Why Have We Stopped Growing?

Some argue that the total membership within Churches of Christ in the United States is declining. With no denominational structure to keep the data it is very difficult to say for certain; however, Mac Lynn keeps good records on us and he says, “The numbers are so close, that it is almost too close to call. I think we’re at least safe in saying that the numbers are plateaued.” (Christian Chronicle, June 3, 2002). Whether we’re declining or at a plateau may be debatable; what is crystal clear is that we are no longer growing.

Between 1945 and 1965 the number of congregations of Churches of Christ in the United States nearly doubled. Between 1965 and 1990 our growth slowed considerably. Since 1990 we have experienced the plateau that Lynn talks about.

In the 1980’s the Southern Baptist Convention set a goal of planting 3 new congregations per day worldwide during the decade of the 90’s. They completely revamped their missions approach and set to work. At the end of the decade they discovered that they had actually planted 5 new congregations per day for a total of some 18,000 new congregations worldwide. An estimate for Churches of Christ during that same period reveals that we planted 300 new congregations in the United States with 2 out of every 3 of those being the result of church splits rather than a design for intentionally planting new churches.

Theories abound as to why we have stopped growing. Mine is that we have lost our sense of identity. We no longer attack the denominations because we don’t want the terrible reputation and un-Christ-like disposition that goes along with that. But, we’ve also stopped presenting the distinctive nature of the church to the world. And, we’ve raised up an entire generation that does not know how to make disciples of Jesus Christ (or even think that it’s an integral part of faithful discipleship).

I pray that this generation can recapture the zeal for presenting Christ to a dying world without resurrecting the mean-spirited attitude that came with attacking denominational Christianity. As a fellowship, our survival is at stake.

More important, the lives of human beings are at stake.

 

What if We Did Church Jesus’ Way?

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”

“… as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

I’ve never understood how we, self-designated followers of Christ, can be so blind. By Holy Decree He sends us into the world. The reason is obvious—the world is loath to come to us.

And yet, even after all the preaching on the Great Commission (“Go into all the world …”) that goes on within the four walls of the Church House, we still stubbornly cling to our modus operandi: “invite them to come to church.”

What if we did church Jesus’ way? What if instead of welcoming believers to sit on pews as spectators of religious ceremony, we sent them out into the world? No coats, no money, no plans—just a mission and a message. And our assembling together was not about us but, rather, about God’s work in the world through us?

What if we trained people for ministry in similar fashion? Instead of pulling them out of the world and sending them away from the church to learn about God from a book, what if we sent them into the world out of the church to learn about God from firsthand experience?

Instead of spending days in classrooms they could spend nights on the streets. The clear message would be that God does not live in Seminaries or churches; God lives in the world. The church exists so that people have a place to try and make sense of their experience of the divine in the world, as well as a community to support them while they are learning.

What if people were invited to church in order to tell of what they already know about God rather than to learn what they are supposed to believe about God? What if they were honored for what they were already doing in the world for God rather than chastised for what they are not doing within the church? What if the church saw its role as moving people out the door instead of trying to keep them in? What if sermons were designed to convince people that God needed them more out in the world than He does inside the four walls of a church building?

What if all this (and perhaps more) happened? Well, then I believe we would be doing church Jesus’ way.

This Post was inspired by, and some of the thoughts were adapted from, the book Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor (New York: Harper San Francisco, 2006).