Dead Churches - Pastor Stacey Shiflett

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The following article is another very well received podcast from June 5, 2021. The people that responded to this episode was incredible. This is the transcript of that episode. Feel free to share it or give me your feedback at pastorss@cbcdundalk.org

Dead Churches

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Stacey Shiflett Podcast. It is a joy to be with you once again and to share with you some things from the Word of God. I woke up this morning with a thought on my heart that is, I suppose, a bit prevalent these days. I have been thinking about it, meditating on it, preaching about it, and referring to it often in my messages. This is a subject that I get emails about, phone calls about, text messages about — people reach out to me on my Facebook page and other places and pick my brain and ask me questions about it. That subject is the subject of dead churches.

I suppose there is nothing more ironic and nothing more sad than a body of believers — who are supposed to represent the resurrected Lord — being described as dead. I suppose there is nothing more disgusting to God, more discouraging to believers, and more disappointing to the world than a church that could be described as dead.

In the book of Revelation, chapter three, John was sharing with the church — and with the angel of the church — a message from God. Here is what He said to the church at Sardis:

• Revelation 3:1 These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

How ironic. How sad. How pitiful is it for a church made up of born-again, blood-bought believers to be collectively referred to as dead?

Churches Can Die

I suppose we could all weigh in on our definition of a dead church. We could all give our opinion as to what would constitute a dead church — what it is that makes a church be described as dead. I made a list this morning of several things that I believe fall into that category, but I had to start first of all with the realization that churches can die.

We do not want to think about it, but churches can die. A church that used to be alive and thriving — that used to flourish, that used to have a testimony and a reputation where God was working and moving, where the pulpit was on fire and the altars were filled and God was changing lives — can get to the place where it is now described as dead. A church that started out with fire and fervency and passion and zeal can see that fire just dwindle down to nothing. You go by there now and it is just a pile of ashes where a bonfire of revival, a bonfire of the moving and working of God, used to prevail.

Now, on the outside, many churches that are dying — or that have, by all appearances, become dead — can through the power of God be revived. That is not the end of the world in many cases. But let me say this: rarely does a church that dies ever come back to life. The problems and the causes that attributed to that church dying rarely ever get addressed, and they obviously do not self-correct. Someone has to come in with a recognition that the church is dying or dead, and put forth an enormous amount of effort — biblical preaching, teaching, prayer, just addressing all of the contributing elements that made that church become dead — and with God's help and God's power, it can be turned around. Amen.

The book of Job is very clear that even a root, a stump in the ground that has been dead, with a scent of water can begin to bud again. So I am not excluding a supernatural working and moving of God. But I want to go today and talk about dead churches. Why do churches become dead? What happens to a church that makes people say, "I do not want to go there — that is a dead church"? What makes a church get to the place where in all actuality God just writes "Ichabod" above the door and says, "My glory has departed. It was here before. My presence was here. But not anymore."

I made a short list this morning. I want to give you some things that I hope might bring some clarity, and I am hoping that through this podcast you will examine your own heart, your own life, and take a long hard look at your church and what is going on there — and what God might want you to do as a result.

1. Lack of Leadership

Number one: I believe that a sign of a dead church is a church where there is a lack of leadership. When we talk about leadership, I am obviously referring to the role of the pastor — the overseer of the church, the one the Holy Ghost put there to oversee the flock. Many times churches die because a pastor's fire dies, his vision dies. Proverbs 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish.

It is sad, but it is a fact, that many churches have become a casualty and a statistic because their pastor led them down a path of destruction — a path where they are literally no longer a viable, relevant lighthouse in that community, no longer a place God can use and speak through.

As I was sitting there making that list, I remembered a statement I heard years ago. To be honest with you, I do not know that I believed it years ago. I would not have said it this way years ago. But now that I am older, now that I have been a pastor for a number of years, I can agree with Brother Lee Robertson — who has gone on to be with the Lord — who used to pastor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and founded Tennessee Temple Baptist Bible College, and pastored there at Highland Park. That ministry, by the way, is no longer even remotely close to what it was when it started — but I do not want to get off on that. The point I want to make is that Brother Lee Robertson made the statement: everything rises and falls on leadership.

