Sunday I attended the closing worship service for a mainline protestant church in a busy part of the city. Certainly it had ceased to grow and the number of participants had declined but that was not because the church was not needed. It was because the church was not being presented in a way that is relevant to people of the 21st century.
This church was start in 1948 and was a church that grew just by inviting people to come. The main way the church related to the community was simply by having worship and Sunday School classes on Sunday mornings. You gained new people by simply inviting them and it worked! Churches grew all over the country by doing this. However, times have changed! The old techniques can work for some but not for most people today. The old techniques simply do not cut through all the cultural changes in this century. I’ve found that in order to help contemporary people find Jesus Christ in their life, they need to not just hear about it but to experience that life changing power. They need to experience the ministry and love that Jesus taught.
In the 10th chapter of Luke, Jesus made it clear that, to be his follower, we must care for and love other people. We must be like the Good Samaritan and stop and help. Churches today have given up that Good Samaritan ministry and too often just opted for having worship. Worship in some churches is stable and acceptable, in some it is profound and exciting, and in some it is entertaining. However most of the approach to worship today is still out of the 1954 model --singing the hymn and songs and saying the scripture. This is just not reaching new people!
The tragedy is that the best way to reach new people is by communicating the basic message of the gospel -- that being a follower of Jesus Christ allows you to be successful and happy. It works, but we have to deliver the message not in a guilt-driven pattern but in a way that shows how the gospel of Jesus Christ helps all of us in every day of our life. It help us do parenting better, it helps young adults work through major adjustments, it helps retired people put their lives together after they no longer have a vocation, etc.
It is time for the Church to do ministry that reaches out and really helps people where they hurt, just as the Good Samaritan illustrates. We have to emphasize the results of following Jesus Christ. When people experience the love of Christ in their lives, they want to know more and want to spread that experience to others as well. This is how the church will bring new people to Christ today. All of the worship, programming and ministry of any church must flow out of that understanding and that mission.
What seems evident to me about the problem of keeping the church relevant, is the rigid structure and conservatism to put it mildly. The issue and discussion of the form of how worship should be performed belong to yesterday. in my perspective. What is needed, to awake a new image of what the whole concept of being church stands for, is a lot more complexed issue. To take steps in that direction - to change the prejudice in the peoples mind about what church is, takes initiative from the leadership in every church. If the leadership does not take action, and involve the churchgoer and member of the congregation to be part of chosing a new structure that appeals to the community outside the church, then the single member must consider to take his or hers own decision of what the destiny of the future church should look like.
ReplyDeleteDear Bob;
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed reading your messages from time to time and have likewise enjoyed responding a couple of times.
Nothing beats an invitation. Most people attend a church because of the active influence of another. This has been true for as long as surveys and records have been kept on the question.
There is another question - that is, "Toward what or to what will we invite them?" We United Methodists have an important distinction in our Christian identity that is many times ignored as we invite people.
We are committed to the reality of human responsibility and human fulfillment in our most primitive documents and in our fundamental ways of thinking.
These are important because they meet human needs in an ever changing culture. People are responsible for their lives - God is powerful but people are too. The concept of Free Will is not as important an idea in some denominations and in others is not believed at all. Our traditions affirm this freedom and it is an important part of our "Brand" that is many times neglected.
Furthermore, the idea of sanctification, or human spiritual development is essential to the fullness of the Methodist "Brand". People can grow, change, develop in the power of the Holy Spirit and have the responsibility to do so. Freedom and Responsibility are lacking in many parts of our culture, many are frustrated by that reality and need to hear a message of grace and love accompanied by a resolute commitment to both freedom and responsibility.
The United Methodist Church will do well to be sensitive and aware of the culture but not in an attempt to adapt to it, but rather to minister to it. We have an effective pattern in Wesley's teachings.
Prevenient Grace, Justification, Sanctification and Glorification are still needful in the human experience. Let's remember who we are and present these truths in pertinent manner to a culture that needs them.
What do you think?
Roger
<>< RGW
This quote from the article caught my eye. "The tragedy is that the best way to reach new people is by communicating the basic message of the gospel -- that being a follower of Jesus Christ allows you to be successful and happy."
ReplyDeleteThis sounds more like a marketing tool that the basic message of the Gospel and very close to prosperity theology. I don't find come follow Jesus Christ to become successful and happy in the NT.
The gospel is always relevant. What I see much of in the name of being relevant is the creation of a consumer church that is in danger of loosing its soul in seeking to win the world via various gimmicks that entice and entertain.
If we want the church to be relevant then we need to build from a solid biblical and theological foundation that disciples a congregation into a Christian body using biblical guidelines not family systems theory or church growth business techniques. We act as if the Bible and theology have nothing to do with it to our own failure and then we are surprised that less than 1% of churches in America grow primarily by conversion growth in their net growth.
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