it started last week when i was watching the today show. matt lauer was quietly peering through the door of a buddhist temple. the monks, quietly chanting. matt left his shoes at the door to respect the sacred space, and took a step or two in.
“it’s nothing like anything you’ll ever see,” he said.
a friend sent me some stats. it confirmed what i was questioning.
the mainline protestant church is NOT REALLY growing.
from the report:
Mainline Protestant denominations continued to decline, according to the 2006 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. The United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Church of Christ, all reported slight decreases in membership in 2005. For the first time in many years, the Southern Baptist Convention, a conservative evangelical denomination, also showed a decrease of 1 percent.
i am by NO MEANS a historian, or a theologian. but from what i’ve read, other, non-protestant religious sects are growing much faster than protestants.
so then i wonder…what are we doing differently?
my gut reaction came kind of easy…too easy…so that is why i wanted to run it by you.
none of these other faiths are really “modernizing church” the way the west is doing it. (and please humor me; this is just me wondering out loud rather than any stance i am taking).
when we (the modern, western church) are blending into our culture by appearances, other religions still keep to many of their sacred traditions, even to the point where it does not make sense at all.
but the christian church is barely scrapping by statistically…the growth has come to a near-screeching halt, and less people are hearing about their one true love.
your thoughts??
[PS – this is simply going off statistics. this is not a reflection on spiritual growth. we’ll save that topic for a rainy day!]
Comments
65 responses to “the decline of christianity??”
troubling
I think that the church (at large) has become ingrown. We focus more on the believers and the “already convinced” than we do on those Christ has called us to serve.
Brad Ruggles
http://www.bradruggles.com
i think the probably is that we’re not actually creating culture … we’re adapting to it. it began as a movement that shaped culture and we’re seeing a plateau (i believe) because we aren’t really coming up with something new … something that hasn’t been done before. people are looking for hope and that isn’t easy to find when when our faith communities wear cultural camouflage.
I think that we have bought into the flash and forgotten the bang (the REALLY REALLY RIDICOULOUSLY BIG BANG). That started it all…you know the Gospel…and not the teaching of the Gospel, but the sharing and the living of the Gospel. We put a lot responsibility on the shoulders of our pastors to “make us better Christians.” The truth is they can’t…we have to make choices as people outside the four walls of church. That’s how we change and create culture.
Maybe the problem is we spend so much time arguing with each other people walk away.
Maybe be problem lies in our own hypocrisy.
But doesn’t it seem like the Western churches that have the most traditional approach (i.e. not modernizing or trying to become culturally relevant) are the ones growing the least?
this is just a thought … now you’ve got me thinking … shouldn’t we less concerned with growth and more concerned with the fact that radical transformation isn’t taking place in our cities (especially the cities that have a church on every corner). i’ve always wondered that …
I think this is a cultural anomaly. Americans are becoming more and more non-committal. Churches that are growing ARE reaching outside the walls and are becoming examples to other churches and inspiring them to do the same. I tend to think that churches are growing, just not in memberships because of the non-commitment factor. I don’t think it is nearly as bad as this makes it sound.
I think these stats are based on membership roles and not actual booties in the seats. I could be wrong, but Ill choose to be optimistic.
We left congregational church 3 years ago and started doing church with just local friends who want to be organized enough to serve Jesus. We reached out to other churches in the USA to find roommates for our house… over 30 churches. We were met with anything from skepticism to yawns here by Western Evangelical churches. Mostly we NO RESPONSE.
So we reached out to internationals on Craigslist — and were swarmed by Christians who found what we do natural and intuitive.Our conversation went something like this:
Int. folk: “duh…everybody does church like this”.
Us: “Not here they dont…most church people think we”re strange”
Int. folk: {confused look} How sad.
How sad indeed. Most of the time I think we create a lot of “church stuff” so the “church staff” can get paid..to do the work of “the church people”…do we REALLY need all this stuff to do church..
or do we just need all this stuff to PLAY church?
I’d say the numbers speak loud and clear.
i think it’s b/c slowly the church has become more inwardly focused. like, what class, study, picnic, group can i attend? it ends up becoming one big country club that doesn’t reach out to the community and truly serve others.
On a much less theological note, I got two words to explain this: birth control.
