A recent article in USA Today noted the beginnings of the decline of the mega church. The top two largest churches declined in attendance over the previous year. An even more disturbing observation is in the area of spiritual transformation. According to the article:
Experts see more troubling concerns than slowing growth: No measurable inroads on overall church attendance and signs that many churchgoers are spectators, not driving toward a deeper faith.
“You can create a church that’s big, but is still not transforming people. Without transformation, the Christian message is not advanced,” says Ed Stetzer, head of Lifeway Research in Nashville, which did the Outreach study.
The unchurched remain untouched. While the number of people who say they attend at least once a week hovers around 30% year after year, the number who say they “never” go to church climbs.
The article’s author, on her USA Today blog about the article, made this observation:
But they see a worrisome number of people who come to church the way they go to a movie or concert. A little entertainment, a little something to think about and then it’s time to move back to real life.
The church, these pastors say, should be a place where people are transformed.
I want to say: “Well of course that is what they want. That’s what the seeker church community, the consumeristic and attractional church, did to try to reach people. They expect a show because we developed a show to reach them.” As Matt Casper said in Jim and Casper Go to Church, “Is this really what Jesus told you guys to do?”
Bob Roberts in his book Multiplication, says that in the past year over 1,000 churches that have over 1,000 people in attendance were started over the past ten years. Yet church attendance is on the decline.
So what might the church begin to look like over the next 25-50 years in the United States? I see the day when it will become more communities of faith. The house church will be the dominant structure of the church. It will be the first century all over again. If that is the case, what do we need to have built into the DNA of our churches now?
Apologetic Theology
We have spent so much time preaching the pragmatic that we have not taught theology. As a result, people know about what the Bible says about your money, but can’t answer a thing about why God allows for suffering and evil. The church is going to have to rediscover theology, and in doing so, rediscover it in a apologetic manner. We are going to have to give a reason for our Faith.
Church Leadership
Steve Addison has noted that from 1929 to 1990, average church size of SBC churches doubled. From 1929-1950, SBC seminaries trained 10,000 people. From 1950 to 1990, they trained 60,000 people. Yet 1950 was the year the SBC began growing at a decreasing rate, resulting in a total membership decline this year. While this does not demonstrate causation, a case could be made for correlation. In other words, churches began to hire professional clergy to do everything, and in doing so saw membership drop.
Addison also notes that the growth of the church in the Western frontier of the US resulted from the Baptist and Methodist, groups known for the empowerment and release of the laity.
With declining membership and smaller churches, professional clergy will decline and there will be fewer and fewer jobs for clergy. People called into ministry will continue their jobs in banking, food services, engineering, and other service and industry sectors. As a result, there will be less titles and less distinction between clergy and laity. It won’t be the job of the “preacher” any more. It will be the responsibility of the community of faith.
It will not be the clergy that lead a renewal movement in the USAmerican church.
Theological Education
The reduced availability for professional clergy will mean the closure of seminaries. This means theological education will become more decentralized and more indigenous and organic. It will be contextual theology, with the communities of Faith, empowered and led by the Spirit, doing theology together.
Third Spaces
One of the things I learned from some time in Barcelona is that people there were hesitant to invite you into their homes. That was very personal and intimate. They would, however, hang out in bars, coffee shops, pubs, etc and talk about spiritual things.
Communities of Faith are going to have to become entrepreneurial. While it is still easy to invite people into your home here in the States, there may not come a time when people will not want to discuss spiritual things in a home. Churches need to consider transforming their buildings into third spaces: places other than home and work where people gather and discuss life and develop relationships. Turn the buildings into community centers, diners, cafes, book stores, coffee shops, theaters, and other kinds of relational environments. These will be more neighborhood driven, not regional.
Ironically, this becomes a contemporary expression of first century church. And if we let the Spirit lead as it led time period’s communities of Faith, we may be able to see a revival come to our land.