I did not know that I agreed with that years ago, because I looked in the Bible and saw men that did not seem to have much of a following. Noah, for example, was only able to get his wife and his sons and their wives on the ark after preaching all those years. It did not look like a very effective ministry. And yet he did exactly what God told him to do. He built the ark, he saved the animals, he saved his family — that is exactly what God told him to do, and we are here because of it. I thought about Jeremiah, who had a very difficult ministry where he saw little to no results from his efforts, his preaching, and his prophesying.

But I have to be honest with you: I do believe that churches die many times because the pastor dies. His fire dies. His zeal dies. His passion, his burden for that church — somewhere along the way it has died. Maybe he got hurt. Maybe he did not see people respond to his preaching the way he wanted. Maybe he did not feel that he was impacting lives to the degree he thought he should. And as a result, many times they turn their attention and their affection and their focus in other places.

I have seen churches that had a well-known pastor — well known throughout the country. I would go and hear him preach in revival meetings and think, "Man, I bet his people at his church are blessed to have this tremendous man of God as their pastor." Only to go and visit the church later and find about 25 people sitting there, dead as a hammer. I used to struggle trying to get my head wrapped around it. How is this man preaching revivals all over the country, but his own church is dead? How is this man booked to preach conferences, getting up to preach on the subject of revival, getting in men's pulpits and preaching revival messages — and his own church is dead?

Sometimes it makes me realize that maybe they got distracted. Maybe they lost their zeal, their burden, their fire for their own church — and now they are trying to scratch that itch somewhere else. Writing books, radio broadcasts, preaching meetings, hobbies, many times side jobs. I have seen pastors allow their side business or their hobbies to become such a distraction that their church begins to suffer.

The truth of the matter is, where there is no vision the people perish. When a pastor loses his vision and his burden and his fire, and wakes up every morning no longer with that excitement that God put him in that church to lead that flock — to take those people to new heights and higher ground — that church will begin to go downhill. It will begin to decline. That pastor will no longer seem to get in the pulpit with fresh and passionate messages.

I have been amazed at how many pastors preach other men's messages — and I am not talking about every now and then. I am not talking about hearing a message and saying, "You know what, I would like for my church to hear that. That preacher is probably not going to come — I am going to take that passage of scripture, that truth that that man just expounded, and preach it to my people." There is nothing wrong with that. Sometimes people ask my wife for a recipe — they come to our house and eat something and say, "That is delicious, I would like to get the recipe." That is a compliment. I am not saying it is wrong for a pastor to ever preach somebody else's message. But if that is all he ever does, we have got a problem.

If the pastor is no longer getting fresh bread from God — not being able to get to the pulpit with a message that God gave him in the secret place, in his Bible reading, while he was studying — and he gets in that pulpit and he is chomping at the bit to preach that message, he is excited about what God has given him for the people — when that never happens, that church is in trouble. You mark it down: if your pastor is getting all of his messages off of YouTube and off the internet, getting them all from other people, you are going to struggle to see a church stay vibrant and thriving and flourishing under those circumstances. You can tell when a message has been fresh or when it has been microwaved. You can tell when a man gets up in the pulpit and he is on the edge of his seat waiting for the opportunity to deliver that message — or you can tell when it is just mundane, routine, and somebody else's material with the title and the points changed around so nobody recognizes it.

You can also tell a lot of times when you walk into a church — and of course, I have been in church my whole life, so I am one of those fundamental, judgmental, temperamental Baptists, I guess. But I can tell a lot of times when I pull up in a church in the parking lot whether the church is alive or not. It is amazing how all the little things seem to just go undone and unnoticed — the lack of concern, the lack of care. You pull up and the flower beds, the bushes, the shrubs — look at the sign, look at the gutters and downspouts dangling and hanging, the parking lot in disarray. You look at the facilities and many times you can tell these people gave up on this church a long time ago. People will drive by that church for years and never see it — it just somehow blends into the background. The church is not being a beacon. It is not being a lighthouse. It is not being salt. It has lost its savor and is good for nothing.

You walk in the door — and I know some of you think I am being weird, but I mean it — I can walk in the door of a church and sometimes smell whether or not it is dead. You smell it. You can smell the death. You can smell the dust and the mold and the mildew. The flower arrangements have not been changed out in years. The tracts in the tract racks are yellow and curled up. There is nothing new, nothing fresh. You walk in the door and you look at the decor, the carpet, the walls, the light fixtures, the platform, and you say, "Man, nothing has happened here in 30 years."

