Managing Church Mergers in 2024: Tips From an Industry Expert

Mergers have been a very popular topic of conversation over the past few years, especially coming out of the pandemic. 

In 2024, there has been an enormous amount of momentum for healthy, growing churches, in particular. Those churches are looking for a larger number of smaller campuses in specific markets where they have an increasing number of congregants. 

The pandemic also accelerated some trends that were already in motion. Many churches were already dwindling in size due to things like a change in member behavior, city mobility, or gentrification. There were already more protestant churches closing than opening in 2019. Then, the COVID pandemic sped up a process that normally may have taken 20 years, condensing it into a three-to-four-year timeline. Pastors of these churches, especially in urban areas, came back to buildings that were even emptier than before and realized that they had to do something. 

When this happens, it creates opportunities for both types of churches. On the one hand, the growing church can obtain a valuable asset that is currently being underutilized. On the other hand, the merging church has the opportunity to use its resources to continue the calling of the local church.

However, I’ve found through my experiences helping churches merge that this process is not without its challenges and nuances. Below are some things that are essential to think about when planning a merger with another church. 

Lead With Empathy 

Chris Voss, the former Chief Negotiator for the FBI, states that the number one skill set in negotiations of any kind is not brute force, intellect, or even leverage. It’s empathy. 

Empathy is not truth or acceptance, nor is it agreement. Empathy is simply seeking to understand the perspective of another person. When you do this, you can understand the core motivations of the person with whom you are negotiating. This helps create win-win scenarios, versus a ‘sales pitch’ designed to get the other party to capitulate to your interests. 

A lack of empathy is where I see most mergers go wrong. 

One of our most recent successful mergers for a client involved a church in a desirable area in a major city. It had a building that was over 100,000 square feet and only 12 people met in the worship center. The lead pastor of this declining church had been approached for years by every large church in the area about merging, but he described these encounters as more of a hostile takeover sales pitch. 

The result? He didn’t even take the meetings with those churches. What he heard them saying was, “Since you’re failing, don’t you want to ‘steward’ your assets well and give your church building to us because of how great we are?” 

When Ministry Solutions Group got involved, we took a different approach. We started with wanting to know all of the great things that God had done through their ministry, what this pastor was planning to do in his personal life, and what he would like to see happen with the building if he were to no longer pastor the church. We ultimately ended by saying that we knew he would make the right decision and recognized how tough that decision would be. 

We barely talked about us or how successful our client was as a church. Turns out, he had a lot of personal things going on in his life. He knew he was failing but also wanted to be treated with some personal dignity on his way out. He also wanted to be sure that his family was honored in some ways that we thought were more than reasonable. 

This reaffirmed an important lesson for me: Too often, we think merging churches are simply giving up their buildings. They’re not. These are ministries run by people. They involve human beings who believed that they were following the call of God in their lives, and it didn’t work. They failed, and they’re both confused and hurt that it happened.

What we have to realize in a church merger, especially with failing churches, is that these people are giving up something more important than a building. They are giving up their legacy. They are considering who they can trust with the calling that they could not achieve and how they represent what they wanted to see happen through their own ministry. 

They don’t need to hear how successful you are as a church. They need to know that they have worth, value, and dignity. They need reassurance that what they couldn’t achieve themselves will still take place through the ministry where they are considering surrendering their legacy.

Don’t Ignore Personal and Family Needs 

I’m shocked by how many people are surprised by the fact that a lot of pastors of declining churches are either missing paychecks or haven’t taken a paycheck in a long time. I even knew a pastor who had been living with his family inside the church because they lost their house. 

Can you imagine? While they are concerned about the legacy of their churches and what they will look like after they pass the baton, they also have families and spouses who require financial support. 

A great question to ask early in the process is, “How have the difficulties with the church affected you and your family?” While most people would never lead with this information, you want to create a safe place to open up and talk about it as early as is reasonably possible. This builds trust and gets you closer to the core personal motivations behind what they need and how you can help them transition. 

Healthy Churches Merge, Too 

Not all current mergers are based on a healthy, growing church “acquiring” a struggling church. Things like digital transformation and increased efficiencies in centralized services mean we are seeing churches reach beyond the territorial constraints of the older multisite models where two healthy churches are merging. 

One of our church friends and clients opened nine campuses during the pandemic, five of which were church mergers. Within those church mergers, three campuses came from a healthy church two and a half hours away whose pastor was simply getting older and thought that the two churches would be “better together.” 

Another church we know has moved from a multisite to a “multi-city” approach by merging with healthy churches outside of their geographic area. The point? Not all mergers involve a “thriving” church absorbing a “surviving” church. Sometimes both are healthy and merging is simply the best option.

Succession and Mergers

One final thought here. One of the other very popular reasons for mergers right now is that they have become a succession plan option for a lot of pastors. 

Again, this is particularly common with pastors at the end of their prime who came back from the COVID years without the energy or passion to reinvigorate and recreate their church. Often, they don’t have someone on their team who can fill their place, and they are looking for outside organizations that are doing significant work in the community and have the capacity to take their legacy forward.

In the same vein as maintaining empathy and considering personal needs, keep this situation in mind. Regardless of their personal track record, these leaders were dealt a bad hand. They should be approached as human beings in tough situations who deserve respect and sympathy, even as you’re trying to offer a merger-based solution for their shrinking congregation or lack of succession options.

Managing Church Mergers in 2024

Mergers in the faith space are becoming more common than ever before. It is a good option for many ministries, especially as Christian leaders try to navigate the repercussions of the pandemic and the trends it accelerated.

While common, though, it’s important to remember that every merger is unique and involves human beings with real feelings and needs. That’s why working with an organization like Ministry Solutions Group is so critical to a healthy merger. If you have someone coming alongside you, helping you demonstrate empathy, make trusting connections, and explore win-win scenarios, the process always goes smoother for everyone involved.

Let us help you get started with your church merger today.