Todd Rhoades blogged up a dying church story on Monday Morning Insight this week and I thought I would pass it along as an inspirational read for church leaders and consultants everywhere. In short, the story is one we are all familiar with: a dying church.  The outcome, however, is a hopeful one of change and revitalization—something we talk about a lot here on ChurchCentral.com and in the Society for Church Consulting. Turns out this church in Niles, Ill., was sort of adopted by another congregation, which shared its vitality with the struggling group until it too became vibrant. Check this out.

The story reminds me of another church that found itself in similar circumstances a few years ago and wrestled with the strange question of the best way to die. For this church, revitalization was not a real possibility. It was a victim of the typical neighborhood shifts over time that many congregations must negotiate. In this case, they had left this Kentucky church without a neighborhood; a nearby college had bought up the land adjacent to the church building. The church opted to sell its real estate to the college as well. The former church building would become a chapel and office space for the school. The former congregation members would join with another church.

Still another dying church in Denver, Colo., led to a story similar to the one in Kentucky. This time a long-established congregation—one that had already relocated once from a more urban area to the suburbs—was again facing urban blight, along with all the other typical issues of an aging church population. New leadership brought new life, but also displaced tradition and drove away nearly every original member. The result led to some new members, but the church continues to struggle and require outside funding instead of being able to sustain its own ministry.

Maybe these two stories of churches that ended up dead, or on permanent life support, are the reason I like the tale of the Illinois church so much. I like to know again that dying churches can be rescued. I’ve read Thom Rainer’s Breakout Churches. I’ve heard Rainer tell some of the stories of these churches. And there’s Ed Stetzer’s Comeback Churches. I know dying churches can come back. This Illinois church’s journey assures me of that again.