When Church Plants Fail

We know the success stories, churches planted which grow phenomenally quickly and go on to become established churches which reach their neighbourhoods.  But I guess we hear and know fewer stories of planted churches which struggle and then finally close their doors.  For every proclamation of the faithfulness of God in the successes do we find ourselves asking whether God was unfaithful in the failures, or do we simply choose not to think about the questions such things raise, or put it down to poor leadership?

Doncaster tragically has multiple tales of failed church plants and closing churches.  I was reminded again recently of the difficulty in planting churches in Doncaster, when hearing of churches struggling, pastors short of other leaders and key workers, and of churches potentially shutting their doors for the last time.  What ought we to make of such things?

The Bible is not afraid of failure but we as a Christian culture are.  I wonder if that is why we don't take the time to learn from or listen to stories of places where churches have shut.  Is that why we don't like to be associated with small churches, or to leave a student or young professional city church to labour and serve in a small non city or university town church?  Is that why pastors can tend towards careerism?

I wonder if its time we formulated a biblically robust theology of failure, rather than simply transferring cultural norms to our thinking about church?