Churches on Life Support
Studies have shown the problems in mainline denominations. For years Methodists, American Baptists, Epsicopals, and others have lamented the decline in membership in those denominations. The numbers really are staggering. You can go on line and read all kinds of stats on this problem and people have been concerned for years. More conservative Christians responded by blaming the decline on ‘liberalism’ and through the years I got the sense from some that they think this is a ‘liberal’ problem. Not so fast! Many of the churches I’ve seen close or die are far from ‘liberal.’ Those charges were never fair but interesting enough now evangelical and conservative churches are seeing the same trend!
Case in point–the Southern Baptist Convention. The president of the SBC says that by 2030 1/2 of all SBC churches will be gone!!!! He believes that unless something is done that in the next 20 years 1/2 will close their doors (dropping SBC figures from 40,000 churches or so to 20,000). Wow! Read the link:
http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7887&Itemid=53
Before we argue too much stop and think. The average church in America is under 100 in attendance. Stop and visit the churches in your town (Baptist, Methodist, doesn’t matter) on any given Sunday and in most churches you will find very few children, very few youth, and mostly senior adults. I know churches that have no kids at all! These churches have older buildings that cost money to maintain. The leadership is over 65. The average tither is well into retirement. I’ve read that it takes 5 new families to equal the tithes of one senior adult! Will these churches be able to afford clergy in a few years? Will they be able to pay the bills?
Read my previous blog.
I’ve said these things before in this blog site but when you read stories like this you have to stop and say, “Whoa.” Even if the SBC is wrong and say only half right that would still mean that in 20 years there will be 10,000 less churches.
The bleed is happening and has gone from a steady drip to a steady flow. Will it become a gushing stream and then a river?
No I don’t beliieve the Christian church is doomed. God is bigger than that. But we are moving into new territory in North America (this argument is for NA and not for some places like Africa where the growth is rapid and moving up not down).
Will we be the next Europe (a once heavily Christian place that becomes more secular)? Will we follow England where church is a minor blip in culture?
Or will we wake up and see that business as usual doesn’t work. We must be relevant. We must be creative. We must have passion. We must speak the truth and live the truth. We must do some hard work.
Comments?
Derik
You know I’m with you on this in theory but I still need more definition as for what and who we are being relevant. I’m excited to be in a fellowship of believers that is actively looking for opportunities to build relationships with each other and with God. That is the context in which I understand church. That is what I see happening at my church. I know we miss some opportunities but at least we continue to discover ways to develop relationships without selling out to what the going trend is. Don’t we lose authenticity when we become trendy just to compete with the congregation down the street?
I guess what I’m looking for is some responses from our readers (and we are growing in visitors !:)) I want to know what YOU FOLKS think a relevant church looks like/acts like/does. The truth is most folks can describe why they left church (didn’t connect, pointless, boring, didn’t speak to my life, out of touch with today’s world) but the question is “OK, I see your point but what would a church that YOU would be excited about/go to/get involved/long for look like/act like/do?”
Interesting WILLOW CREEK which has been a model for years for Churches who follow the ‘trendy’ thing you mention is changing drastically. After hitting 20,000 they were shocked to find that the majority of the church felt they weren’t growing in faith, etc. They were dissatisfied. Thanks be to God that Willow Creek was willing to ask these questions (Which is why they’ve always been relevant previously and are cutting edge..they ask and change). So they started focusing more on Bible study. Then this month they did yet another shocking thing. They have done SEEKER services for the lost own weekends and WORSHIP on Wed. For 20-30 years they’ve done this. Now they are dropping all that and going to worship on Sundays and Bible and theology classes on Wed. Bravo to them!
I heard a youth minister speak on sat radio and he was talking about why the church was having no luck reaching youth. Youth are leaving the official churches in droves. The problem? You can’t do business as usual. It’s time to move past pizza and games. One youth leader said the time for games in youth room is over. They need Bible study. What they need is answers to questions. Enough games.
So I’m not sure what exactly each church must do but the start is to ask,
“ARE WE RELEVANT TO OUR COMMUNITY?” (not to CA, NY, but to OUR community)
“IF WE AREN’T HOW ARE WE IRRELEVANT?”
“WHAT WOULD WE HAVE TO DO TO BECOME RELEVANT?”
You and I have both been talking (in real life!) about these things and I too am glad to be in a church that I feel is willing to talk about this. I feel our church is relevant (despite their pastor!) and yet we need to look at how to be even more relevant! What does God ask of us?
Trendy stuff is not the route. I’m excited about discussions in church life about churches becoming local and developing their identity locally rather than from a box/kit. Write our own music! Write our own dramas! Do things in ways that work where we are!!!!!
