Thinking about church in changing times.

A lot has been said in recent years about the changing spiritual culture in the US and what it means to church life. I am not in a position to add much to the massive amount of writing that has accumulated on the subject, other than to offer my own pastoral observations.

There is a mountain of analysis of current trends in US church life. In 2015 Alan Roxburgh wrote that there is only a 10% chance that people you know who were born after 1984 will be in church on Sunday.* That was in 2015. Barna is reporting that only around 40% of GenZ and Millennials would prefer to return to in person worship after the Covid ordeal is past us. Obviously this means the majority do not want to return. Many expect that 20-30% of attenders lost during Covid will not return to their churches. If what looks true really is true, things are changing for evangelical churches in the US.

• My guess is that mega-churches will be less affected than smaller churches. The fewer people who are attending will find places that offer the "best program" for their marginal time investment.
• Small, rural churches consisting of a handful of local families who have lived in the area for generations will be largely unaffected unless members have to relocate for economic reasons.
• Mid-sized churches whose income is largely spent on overhead will have to make big decisions about how to proceed as both giving and growth drop.

So what is the opportunity for church impact today? Bottom line is that it is not what it once was. In my opinion, growing Christians will always be attracted to "church." That is part of what regeneration ignites in us (1 Jn. 3:14). But let's face it…many Christians are not growing. Some are stalled out in self-concern. Some have been hurt by other Christians or by the church. Some are entangled in the "affairs of this life" (2 Tim 2:4). I also think some younger believers are looking for something different than the church has been for a long time--so they don't tend to "try it out." At any rate, the trend--even for those who claim to believe--is away from church attendance. As far as outreach, big church events that used to lure people to church have not been working for some time. The idea of enticing people into a church service so the pastor can share the Gospel can no longer be our way to reach the world.

How do I see this affecting how we do church and what it means to move forward? I have a couple of thoughts. First, we should probably replace the old attractional programs with engagement events where we find ways to be in our community. Instead of only supporting missionaries we must learn to also be missionaries. At times this may mean taking our ministry to the streets. I am always thinking about what this means for FBC. Second, the way forward will have to be primarily personal, not institutional. The church was always intended to be for the believer and not as an attractional tool for those outside (Eph. 4:11-12; Heb. 10:25).** The believer is to be "out there" to minister to those in the neighborhoods and communities, then to come back to church for a recharge. A 2003 Barna survey noted that less than 4% of Americans hold a Christian worldview. Non-Christian America is generally not going to come to church to have its worldview challenged. Spiritual engagement will happen because committed church members realize their calling to do so and will personally connect with non-Christians.

Sometimes when I hear the statistics about how things are changing it is in a negative context. It is another reason for fear or a sense of future doom. I don't see it that way. The world is always changing--not just recently. As Christians our call is to be there as the world changes and offer a message that does not.

We can always do that.

 

*Roxburgh, Alan J. Joining God, Remaking Church, Changing the World: The New Shape of the Church in Our Time. Morehouse Publishing, 2015.

**The NT says virtually nothing about non-believers participating in a church context. 1 Cor. 14:16 mentions the need to communicate clearly so all can understand. The "outsider" observing the service in that passage refers either to a "layperson" or an uninformed person. It does not refer to a non-member or even an unbeliever (contra NIV, "inquirer"). The common translation "outsider" says more than Paul does here.