Matt Dabbs has done a great job of accumulating links to blogs discussing this article. Danny Dodd has also written on it and posted links to blogs discussing this article. So there’s a lot of huff and puff about this article, and I suppose their should be. My perspective on this (if anyone cares) is that it is simply old news. I would postulate that there are few readers of this blog who can say that their churches have grown via evangelism in the past few years. Swelling numbers because your church became the least disagreeable in town is not evangelism. I’d like to hear from those of you who can say that your baptisms exceeded your losses during the past few years. You have my admiration, if so. In other words, we already knew the truth on this matter. And I’d like to ask: why shouldn’t we be declining?
We are among the American Evangelical churches, and they’re all declining. The fairy-tale mega churches springing up out of nowhere to become filled with thousands of followers have become the trend setters and mentors we seek out. And the truth of the matter is that they are rare, not common. Most cannot be replicated. And we end up comparing ourselves to what might as well be a fictional representation of what our church ought to be.
We live in a culture that has exalted individualism and electronic reality. The online community (which I love) has for many people fostered a replacement of real relationships that require hard work, compassion, compromise, and tolerance. Now instead of an address book we have a contact list. Instead of having to struggle through the forging of friendships, we just form iRelationships. Virtual worlds such as Second Life become our primary lives. As someone quipped, I love my computer because all of my friends live there. We can nearly sustain our entire lives online nowadays. The keyboard has become our new front porch. Who needs a church when I can control my online world without the bother of real people?
Add to that fact that we in Churches of Christ have specialized for the past several decades in dissecting and destroying each other. Editors have been our bishops, papers have been our weapons of mass destruction, and nit picking each other’s efforts has led to general malaise and disinterest. The primary emphasis has been on us for so long now that we struggle to find time to relate to them. Those outside the church perish without ever hearing about Jesus.
The very thing that would save us is the one thing most of us seem to dread. Perhaps it’s not dread, it’s just intentional ignorance. We are not really looking for ways to talk to friends and neighbors about Jesus Christ. In years past we had fallen into the habit of talking about our church, as opposed to their church, supposing that if we rescued someone from denominationalism we had somehow taught them the gospel for the first time. Fine-tuning someone’s already present faith in Christ is only vaguely associated with the Great Commission, in my opinion.
There’s a whole world of people out there who have no knowledge of Christianity other than what they see and perceive from the media. That, unfortunately, is not a great resource of the truth. But it’s too easy to be overwhelmed in discussing the great vast lost world out there. There are some real basics that we need to practice. Prayer for the lost. Keeping a list of specific individuals we are attempting to share the gospel with. Being open to those who providentially are placed in our path.
But one has to question God’s role in growing the church. If our focus is on other churches and what they’re doing that’s right or wrong, then why would God bother placing someone in our path for some gospel teaching? (Some churches were left out of the aforementioned directory because they added an instrumental service – an editorial decision that has come under fire. Rightly so, in my opinion). If our focus is on our traditions and our time is spent fighting about what we can and cannot do in a worship service, who can do it, and how often it has to be done … would there be any use in putting a seeker in our path? How many Christians are ready to share the gospel of Christ with someone, if given opportunity?
That, to me, is the big story here. The Chronicle article says that the acappella Churches of Christ have “1,578,281 adherents nationwide”. Well now, over a million people could make a sizable difference if they all set their minds and hearts to something couldn’t they? I would say that if you had 100 people in a local congregation … and they all did something as simple as inviting one person each week to come to the assembly with them, enough interest could be stirred throughout the year to generate a lot of evangelism! We’re not waiting on the preachers to save the world are we? I hope not. I am one … and I’m here to tell you … that would be a bad plan.
My two cents? This is news we already knew. I’m glad the Chronicle ran it. I think there are pretty simple solutions to it all. In spite of our cultural mileau we are all still people. People have basic needs. Loving lost people enough to show them the love of Christ is key. Adding music will not add love. Adding power point will not add joy. Adding the newest hippest trend will not make sour Christians sweet. It doesn’t matter if one man thinks you belong in his directory or not. It’s all about Jesus and letting Him shine through us. OK, maybe that’s four cents!