What happened? They got at ease in Zion. They got so comfortable they went into a coma. In many cases they lost their pulse, they lost their life — going through the motions of dead religion. They wonder why their kids do not want to come to church. They wonder why young people cannot wait to get out. The music is dead, the singing is dead, the congregational singing is dead, the special music is dead. It is pathetic. Singing the same songs they sang 20 years ago. They have not learned a new song. Everything is just rubber-stamped, everything is just in a rut. They have not changed the order of service. They get in the same person for revival every year for 15 years. Nothing new, nothing different, nothing exciting.

There is a lack of leadership. A church is not going to be a lighthouse and a beacon in their community when they are dead, and it starts with the pastor, it starts with the leadership.

And it is amazing how people get so bent out of shape when you go to change something. That picture has been hanging on the wall for 30 years — let us take it down and put something else up. Do you not watch those programs where people remodel their homes? They flip houses, knock down walls, put on a fresh coat of paint, new flooring, new cabinets, new appliances. You walk into a lot of churches in their fellowship hall and their oven is yellow — that is from the 70s. They have got the dark green refrigerators that have been there since the early 80s. They wonder why nobody wants to hang around the church and eat. They have got the old gold and green and orange plush carpet in the parsonage and in the mission department. The lack of vision. The lack of leadership in our churches.

Still using black-and-white gospel tracts — come on, man. They have had colored tracts out for 30 years. Still rubber-stamping the church name and address on the back of your tracts — stamping it crooked, can hardly read it. You give that to somebody in town who pulls up in a nice SUV, dressed nice, lives in a nice house — they look at that piece of junk and they are not coming to your church. You might as well hold up a sign that says, "Our church is dead. We are stuck in a time warp and there is nothing here that would incentivize or motivate somebody to take their walk with God to the next level."

I could spend the whole podcast on lack of leadership. I could probably do a whole series on it. Change the bulletins. Change the prayer list. Change the platform. Change the colors. Change the flower arrangements on the communion table. Change the background in your baptistry. Change your light fixtures. Get new instruments. Get a new piano — the one you are playing has been out of tune for two years. Tune the piano. I am amazed how many churches I go into where the piano is out of tune. It costs about $120 to $150 to get a piano tuned. Tune the piano. Keep the place up.

Churches are dead because there is a lack of leadership. You have got mold and fungus growing on your church steeple. They make pressure washers. They make paint. Clean the place up. Have a work day. Trim the bushes. Repave the parking lot. Redo the sign. Get new tracts. Get new outreach materials. Get welcome packets — have folks fill them out and turn them in so you can keep up with them. The sky is the limit on things you can do. Lack of leadership. Churches are dying because of a lack of leadership.

2. Lack of Salvations

Number two: churches are dying because there is a lack of salvations. It is not rocket science, but if your church is not seeing anybody saved, you are going downhill. At some point, everybody in there is going to die or move away, and there is not going to be anybody to replenish the ranks. The primary function of a church is to see people get saved. If you are in a church and nobody is ever getting saved, you might be in a dead church.

I was reading this morning in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 11 and 12, talking about Abraham and Sarah when God promised them a child: Hebrews 11:11-12  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

We are talking about Abraham — physically he was as good as dead. Sarah physically was as good as dead. Her womb was dried up. It was impossible for them to reproduce. They were described as "as good as dead." Of course God worked, God kept His promise, God rejuvenated them, and they were able to have a child. The point I am making is this: a church that is not seeing babies born, not seeing people saved, is as good as dead. If the womb is dried up, if there are no salvations, if there are no people getting born again and saved in the church, you are close to dying if you are not dead already. You may have a name that you are living, but you are dead.

A church's primary function is seeing people saved, both at home and abroad around the world. J. Harold Smith said that any church that fails to engage in world missions has forfeited their right to exist. Any church that does not involve itself in the propagation of the gospel — whether locally through soul winning and evangelistic efforts, or around the world through world missions — has forfeited their right to exist. God did not put the church here as a place to have potlucks and ball teams and fellowships and Saturday night singings. He put the church here to see the world reached with the gospel. If your church is not doing that, you may be dead or dying — or you will be.