I really don’t think other religions (i.e. Mormons, Buddhists, Muslim, etc.) are doing a better job of evangelizing than the Christian church as much as they are birthing more children to fill their ranks. Just an observation.
Interestingly enough the fastest growing Christian sect is Christian orthodox…which is highly traditional in nature…
This may be secondary to the overall idea, but I wonder if some of the larger denominations are losing their numbers for different reasons. I know that the PCUSA is declining as churches leave to join other smaller Presbyterian denominations, because of some of the stances the PCUSA has made on homosexual ministers, etc.
It would be interesting to see if there is more of a diversification happening in denominations.
ok…that last one by Kyle made me laugh outloud!
Speaking of birth control, did anyone catch Saturday Night Live’s “commericial” for Seasonale? If not, check it out at http://www.hulu.com – it’s hilarious!
And moldy…you’re welcome! ;)
i’ve heard many times that the mormon cult is the fastest growing in the world. i think it’s pretty traditional and all – except that you get to be god if you want to.
i’ve wondered what draws so many people to the mormons and i just don’t know – what IS the positive that draws so, so many?
i do know that fast growing or not – we don’t need to follow that model, but we can learn something I’m sure.
many of you only see the church from 30 and under eyes. i lived the late 60-and 70’s in a SB church – suit and tie every sun, no racial diversity, deacons were powerful (and got me addicted to nicotine), etc.
as teens we HATED everything from the music to the clothes, to the preaching style, etc – so now you have tons of boomers that still hate the traditional church – but you guys are too cool for us – we feel a bit out of place
so, for us oldish farts – please be real, loving and try to reach those around you who are the same AND different – please do this for us – you are literally our hope for the future!!
the young minds on here are so sweet
What Brad said.
I must say – I’m fascinated with the Orthodox church, what little I know about it. Part of me is convinced it’s a God thing, but I’m not sure. I should kick this to the top of my prayer list…
Interesting insight. I think it has a lot to do with those churches sticking to tradition and not modernizing church. Tradition doesn’t always reach the next generation. I think you would like Andy Stanley’s last talk at Drive. I think it addresses this in some ways…so I’ve heard. Really what is more important…tradition or reaching the lost?
Wow! Great post Anne. The dialogue here is amazing with tons of ideas of why it’s happening. Internal focus and infighting stand out to me. Here’s one to think of. Could it be that many of today’s church plants are non-denominational and have their own 501c3? They may give to one of the denominations, but they remain unaffiliated. Just my 2 cents.
maybe we need somegood ol fashsion persecution ?
in addition to the possibility that jonothan hopson has mentioned i also think of jimmy spencer above and i believe tony as well (if it’s the same tony)…there are a lot who are moving away from the organized church and their buildings and more towards house churches…were these included in this study???
Paul Washer in one of his sermons that we should be noticed by the way we conform to the world but how NOT like the world we are. I am not knocking the modern movement but I think the Gospel is getting lost. Jesus compelled us to go out and find those who “pick up your cross and follow Me”.
I think the word is authenticity. I have been to too many churches that have slick Powerpoint presentations, a killer praise band, and “hip” pastors. And I like those things, we live in that age. But are we compromising “to look cool” to newcomers for what Jesus really taught? Are we trying to look like something we’re not? People see right through that, and they grow tired.
Read the “Imitation of Christ” by Thomas Kempis. That is truly authentic love of God in the words on those pages. Orthodox and Catholic traditions have not strayed from their message. The “old” (litugical service) has become “new” again. Their tradition has been handed down directly from those who were there after the ascension. People want to feel close to God, not entertained. They want Gospel; not slick graphics or a killer lead guitarist.
Instead of “they”, I mean me. Maybe I am not alone though.
I think it’s not possible to be cool and be Christian, (given how I understand the terms) but the Western church is trying desperately to be both… and I would venture, failing to be either.
We need to forget cool and just be who we are in Christ. That’s enough.
I’ve been lurking around christian/religious blogs the past few weeks and have noticed that the older blogger in the ministry probably over 45+ yrs old writes alot about theology & church history. The younger blogger/preacher/worship leader, etc writes about the creativity and the “freedom” that is in Christ and ultimately on the younger blogger site I will read of episodes with lots of booze & environments that are certainly zones full of sinful activities. Perhaps the older person is just smarter and knows that writing about it is not that wise???
