85 percent of churches are declining or plateaued.

I'm convinced that many of those churches are practically making that choice. They would rather experience the pain of steady decline than the pain of change. They complain about how their children left for college and left the church forever. But the reality is that they didn't invest in that generation, only catering to the older generation. Ownership for the ministry was never shared with the children.

It might take 100 years, but that church will eventually die because there is no reproduction to the next generation.

Why do churches choose to die instead of change? Here are seven reasons I can come up with:

1. Pain threshold - the pain of death is more gradual and less noticeable than deep change that upsets how things have always been done.

2. Status quo - defined as "the mess we are in." It is safe and non-threatening to keep things the same. Leadership Pain - As Samuel Chand writes in Leadership Pain (pg 5):Growth = Change Change = Loss Loss = Pain Thus, Growth = Pain

3. Slippery Slope - this decline is so slow that it is often un-noticable until it is too late.

4. Conflict Avoidance - the church would rather die than hurt someone's feelings, removing a poor teacher or a painful singer is as dangerous as declining some wanting contestants on "America's Got Talent"?

5. Church Protocol - decisions never make it through the committee process.

6. Fear - it is easier to do nothing than to risk failure.

7. Loss - good people leave when things change, so don't change.