That is the reason why we refer to Calvinism as fatalism. If a church ever gets caught up in Calvinism — thinking that people are predestinated and predetermined by God to go to hell, and some are predestinated before the foundations of the world to go to heaven — and they start pulling back on their outreach and their soul winning, that church will die. It is fatalism. It is the worst thing that ever happened to the church, introducing the heresy of Calvinism. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He shed His blood for every man, woman, boy, and girl to be saved, and we ought to be busy, diligent, consistent, and faithful in getting the gospel out.

I am amazed how many churches have virtually no outreach ministry. You go to a lot of churches and they do not have a tract rack. If they do, it is empty, or the tracts that are in there are old and faded. We just built two brand new tract racks here at our church. We have had several tract racks stationed throughout the church and around through the halls in different places, but I just had one of our men, Brother Roth, build two humongous track racks — I am talking four feet wide, two of them — and they are full. I am not talking about a rack where you slide five or six tracts in. I am talking about hundreds and hundreds of tracts, because our people go through there every Sunday on the way home from church and empty out the tract racks. They go pass out tracts. We have visitors at our church every single service — Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday. Our people understand the importance of getting the seed into the ground. You will never have a harvest until you plant the seed.

Tract racks, soul winning, outreach, bus ministries, preaching on the streets, preaching in the rescue missions — outreach, souls, salvations. Dead people do not reproduce. A dead church will not reproduce. A church that is dead will not see anybody saved. I am amazed at churches that never have a baptism. I used to have a bad habit when I was on deputation — I would not recommend anybody do this, but I would go peek in the baptistry. I would walk up in the choir loft, look over into the baptistry, and you can tell a lot about a church by looking at their baptistry. You would be amazed at churches that store their Christmas ornaments in there, store their paint, five-gallon buckets and a ladder and drop cloth sitting in the bottom of the baptistry. Once a year when they have a work day, they go get all the stuff out of the baptistry, do their work, and put it all back. Makes a nice little storage closet because nobody is ever getting baptized. Dust and spider webs and dead roaches in the baptistry. Dry rotted. Cracked.

It is amazing how churches with no salvations and no baptisms continue to unlock their doors and have church week after week, month after month, year after year. That church is dead. A church is dead when it is so dead the Holy Spirit of God cannot draw sinners. When the church is so dead that lost people do not get under conviction. When the church is so dead that people cannot respond to the preaching. Something is wrong.

Dead churches are also apathetic about missions. I am amazed at how many Baptist churches just absolutely do not understand the importance of world missions. I am surprised how many pastors do not have missions conferences — no annual meeting, no missions revival, no time where they focus on the world and get their people and church members engaged in world missions. They will have camp meeting. They will have a jubilee. They will cut down the honey tree and run the aisles and have all the singing groups in. But what are they doing around the world?

A pastor called me from Idaho just this past week. He said, "I have been watching your services and watching God's hand of blessing on your church, and I cannot help but believe there is a direct connection between the church's evangelistic and missions efforts and the moving and working of God in their midst." And I said, "You think?" When a church is focused on what God left us here to do, when a church makes His primary mission their primary mission — which is souls being saved — you can mark it down, God's hand of blessing will be on that church because there are not enough of us to go around.

I have watched our church here: when we first came here almost seven years ago, our missions budget was about eighty-five thousand dollars a year. This year, 2021, if God helps us continue on the path we are on, our church will do close to three hundred thousand dollars in missions. We had 45 countries we were involved in as of this past March. We are now in 91. Our people got a hold of world missions. They got a hold of the importance of seeing people saved. They got a hold of the importance of making sure that their money and their income is properly stewarded to the evangelization of the world. And we have watched God literally pour out His blessings on our church because we have put missions and soul winning where they are supposed to be — first and foremost.

When is the last time you went on a missions trip? When is the last time your church went on a missions trip? When is the last time, Pastor, that you went on a missions trip and let God kindle and revive the flames and the fire in your heart for world missions? We have got a missions trip coming up this fall. We have about 30 of our people signed up to go out to Navajo Nation — to see one of our missionaries on the Navajo Indian reservation. We are going to fly out, stay in motels, rent some big vans, and go out and help that church, help that pastor. We are going to go out and try to be a blessing, sow some seed, preach and teach, do some classes, and let our folks go up and down the streets, knock doors, pass out tracts, and let God just work in our hearts and use us while we are there.

