We need more dead churches. We actually have many dead churches in our world, and they are the ones who are striving to keep themselves alive. They may actually have all the external appearance of being very alive. But we know from Jesus that whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will save it.

We need churches which are willing to die to themselves and be alive to God. Dying to self for a church means letting the very existence of the church be less important than God’s work in this world. Too often church leaders believe that their congregation’s existence is vital to the Mission of God. But the same logic would lead us to conclude that our personal existence is vital to the Mission of God. Maybe we believe that too. But those people who lose themselves, care not at all for their own life, are the one’s who find it. Churches are no different . . . they have to embrace a collective dying.