I have been asking myself what type of christian will the post modern church putting out & what is the church going to look like in 25 yrs?
It seems to me that several of the mainline churches are becoming so liberal why would anyone want to join them? Some people actually come to Christ to change from their sinful lifestyle – why join a church when it’s the same as the workplace, gym or local pub?
Most outsiders who aren’t associated with Christianity realize that a true religion changes people and if they see Christians that look & act the same as the world does why go to church and/or become a Christian. Why not just accept Christ & exercise my “freedom” and never go back into a church.
As Christians we are supposed to mature into the image of christ & that ultimately means becoming more HOLY – not one who follows a bunch of rules but one who is changed into the image of christ. I can’t really see christ exercising his freedom by hanging out at the local bar and acting just like the sinner. Now – big diff here in acting like a sinner and reaching out to the sinner – ok so please save that argument. For example – I went to a b-day party for a little boy who’s family went to the church I attended. Everyone there was from the church, but from the looks of it they were not any different than the guys at the sports bar chugging bear and yelling at the team on the tv. Cussing & drinking, etc. If an outsider is looking in at this body of believers what is he seeing? A group of people who are holy or the same as any other sinner?
Now – I know – you’re saying we have freedoms. Yes, but I think the TRUE freedoms come when we have reached a level of Maturity in Christ. Perhaps after the HS has cleansed you and you have taken on the new life in Christ & you understand more & more of what holiness really is that you can appreciate your freedoms. Paul spoke of our freedoms but also mentioned that I’m not to use my freedoms to cause others to stumble. Why not also stretch that out abit and say “am I turning off others who are looking at this christinity”? Do I really have the freedom to tell the drivers on the hwy to F*C* OFF just cuz I’m a bit upset with the way they drive?
I think that if the younger ministers would stick like glue to an older minister/mentor things would move in the right directions. Also , the same for the older farts – take some lead from the younger people. My family just left a church where the near 60yr old paster could teach circles around any minister I have ever heard of before (except Dallas Willard) but he was so caught up in his way of doing church that basically nothing changed and the church could not achieve any growth. Then we went to a church where the pastor is almost 40yrs old & he often mentions one of the problem he faces most in this church is immature believers. In fact he gave a sermon that made me crawl in my seat a few Sunday’s ago on how as Christians we don’t have a “choice” when it comes to doing certain things in order to achieve a level of maturity in Christ.
In short – I think that we are playing to loose with our “freedoms” and it’s hard to distinguish for outsiders between our freedoms in Christ & not really experience the change that Christ brings to people – you know being BORN AGAIN. What happened to that phrase?
and if I read Kenyon up a few post earlier he’s right – we have brought in to much FLASH. To me some worship services look like concerts – really have we ever thought of what it will be like when we come face to face with Christ? Does anyone else think that at times our worship makes Jesus Puke? Where is the reverence in coming before GOD?
yeah – and birth control too. i mean after 1 kid – I couldn’t care less if my leggs grow together or not. I ain’t ever doing that kid thing again!!! I don’t know –
I’ve often wondered about this myself. Most religions have not changed much over the past century, but Christian churches have tried to keep up by chasing the culture’s identity. It is interesting to me that Christ called us out to be different, yet other religions are fulfilling this call better than we are. I know that Christ also calls us to be in the world, but not of the world.
But I think too many churches have blurred the lines of living this out.
The one factor that I see as being constant in those other religions is that they have never changed who they are. Tradition is a staple of their faith systems and they have become deeper students of their faith, instead of painting tradition as being outdated, and becoming deeper students of how to reinvent tradition.
Just my two cents worth…
We’re trying too hard. We are letting ourselves become so much like the world, that the world doesn’t see anything in us that they want…All the cool videos, slick print ads, and T-shirts are not going to bring people to Christ. The way we live our lives, our integrity day to day, the way we love our neighbors and family-these are the things that will make people wonder what’s different about us. Not if we can spout out Bible verses or always have the perfect thing to say…If we are becoming more like Jesus, it’s going to show…
Who doesn’t love the 2,000 word comment?