I take a missions trip every year and allow God to keep missions and world evangelism burning in our hearts so that our church does not die, does not become a dead church. Our missions conference is the biggest event of the year. There is no event that we spend more time, effort, money, and planning on than our world missions conference. And God has blessed it and continued to work and move.

3. Lack of Growth

So: lack of leadership, lack of salvations. Number three: lack of growth. A church that is dead will not grow. Will not experience growth. Will not see anybody advancing, getting closer to God. Someone once said, everything that is healthy grows. If something is alive and healthy, it will bud and give new life. If people in the church are shriveling up on God and getting dead, it may be because the church is dead. Something is wrong.

And let me just touch on this while I am at it. I have heard a few people lately talk about how altar calls are unscriptural. That is the craziest thing I have ever heard in my life. A person that has a problem with invitations and altar calls needs God to do something in their heart. The Bible is filled with invitations. "Come now," God said, "let us reason together." "Come over here, let us sit down and have a one-on-one conversation." Revelation says the Spirit and the bride say, "Come. Let him that is athirst come." What is that? That is an invitation. That is an invitation to get people to come and to respond to the Word of God and the voice of God. You go to a church and nobody ever goes to the altar — that is not a good sign. Nobody ever stands up and makes a testimony of what God is doing in their life — that is not a good sign.

There is no growth, no flourishing, no advancing spiritually — no getting a hold of doctrine, no watching God knock the rough edges off of people as they start to become more like Christ, no finding their niche and their place in the body, no serving with passion and with zeal. When you see a church where that is not happening, something is wrong. We started a discipleship ministry here at our church — we have had one for years, but we completely revamped it and went in a different direction with my Principles of Growth discipleship book. I was thrilled to see what God did. It was like a shot of adrenaline in our church, both in the students and in the teachers, as they got back in their Bible, studying and sitting across the table from one another, going over key principles of the Bible. Just seeing the light come back in their eyes. Seeing the spring in their step. Seeing the working of God in their life because they were growing. Nothing is more exciting than a church that is growing numerically and spiritually.

4. Lack of Faith

Lastly, I want to close with this: a lot of churches are dying because there is a lack of faith. James chapter two talks about it — faith, if it has not works, is dead being alone. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. The truth of the matter is, James says if you say you have faith but you are not demonstrating that faith by works that reflect your faith, you do not really have it. It is no good. It is dead.

We talk about faith. Preachers talk about faith. But I have been absolutely disgusted this past year at the preachers and the churches that perpetuated fear over this coronavirus. We are going to get to heaven one day and we are going to hang our heads in shame when we look at people who had to face lions, had to face fiery furnaces, had to face being burned at the stake, had to face being tortured for their faith — and we have got a group of people today that did not go to church for a year and a half because they were afraid they were going to get sick for a couple of days. And pastors propped it up and pushed fear. Fear is the opposite of faith. You cannot have faith and fear both.

I have been absolutely amazed at how many people have not only bragged about their fear and justified it, but have turned on those of us that did not have fear and treated us like we were the ones that were wrong. "Pastor Shiflett, you are not taking this COVID seriously enough." Come on. God is bigger than a virus. God is bigger than a sickness.

We have got churches that have no faith. They do not have a faith project. They are not raising money for anything. They have not stepped out by faith to do something big in years. No faith, no trust in God. People see that. People do not want to be a part of a church that does not live by faith, walk by faith, trust God to do big things, and ask God to do big things and then let Him do them.

Churches are dying because there is no faith. The pastor and the church seem to exercise no faith at all. "We cannot do this. We cannot afford it." Keep saying that — let me know how that works out for you. I have been an independent Baptist my whole life, and I am so sick and tired of the poverty mentality. God is not broke. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. God is not broke — and I have got something else for you: God's people are not broke. They just act like it and talk like it. It is amazing what God will do if you will just have some faith.