What we are talking about is ‘contextual ministry’. L Tisdale wrote “Preaching as folk art” and it talks about exegesis not just for the scripture text but for the community the church resides. Most churches do a poor job of that. The pastor just does what he did in the last church (which won’t work) or what he/she got at a conference and recreates Saddle back, W Creek, C of the REss, etc. That doesn’t work. Churches look and see a growing church down the road and want to mimic them. That doesn’t work. Who is our church? What is our neighborhood? Etc.
That gets me excited!
I agree with you, Susie, that churches can loose their authenticity if they are merely doing things because it’s what everyone is doing. Some churches are making the switch from “traditional” to the PD model( or Willow Creek) and it seems they are growing, but not necessarily in the way they should. Broad but shallow would be my guess. Without an intentional effort at Spiritual Formation how could they deepen their faith?
My church is so far from what is “in” in terms of what’s trendy, yet this church has Presence. I don’t pretend to understand why, what happens on Sunday morning seems antiquated and very ritualistic, yet somehow an encounter with God HAPPENS. It’s a real event in the history of the week. He REALLY shows up at that service and I don’t think it has anything at all to do with the Priest, the denomination or US! The “trick” is that we aren’t navel gazing- thinking of ourselves. We simply enter a place and time set apart for God. A place quite different from our everyday lives and that gets my attention. The OTHERNESS is what wakes me up!
To be relevant,(to the world?) would mean to keep our eyes on people. Do they like us? Do we fit in? Do they want to hangout with us? This is leading people far from an encounter with God for the sake of “community”. Are we afraid if we aren’t relevant we’ll be ALONE? Gasp!! I doubt it because people are drawn together naturally and where people love God (authentically) others will want to join in.
I know of a church in town that seems to have an inkling of what needs to happen in their community in order to grow disciples of Christ. On the surface, they seem very trendy, but I’ve witnessed an undercurrent of deep spiritual seeking through studying and practicing the Spiritual Disciplines. They also encourage their people to get into Spiritual Formation groups (about4 people at most). I’ve been in such a group (2 of us) and it was quite rewarding in terms of getting really honest about my personal quest for God.
This is an effective way of building relationships that goes deeper than the small group/Sunday School experience. Like most churches, there is only a remnant that seeks a deeper sense of God’s presence. But it should at least be offered to congregants who want this sort of relationship.
I’m sure pastors recognize it’s a good idea to have a multi-layered approach to the whole relevancy thing. The more people are encouraged to develop their private lives with God (becoming relevant to Him- learning to think with God), the more prepared they will be to encounter Him on Sunday morning. Then the issues of “relevancy” in the style of worship will all melt away.
What about authenticity? The word is overused these days and it’s getting thread-bare, but I think it’s a good word -an important word, because the IDEA of it is vital to us individually and collectively. It’s a word about origins, truth, sincerity, faithfulness and mostly it speaks of reality. It is IS-NESS.
As we continue to see the glittering successes of the trendier churches, we seem to be loosing a sense of who we are. Even the most traditional churches are beginning to believe that glitter is pure gold. Is all that glitters gold? Are we called to be successful or faithful? (Mother Theresa)
The church seems like a child that enters the teen years and forgets who she is, in order to fit in. She is pierced, tatooed and has ear pods hanging out from underneath her purple hair as she dances with the world! She’s pushing so hard against her traditional upbringing and is running away from Home and God willing she’ll find she’s “lost in a dark wood”.
Maybe it’s too harsh to say, but I think the 21st century church has acute amnesia! She seems to have forgotten Christ’s Kingdom is not OF this world. If it were, the world would love us. HMMM!
A good whack on the head should get us back to Reality and diminished numbers could be the beginning of that searing pain that’s sure to follow.
I would say, in answering Dr. Hamby’s question of what a relevant church would look like, would be to educate children/adults on God- introducing them to the Person – God and then on who we are in relation to Him. Then answer the question of how do you live authentically in that relationship while you’re sitting in class at Amherst Co. HS, or waiting on your customer at Suntrust Bank, or typing out the bulletin for next weeks service,or scrubbing the toilet and changing diapers. And I would say stop sanitizing life. This is what gives the illusion of irrelevancy. At least be honest with your people that we are- paradoxically-a holy people living in a profane world. That means we’re in the muck up to our necks and life is very messy. No questions should be off limits and let the kids/adults feel free to hammer out their own faith without the fear of being judged. That’s what being AUTHENTIC is about. It’s getting your nails dirty to help someone out of the swinepit, because when you lean over you see your own mudcaked feet. None of us are clean yet. But don’t make the mistake of saying the mud is alright and we’ll all be muddy together. Go and sin no more is what the Master says. Wildly, He brings us into His glorious mission to the world without making us wait for perfection before we can get in on the action – our perfection/sanctification (not read salvation) is closely linked to our own dirty helping hands.
There is so much to say on this topic!