Thanks for reading! Your response is welcomed.
Great post, John.
Now the Australian culture might be very different but inviting people to come along to an assembly just doesn’t get any response here in Australia, at least not from me so far. The unchurched are just not interested and don’t see any relevance at all for themselves, even those who readily acknowledge that my life has been changed by an encounter with Christ.
Brother John,
Well said! I often find myself uninterested in the bone of contentions that come from the fight within our bodies. You asked one extremely important question:” If our focus is on other churches and what they’re doing that’s right or wrong, then why would God bother placing someone in our path for some gospel teaching? ” I find too many who claim to have obeyed the gospel, really don’t know what the gospel is. How do I know this? I am not proud to admit that I never knew what the gospel was until I was over 30. And that is when it radically changed my life. And that is why Philemon vs. 6 has become my prayer and message. Hopefully those 1 million plus will “get it”.
Thanks, Wendy, for an international perspective. An invitation could be to anything related to Jesus. I read one time of a lady who read a chapter of the Bible each day and invited friends to join her for coffee and her Bible reading. They read aloud. This created occasion for discussion and questions that was quite unexpected. We must, like Jesus, stand at the door and knock…in whatever way we can.
Thanks Tucker … appreciate your testimony and prayer.
Great post John.
I have said plenty on this subject already as you know. So I’ll just make one point and move on. You mentioned “love”, “loving lost people enough to SHOW them the love of Christ is key”. Well said. Far too often our focus is growing our local congregation, or putting numbers on a board.
We should be loving people unconditionally while looking for an opportunity to share the good news with them. Then when God does His work should we really care about who gets the credit? Our chuches are not in a competition.
Sure some folks do stuff I don’t like. They sing songs I don’t prefer, sometimes even at my own congregation. But in this I want to be like Paul and respond like he did when there were reports some preaching for the wrong motives. He said “Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.” And so do I!
One cuppers, Methodists, Calvinists, Pentecostals, Nazerine……. I only want to know one thing, are they preaching Christ? Are the telling folks what He has done for them? Are the making a fuss about Him? If they are I will rejoice and I’m for them. If they are preaching the traditions of men and church I’m not for that and pray that they change and start preaching Christ and Him crucified, risen, and coming again.
Royce
You made a lot of important points, John. Thanks for writing.
Just a few more logs to throw on the fire:
1. Several years ago, I realized that I’m not in contact with that many non-believers, and that if I want to have any influence on non-believers, I have to be out and among them. That’s not as easy as it sounds or as comfortable as it might seem.
2. Making our churches more attractive to outsiders can be effective, but only if it’s authentic. Two big pieces of this: removing barriers that are off putting, and showing the love of Jesus to everyone.
I can’t remember who said it, but I love the thought that the warm glow in church windows fueled by church members flaming each other turns out to not be very attractive to outsiders.
I am glad to say that we are a growing church at Northwest. God is front and center in our teaching, preaching, and worship. We have people who are learning to be mission minded and who are willing to study the Bible with and invite non-Christians. Last year we added roughly 100 people through baptism or placing membership. A few of those were people from other congregations but a good many of those were not. Over the last two years we have gone from having a dozen active members between the ages of 18 and 35 to having 6 dozen. And they want to serve. They want to reach the lost. They want to make a difference.I don’t say any of that to brag. If any of you know me you know this isn’t a brag at all. I say all of that to give God glory and to remind us that God is still at work and there is still hope. I regularly meet people who are seeking God or at least something more in their lives. We just have to do a better job of consistently and tirelessly pointing people in the right direction.
The saddest part in all of what is happening is this – the world is seeking and we are failing to provide answers because we haven’t yet learned that arguing with each other will NEVER save the lost. I can understand a decline in our numbers if the world at large could care less about spiritual matters. But it seems to me people are trying to get more tuned in than ever to something bigger than themselves and we are failing to tap the infinite resource of people all around us who actually want to know God! That is a shame. If we shut God out and continue in dead, lifeless worship services and have a membership that thinks its mission is to show up for 1 hour a week, of course we are going to die!
