It’s time for legacy churches to shine

By Dan Carlton, Columnist Monday, April 13, 2020

Dan Carlton is pastor at Culpeper Baptist in Virginia. | (Courtesy of Dan Carlton)

Are legacy churches relevant for today? When we started 2020 that was a common question. Should we just invest resources (people and finances) into new churches and missions? As I’ve written before – many legacy churches have been left behind in a missional world. Today we find all churches dealing with how to respond to a worldwide pandemic. None of us were trained or ready for this day. So what do legacy churches bring in this time of ministry? Here are a few ideas.

Perspective: The church I serve is 246 years old and it has lived through some dark days and challenging times. There have been multiple times that this church could have closed. Yet we are still here. Not because of our faithfulness or the ability to make every right decision but because of God’s grace.
Innovative Institutional Ministries: I know we don’t put the words “innovative” and “institutional” together too often but we will require innovative institutions in the days ahead. The institution of the church has always been at its best when it responded to the needs of the day. In the 1940’s Culpeper Baptist started a retirement home (now known as Lifespire of Virginia) to serve the needs of vulnerable senior adults AND a children’s day care center. We will need institutional innovation to use our facilities, volunteers, personnel and donors to help recreate the economy, non-profit sector, educational institutions, medical care and, yes, faith communities. This is an exciting time to be an institutional church because we have done ALL of that before. We started hospitals, built schools, created businesses and started church and that all came from innovative institutions. Let’s do that again!
Relationships: Because of our longevity we are familiar to our communities. There is a certain amount of trust that comes with that longevity. Even if your church has not been active in community conversations – people probably still know you from your real estate. So let’s get out – meet people – ask them how we can best serve them and then LISTEN. Do not use this as an opportunity to grow your church.
Donor power: Legacy churches have been sustained through the faithfulness of “institutional givers.” These folks usually have no idea what a “go fund me” account is but they have a deep loyalty to the institutions that have helped shape their lives and their community. We need to use that to make great investments in our community and world again. Please do not waste the generosity of legacy givers by just keeping the church going. Meet with local non-profits, community leaders and economic development folks and help rebuild and renew your community.

When this pandemic is over (and it will be over) let’s not content ourselves with a “we survived” mission. Legacy churches have been in survival mode for TOO LONG! Our world is not looking for churches to exist. Our world needs churches to help their community rebuild. So let’s not just kick back on our feet – let’s have a prophetic vision to bless our communities.

Dan Carlton was called to serve as pastor at Culpeper Baptist in August 2014. Dan has a passion for seeing legacy churches continue to grow and connect with the surrounding community, while maintaining traditional values and relevant ministries. Culpeper Baptist Church was birthed in 1774 in the soil of religious liberty by its first pastor Nathaniel Saunders, who was imprisoned in the Culpeper Jail and its third pastor, John Leland, who helped establish religious freedom in the Constitution.