend to plateau and ultimately shrink. In Baptist circles the numbers have shown this for years. Plenty of churches aren’t reaching many new people, and they’re aging. A lot of evangelical churches follow the same path. Early passion for mission cools into just keeping the place running for the folks who are already comfortable.

It doesn’t have to go that way. Some churches keep pushing outward, plant new works, and stay willing to change so new people can actually belong. But the drift toward taking care of our own is strong. Wanting growth is easy to say. Being willing to let new people (and the changes they bring) actually reshape things is harder, and new people will always bring change because they bring new talents and energy to the work.

After the first generation or two, every church has to decide whether it’s still about reaching the lost or whether it’s mostly become a place for the people who are already there. May we all choose wisely for we will be judged based on what we do with what we've been given.