Royce, I appreciate your wisdom always.
Jim, great point about intentionally being in touch with nonbelievers.
Matt, thanks for shining a light in the right direction. God be praised!
Very well articulated John. Your two cents worth is worth a lot in the economy of the church and this overall discussion.
It is simple- just go and tell what the Lord has done for you. (I believe this was even a mandate of Jesus)
Too often our approach has been to go and tell others what we feel like they need to go and do for the Lord.
YES! Now that’s what I’m talkin about!
THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKIN ABOUT!!!!
that’s why you are the blog king.
well done. well said.
thanks
Whoa! When I write things like this, I just bring out the ire in people who never want to hear or read anything that might be called “church bashing.” But you’ve hit the nail squarely on the head. I was raised in the churches of Christ. Married a preacher’s daughter from our brotherhood. Taught on the college level in one of “our” schools. Went to “our” Bible schools from sixth grade through graduate school. Preached for three different congregations over a 30-year period. Raised our children in our faith. Today? None of us are still worshiping with churches of Christ. You hit on one of the main reasons. Thanks for writing what many of us think.
Pingback: It’s Never Going to Stop, Is It? « And Another Thing…
Romans 8 describes creation as being in bondage while waiting for the revealing of the sons (and of course, daughters) of God. And Paul adds that like the creation we, too, groan inwardly as we await the adoption and redemption of our bodies. I say that to suggest that the church is supposed to be revealing itself as the sons and daughters of God as soundings of what is yet to come in the new creation. It was my experience that the “Churches of Christ” did more to keep the children of God in bondage than to provide a common liberating experience. There’s something degrading and dehumanizing about the legalistic and institutional church which will not allow the sons of God to be revealed. Our churches make us less human rather than more human. If evangelical churches in general, and churches of Christ in particular, were a massive garden plowed and freshly planted, then the broken structures, with their pride-filled hunger for social standing and superiority, are like a thick layer of concrete poured on top of the whole thing. Underneath the crushing weight of it is creation–the apex of creation; God’s children–suffocating and stiffled by a worldview that has yet to get it’s mind around what God is really up to.
But there are cracks in the concrete. And where a little light gets in, there is hope!
Ben Overby
Thanks Danny.
Brain, you kill me.
Greg, I hope it doesn’t look like church bashing. Thank you for your testimony, I believe it helps us … and I certainly wish you blessings on your faith journey.
Ben, you always leave me with so much to think about. I’m glad you’re still reading. I miss being in touch with you.
John,
Amen to your post!!!
Ben Overby,
I like your analogy. I am thankful that from where I sit, there seems to be more and more cracks forming every day.
Grace and peace,
Rex
Yep! (how’s that for few words from a preacher?). I’ll add “Amen!” just for effect!
if my wife had an addiction or believed a terrible heresy, i would want people to point that out and do what they could to help…
I doubt Jesus is real upset with what many call “church bashing/Bride-bashing”.
most people are, in reality, offended that their sacred cows are being publicly slaughtered
For a group that shout autonomy we sure get stirred up about membership “lists”.
If we are not relevant and showing Jesus to our community we are just another social group, with or without Powerpoint and praise teams…..We seem to have forgotten how to keep Jesus as the focus of our mission, and we need to quit worrying about others who may do it a little differently. If they are preaching Jesus, we should be for them….
But, you already said that…so much better than me. I will join Brian in crowning you as Blog King!
well said.
While your changing titles to be more clear, you might want to edit “christian blogs” to “Church of Christ blogs” in your first sentence…just a thought. :-)
I’ve taken a beating as a perceived “progressive” this week (or at least as a dissenter). This morning I had a really bad exchange with a brother in Brazil. I’m fed up.
http://tinyurl.com/dxjbm3
Ben Overby,
I am still waiting on your video messages. I’m talking well done and to the point. You have a gift brother with words and how you communicate that a lost generation needs to hear and IMO will listen to.
Give me an email and I could show you what I am talking about. Maybe you are already doing this and if so I’m waiting to see what it looks like.
