Paul, thanks for your vulnerable article. I've thought about this very idea. I find it interesting that the very people who are most resistant to change are the ones willing to leave a church and start over somewhere else. It's not change that people crave or desire, but being in control of the change.

This is why I'm starting to think that if the church is going to survive as an institution (that's a debate for another article), then it needs to rethink congregations. What if a congregation came with a set date of closure? What if after xxx years, the congregation would end and all things with it. A new congregation could be launched, but those in that congregation (that made it to the end of the life of the congregation) would have to be split up into other congregations being launched. In fact, the goal should be that a congregation should be focused on launching other congregations. That's just one idea around this.

I think this type of idea is important because it shifts our focus from control over a congregation to living into what we claim to believe - life, death, and resurrection. If this happened in our congregations with their very lives, maybe we'd embrace it in our own lives too.