This 2-part Signpost is for communities of faith that are considering closing and disbanding. 

Sometimes everything works together nicely and a community of faith thrives for years, or even decades. But communities of faith constantly change, in a world that does the same. The same community of faith that was five years ago doing well financially, with good attendance and an active youth program. and getting good response to neighbourhood outreach, may find itself currently struggling due to any one (or more) of the following factors:

• Fewer children in the area --> Families moving away and no new families moving in, schools closing
• More seniors in the area --> Aging congregation doesn't have health and energy required to do ministry activities
• Low attendance in general --> Fewer people attending church means fewer people to do ministry and less money coming in from weekly donations.

Other factors may be at play as well, depending on the region in which the community of faith is located.

The presence of these factors may cause you and your community of faith's leadership team to decide that there's no next generation on which to build a succession plan for the congregation. However, this is not a decision that should be made lightly, or without consultation from other sources.

In this part, you'll learn about steps you should consider taking to see if a process of rejuvenation and refreshment can get your community of faith headed in the direction you'd like to see it go, before it seriously starts to consider the disbandment process. 

The messages to keep in mind as you and your community of faith's leadership team go through Part 1: "Are we ready to give up just yet? To what are we willing to say 'Yes, and..? What do we discern as God's will for our way forward?" 

These are not always easy questions to answer. We'll be considering a number of ideas, resources, and even looking briefly at a couple of processes.

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