John I hope you don’t mind me using your blog for this but I have lost track of Ben.
Thanks.
Hey JD, if I may hijack your blog for just a brief instant, I am hoping Ben Overby might contact me at bobby.ross@christianchronicle.org if he’s following these comments. Louisville Courier-Journal is trying to track down a photo of Ben’s regarding the baptism of Steven Green.
Darin,
You were always a tremendous encouragement! Maybe during the 15 years I spent in ministry I was always speaking to the wrong generation! : ). At the end of the day, I felt the work I was trying to do for God in His kingdom was a frustrating failure. Rather than blame the “audience” I have to assume I simply wasn’t effective as a “full-time preacher.” I miss working with “words,” so I write a newsletter for our organization and hope to one day pick up the pen again. In our medical practice it’s my great joy to help the staff understand what it means to be truly human, to treat each other with dignity, etc. In essence I’m trying to slip a bit of kingdom into the life of our group by teaching values such as truth, knowledge, integrity, justice, honesty, kindness, vulnerability and passion (as foundational values). If anything, I’d like to visit with Christian groups and talk in practical terms about how to pray about and experience the ever-coming kingdom in the ordinary corners of our lives—especially the work place and family. I work a 4.5 day work week and would like to spend a few of those long weekends teaching about Jesus to folks who are up for a challenge and a stretch.
I’ve seen your videos. That’s a genre in which you excell. Keep up the good work for the sake of God’s glory!
Ben
boverby@southeasterncardiology.net
As always John … well said. Straight to the point. Thanks for allowing all the feedback and comments.
if my wife were driving towards a bridge that was out, i would hope lots of people would be yelling and waving their hands at her.
i wouldn’t be upset with any of them…
Could it be that the churches are not growing because the individuals inside of them are not growing??? Power points and praise teams are just tools to be used with people in a church. They hold no special power; Christians have the access to the Holy Spirit which has to be working in us. I find that people will spend hours debating sports (which I love) or the latest American Idol episode or fill in the blank scenario and give rare thoughts on blessing the people that Jesus sends into our lives each day. I know I fall into that trap many days. I am the church and I am failing miserably many days. Sidebar: I find more spiritual imperatives to covering my hair in church than I ever have found to avoid instrumental music.
John, This very article was discussed here in Mesa, AZ at the We Care Campaign before we went out on the streets to knock doors and share the gospel with those in the area. The different reasons for the decline in attendance/membership was also discussed. We alla greed that it comes down to a one on one thing. One person, me, can make a difference. I don’t have to wait for a “program” to share the gospel with someone else. I can do it and then teach them how to share with someone else and keep the ball rolling. Take the responsibility yourself and not wait for the preacher, elder or Bible teacher….be the one to set the example and GO Teach the GOSPEL.
Love,
Linda
A great look at this article. I loved the line “The primary emphasis has been on us for so long now that we struggle to find time to relate to them.” This is a big reason behind the decline. There is great hope for the church, and I have faith that the future will be brighter than the past.
http://www.matthewmorine.com
what is really sad is that some brothers are probably reading all these blogs and taking names, making a list and checking it twice, hastening another 1906 “official split”
I am afraid that one of the problems facing the churches of Christ is a cultural issue within the body. As one of the 3 streams of the American Restoration Movement the community has historically largely been built by “sheep stealing”, that is encounter Christ confessors and convince them that what is offered is more closely aligned with scripture. Encountering non-believers has not been a major element.
When I was in youth group three decades ago I was trained how to deftly deal with Baptists, Methodists, and Catholics but not non-believers.
Went off to college and the student Church of Christ center was very insular and focused on keeping us out of beer laden fraternity houses but unless you wandered in on your own after seeing he sign on the building you would never have a reason to be there because inviting people wasn’t part of the plan.
After college started attending a fairly large congregation and quickly discovered out of the 35+ in our younger adult class only three of us had attended a public university and my wife and I were the only people in the class who had not grown up in that congregation or married someone who grew up in the congregation.
