May 2026 Editorial
Renewal, Mission, and the Question Aging Churches of Christ Must Face
For over twenty-five years, I have served as a minister of the gospel among the Churches of Christ. Many of you reading this SubStack are familiar with this fellowship of congregations. Like many other fellowships and denominations in North America, the Churches of Christ are in decline. Since the 1990’s, when the Churches of Christ reached their peak in terms of congregations and members, there has been a 14% decline, to 1,447,271 members in 2022.1 If the current rate of decline continues, there will only be approximately 250,000 members in 2050.2
These are the figures I presented in a class called The Future Church, which I taught at the 2026 Harbor: Pepperdine Bible Lectures. I began with such figures because we need to think with sober judgment about the future as we think about a response. Such a response will require changes, and that should not be surprising at all. Whenever a problem exists, the solution always means something has to change. That is to say, Churches of Christ must do something different if we are to continue faithfully participating in God’s mission as people committed to the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
Doing something different is always challenging because it requires change. With every congregation having its own history and social context, the necessary changes for a renewed participation in the mission of God will vary. What I shared during my class was three choices the Churches of Christ have in response: 1) Nostalgia, 2) Church Renewal, and 3) Church Planting.
Nostalgia is always an attractive option because it does nothing except navel-gaze on the good old days. Such navel-gazing is easy because it allows church members to avoid the difficult realities that require change if there is any viability for pursuing the other two options. But before moving on from Nostalgia, let me emphasize that such an option is insane.
Every church I have spoken with wants to grow, engage in ministries that bear witness to the Kingdom of God, and evangelize their community so that others will experience salvation in Jesus Christ. But doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the classic definition of insanity. Nostalgia is an option that just continues doing more of the same, but it is not a strategy.3
The other two options of church renewal and church planting are not mutually exclusive. A church pursuing renewal can also become a church that begins supporting new church plants. I share these two other options because I know that renewal will not take place in every existing congregation. Some existing congregations will close in the next ten-plus years, and that’s okay because every congregation has a life-cycle. Whether renewal occurs or not, congregations can still support church planting to share the gospel and participate in God's mission.
After World War II, the Churches of Christ stressed the importance of global missions. Teams of missionaries were formed and sent with financial support to Africa, Asia, Australia, Western and Eastern Europe, and both Central and South America. Now we need to do the same for places in North America. We need to plant new churches (not clone existing churches), which Mission Alive refers to as innovative faith communities that will embody the gospel in a faithful yet culturally relevant manner and share it in different North American communities.
Just as the Churches of Christ sent and supported missionaries to plant churches around the world, there is now a need to send and support missionaries to plant churches in North America. If an existing congregation is able to pursue renewal, do so while also committing to church planting. For congregations that will, at some point, choose to close, consider using the sale of assets to support church planters in North America.
The only question that remains: What will we do?
K. Rex Butts, D.Min, serves as the lead minister with the Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee, WI, and is the author of Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God. Rex holds a Doctor of Ministry in Contextual Theology from Northern Seminary in Lisle, IL, and a Master of Divinity from Harding School of Theology in Memphis, TN. He is married to Laura, and they have three children together.
Cheryl Mann Bacon, “Church closing trend began before COVID-19,” The Christian Chronicle, March 30, 2022, available at: https://christianchronicle.org/church-closing-trend-began-before-covid-19/ (last accessed on Wednesday, March 25, 2026). This is a 14% drop in membership, with 85% of the 11,965 congregations having fewer than 200 members, and more than half averaging 34 members.
Stanley E. Granberg, Empty Church: Why People Don’t Come and What To Do About It, Stanley E. Granberg, 2022, 41, which represents an 85% decline in members.
This is a point Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made recently: “We understand that this rupture calls for more than adaptation. It calls for honesty about the world as it is. We are taking the sign out of the window. We know the old order is not coming back. We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy. But we believe that from the fracture, we can build something better, stronger, more just.” See Mark Carney, “Special Address to Davos 2026,” January 20, 2026, available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-speech-davos-rules-based-order-9.7053350 (last accessed Tuesday, January 27, 2026).