Let me give an example of what I am talking about. This church — our pastor has been here for 65 to 70 years, and the building we are in was built back in the early 80s. When I got here, there were so many remodel projects that needed to be done. So much had deteriorated. Things had been neglected. I came here and said, "We need to fix this place up." And we started remodeling, started fixing things, putting down new carpet, new flooring, new paint, new light fixtures, new plumbing, new bathrooms, repaving the parking lot. That was a huge project I could tell you about sometime. We raised $150,000 to re-asphalt the parking lot and put in new curbing and new storm drains — and God brought it in in about two and a half months. Miraculous. I just said, "God wants us to do it, let us do it." God's people got behind the vision, got behind the pastor, and we did it. God did it. We have seen Him do that over and over and over again.

But one of the things we needed in our church was to reupholster our pews. If you have ever been to our church, we have a beautiful sanctuary, but our pews were deplorable. The last time they had been reupholstered was 16 years ago, and they were not really done right then. The padding was wavy, we had holes and tears and stains, and the pews were just embarrassing. I told the church, "We need to get these pews reupholstered. We have got our priorities in order — we have spent our money on missions and world evangelism — and I think it is time we take some money and fix up these pews and get them looking right." We got several quotes from different contractors and settled on a company that gave us a price of $35,000 to reupholster all the pews — stripping off all the fabric and all the padding, refinishing the wood, putting on all new padding and new upholstery.

We started raising money for the pews. It had been in the bulletin. I told the church, "We need to get this done — pray about what you feel like you ought to give." The money was coming in, and I got in the pulpit on Sunday night and said, "We have got about $12,800 of the $35,000 we need. Y'all pray about this. Let us get these pews redone."

Well, I got a text message: "We are going to give $5,000 toward these pews." I got excited. We did not have $12,000 anymore — we had $17,700 or somewhere in there. I said, "We have got about half of it. We need $35,000. I do not like being halfway. Let us see if we cannot tip the scales and get this going down the other side of the mountain. I believe God wants me and my wife to give $1,000 so we can get over the hump here." And people started giving, people started pledging. I will give $500. I will give $1,000. I will give $200. I will give $400. I will give $20. I timed it — I went back and looked at the Facebook video and I timed it. In five minutes and 35 seconds, God brought that other $17,000 in. And to God be the glory, we moved forward on getting those pews reupholstered. What am I saying? I am saying God is not broke. God's people are not broke. Sometimes you have to step out by faith and say, "God wants us to do this" — and a church that is exercising faith is proving that their faith is not dead.

Three Options

Churches are dying. People are dying. I preached Sunday morning — and let me say this and I will wrap this podcast up — Elijah was there by the brook Cherith in 1 Kings chapter 17. God brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. But as a result of the drought, the Bible says the brook dried up. You know what God said? "Time to go. Time to move. You cannot stay here and live drinking out of a dry brook."

The thought hit me: in Genesis chapter 3, the serpent was the only one I know of that God has forced to eat dust. Nobody else has to eat it. If you are in a place where the brook has dried up — there is no vision, no leadership, no souls being saved — I am going to leave you with this: you have got three options, three things you need to do.

Number one: reflect. In our text in Revelation chapter 3 — "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" — you need to do some deep soul searching and ask yourself the question: is our church dead? And number two: is it dead because I am dead? Do some reflection.

Number two: pray for revival. He said in verse two, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." What about that? God can revive a dead person. God can revive a dead church. He has the power to do that. He revived Abraham and Sarah, did He not? He brought that valley of dry bones to life. He can revive you. He can revive your spiritual walk with God. He can revive your church.

But then number three: if revival does not take place in your church, and you have done everything you can — you might need to reevaluate whether or not you stay there and die with it, let your kids and your grandkids die with it, or you pack up and you go where God is. Get somewhere where there is water. Get somewhere where there is bread. You know the story of Ruth — she heard there was bread in Bethlehem. You know what she did? She packed up and left Moab. She left it. It was a place of death. She went back to where the bread was.

I hope the podcast today was a challenge to you. Churches can die. There are reasons why they die, and there are things that need to be done if and when they do. At the end of the day, you have just got to ask yourself the question: am I going to stay in a dead church? Am I going to pray for revival? Or am I going to make a decision for me and my family to get where God is? Either way — God help our churches. The state of our churches in 2021 is not what it ought to be. But maybe God would experience a moving and working that reverses that decline. I enjoyed chatting with you today. I hope the podcast was a blessing. Feel free to reach out to us by email and let us know, and share it with your friends and family. Until next time, may the Lord richly bless you.