Declining Churches: Why Are We Surprised?

I was saddened by the recent article in Christian Chronicle about the decline in Churches of Christ. (You can register at www.christianchronicle.org and view it online. The article probably will be available without registering at some point, but is not at this writing.)

What saddens me is not the decline, although it does to some extent, but that is no surprise. Anyone who is very involved at all in our fellowship has to have known this for years. What bothered me the most were the comments by some of the people who were interviewed. For example, a preacher from Houston described visiting churches where there were few or no children, which is a good indication that a church is on the ropes. His comment: "This should be a wake-up call...to share our faith more actively."

Isn't that a lot like telling people on the Titanic to row faster? The problem I humbly observe with so many Churches of Christ is not a lack of desire to share their faith. I don't mean to sound judgmental, but in my opinion the problem is that their version of the faith is not worth sharing. In so many Churches of Christ there is a fundamental flaw that makes those churches unsustainable.

Having grown up in small rural churches (sometimes rural in mindset even though they were located in cities), I can look back and see that flaw. Before I share my perspective on it, I first want to say that I was blessed to be surrounded by some of the most wonderful people in the world during those years. Seeds were planted in me that later would make an invaluable contribution to my life. But all of those churches fit the category of being in decline. They all are just rowing along, not so merrily. Some are listing so badly that you wonder how much longer they will stay afloat.

The flaw in my spiritual heritage was a misplaced center of faith. We believed that the way to have access to God was through a correct understanding of the Bible. What many churches have thankfully come to see is that the way to have access to God is through a relationship with Jesus. The Bible is a means to that end, not the end itself. Besides being theologically incorrect, one of the reasons I see such an approach as being unsustainable is that it robs the Bible of its purpose and power. I'll give you an example.

I remember enough from those years to recall that the majority of sermons I heard were on doctrinal issues. That makes sense, because if the way we get to God is through correct understanding of Scripture, we need to address the misunderstandings that are out there. So I knew a lot about what the Bible had to say about doctrinal issues. (I no longer agree with a lot of those teachings, but that's another post.) The problem was that when it came time for me to decide what kind of person I was going to be and whether or not God was going to be a factor in those decisions, knowing what the Bible said about baptism, or instrumental music, or a long list of other matters that made up the typical repertoire of sermons had absolutely no impact. I failed miserably, in part because the faith that had been instilled in me didn't do what I needed it to do. It couldn't. So, it's no wonder that such churches are in decline. Who wants a faith like that?

I don't want to give the impression that I think those churches were and are devoid of the presence of God. I can see where you might think that. In my mind, I see it as a journey. Sometimes we got off course and are not traveling in the direction God would have us go. It's not that we're rebelliously running away, we're just off course. Map readers like Ruell Lemmons, Rubel Shelley, and many others helped point this out. Other map readers like Jim Woodroof and Max Lucado helped us get reoriented. A lot of us chose to make course corrections, some of us did not.

So I hope that a lot of those churches that are in decline will find a better solution than "We need to try harder." I'm not anticipating it, but I hope they will look deeper than that and see where they might have veered off course. I also hope that the rest of us are not through making course corrections. I suspect those are going to be required until the journey is over. Perhaps the verse I share in the heading of this blog from Ps. 85 will help us.