The Great Dechurching

Pastor Kevin Bruursema of New Life Community Church in Chicago wrote on his blog, Caffeine, please, last week about how Chicago is becoming dechurched. Around his church he has witnessed churches closing and the buildings are becoming places like climbing walls and single-family homes.
I know of 9 former church buildings in my informal, accidental research that are no longer churches. These buildings are all within a short walk of our Lakeview and Lincoln Park locations.
Here's a (very, very, very) quick google maps demonstration of the approximate area of the churches listed in this updated post. View Larger Map

The red marker is New Life's Lakeview church, the others are all dechurched churches, and the bounding box is about 3.5 by 2 miles.

I've definitely heard of churches being reused as churches, but the phenomenon of churches being used for something like a photo studio is definitely new to me.
There is a sense of urgency in me to fight for this city. Worshiping Jesus is becoming very unfashionable and increasingly difficult to do, even for the interested or seeking.
What does this mean? I believe it means that this is an unprecedented season to be worshiping Jesus and serving and loving this city and it's communities in Jesus' name. And if we capitalize on the opportunity side of this current church decline--this dechurching effect--then, I believe we may see God move with His favor in a broad spiritual awakening.

Local churches do die, and it's not always a bad thing. Still, the proximity of closures makes one wonder.

Anybody live in Chicago that can corroborate this anecdotal evidence? Any other city-dwellers--or anybody--seen similar closures?

Login to comment

IMPORTANT Did you have an account on the old ThinkChristian.net site? Click here transition your account. This will sync all your comments with your email address.

Comments (0)

See the latest in:

Promotion

promo 1 promo 2
promo 3 promo 4

Donate Now