It was a Noah’s Ark congregation, had what they wanted on board an no room for anyone else. After five years of teaching youth classes and working VBS we sat in our Sunday School class one day and listened to everyone gush and thank another couple for hosting “Our Sunday School class party” the night before. That was our last day there.
As we bounced around seeking a home, we discovered our experience wasn’t uncommon. Somehow along the way not only was evangelism lost but so was simple hospitality with other believers. We kept hearing sermons on the “distinctives” of the church and few about what God is offering us. We would hear sermons and read bulletins calling out the “change agents” in neighboring congregations.
The culture has changed but the message of Christ’s hope resonates when it is heard. More will be receptive now as they are burdened by a failing economy but it is the message of Christ they want to hear. They don’t care why there is no piano, I’ve been involved with a church plant that actually brought new people to Christ and it was rarely asked and a simple explanation of that’s our heritage and tradition sufficed. People don’t care why communion every week is better than monthly or quarterly they just want to learn and experience the depth and wealth of meaning contained in communion. Immersive baptism has in my experience only been an issue with people raised and baptized in a non-immersive tradition.
The fields are ready for harvest if anyone is ready to go out and work.
Mark,
Amen.
Thanks everyone for great replies.
Jayme’s point about all of the individuals growing and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide is excellent… I think Jayme ought to have a blog actually.
Mark, great perspective there.
I appreciate all the input…it is an important topic.
The problem is the Churches of Christ are nothing but another denomination. Yes over 100 years ago our fellowship started out to return to simple Christianity, but got bog down along the way. We “convert” people to our way of thinking and traditions, not to Jesus Christ. We also spend all of our time trying to get people into our buildings. Jesus didn’t tell us to bring them in, he said “GO” into all the world. We need to be out amoung the lost, living and talking Jesus. I am 50 years old, and grew up Church of Christ. In fact my father who is 75 years old is still a CofC preacher. But it wasn’t Church of Christ doctrine that has helped me overcome my horrible sin choices in the past. It never will. It was Jesus Christ and Him crucified that set me free. That is the principle we have lost in our fellowship and is what the lost are desperately seeking.
John: No, I didn’t in any way take this blog as church bashing. Nor did I intend my articles in the past to be taken as such, but they always seemed to be taken that way.
It is so good to hear from Ben Overby again. I really miss his blogs!! He has a lot to say to all of us, and says it with the heart of a Christ-follower. Maybe a frustrated one, but a Christ-follower nonetheless.
I read Mark’s “journey” and felt a lot of the same thing in my journey. It’s not just the churches of Christ who can act that way.
This was a good post that elicited a lot of good comments. Thanks for the venue, John.
How many churches have had this discussion? We live in a country that is blessed with affluence that leads to several other behaviors. We are drunk with time. We have the capacity to often care for all our own physical needs. We have vast amounts of entertaining diversions. Combined with the rugged individualism that founded and developed this nation, the less we need other people, the better we feel about ourselves.
Science has declared that it has the answers to where we came from and it asserts that poor education is the cause of poverty, hunger, and violence in the world. And government is consistently proposed as the answer to these problems. Where does this world view find a need for other people? How does God solve a problem? Why should our neighbors be inconvenienced by our needs? To do that would be shameful.
If anything, the church can afford to bicker about foolish and relatively trivial matters because humanity in our corner of the world has a shortage of real matters of survival.
Do we give up and wait for a crisis? No. But we can’t reinvent the church either. I propose that is what the megachurches have done. In fact, the churches have either become the needy neighbor rather than the pillar that lends strength or the institutional center of spiritual services. There is also a deep skepticism in American culture by those that have had little or no connection with spirituality that Christianity is some sort of scheme to get their money or otherwise entrap the mind.
I believe Christians need to focus on knowing what we believe and why we believe it. We need to invite people to our homes before we invite them to the church. Let them see our lives as examples of what Christ is to us. We need to stop changing the church to fit modern cultures and fads. The church as it is, and was, is meant to deal with the basic needs and truths of humanity. This is best met first by another human reaching out and inviting a person into their life, not necesarily a church building. By making it personal and showing people that we are real people that go home and do real things we can overcome the skepticism.
Nathan