It is just a statistical blip. Just like the downturn in the church before the reformation. Just like things getting worse in the world before they get better. History is cyclical.
Keep in mind that the size of services, membership logs, etc are not true measures of The Church.
There is something to be said for Biblical tradition. But there is also bending down to worship the idol of tradition for traditions sake.
Mike
My family and I are in the middle of a church launch. We are doing so to be different than any other church in our county of Ohio. Most churches are inward…we are outward..focusing on the people of our city and meeting their needs. Most people that go to old style churches go for social reasons…or because it’s a family tradition. I pray as our church continues to form and draw closer to our launch that we will be that fresh look at Faith. I want others to be drawn in because they see God in us and how we treat them. They want more…they want and desire Him.
Those stats are sickening by the way! I pray the guys above were right with the non-denom. info or home churches. We are having a BLAST in our pastor’s home right now until we start in the school building. God is awesome and we are all growing like weeds!
PS In the end God will bring to him those he wants. It is not about us. Our t-shirts and slick presentations won’t save people, but neither will anything else we (or anyone else) can do outside of the will of God.
Jonathan:
that was mean…now im’ embarrassed – hahaha not really. sorry – it’s just been bugging me lately.
now – who doesn’t love the 10 word comment. i’m going dark now. jack bauer term not a racial reference.
I don’t know what I think. Maybe we should ask for a recount?
It’s interesting how well liturgical, traditional, old-fashioned churches sometimes do in the harder inner city neighbourhoods. I recall talking to the minister of an Anglo-Catholic church in Sydney that had a great missions track record about this. His comment was that when you are in depths of human misery, the last thing you want from a church is that it look like the rest of your life.
I won’t say my support for the seeker idea died that day, but it did take a blow that would kill it in time.
Anne, FYI–it’s supposed to rain here (Hershey, PA) tomorrow. ;-)
Those stats are just for American Christianity, right? Because if you look at it as a global faith rather than an American one, Christianity is actually on the rise in places like Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
(Also, just to be clear, when researchers talk about “mainline” Protestant churches, they aren’t talking about most evangelicals. “Mainline” churches are those listed above, excluding the SBC.)
But why is it on the decline in America? I don’t think it really is. The lower numbers are probably a result of it becoming more socially acceptable to tell researchers that you’re not interested in church. I have a feeling that 30 years ago, people felt like they had to name a church in their neighborhood or from their childhood when asked by a surveyor.
I think the stats are slanted and dont tell the whole picture. The mainline denominations are declining because they are ceasing to be relevant and refuse to change IMHO. The ancient tradition we should cling to is the cross – not traditions of men. But we must contextualize it. Are other faith’s really growing because of their “evangelistic” efforts or their “traditions” – or are their populations growing in the countries where these faiths are predominate? Are they gaining converts – or assimilating the people who are born into their religious culture. The church in America has been in trouble for longer than there was a “seeker” movement. Maybe if we were interested in the souls of men instead of traditions, politics and boycotts then we could do something about the decline.
Sorry –
Okay Anne, I think we are getting in preparation for your book, “Mad Church Disease” because, honestly, your fabulous insight into Pastors….I want to boldly say are very depressed over church growth and I’m glad you posted this subject to read what people are thinking. Keep up the great work; I know reading the comments is so important to hear what people are experiencing, because our own congregation could be thinking the same thing and we need to get with loving, serving, and understanding their needs (through Christ, of course). Thanks for caring.
sharon – i enjoyed reading your post – at least you addressed the issue
actually, the catholic church is dwindling faster than the southern baptists, all over the world so their new liturgy is not working out too well – people see thru the smoke and incense and their other few little problems
man has been trying to get church right for 2008 years and 4 months and 8.32456125 days – the Acts church (which is actually a bad nomenclature but a real catch phrase i learned somewhere that never made sense)is something to learn from i think – it’s basic but obviously effective – and also is a model for the fact that the early Christians also struggled with the ‘church’ thing
when WE control and focus on “Marketing God” verses worshiping and honoring Him…We lose!
I like the way you think Anne. It certainly makes me wonder.
But I think the main thing is that Christians tend to be highly hypocritical. We talk a big game, but we live so differently.
We focus on ‘doing church’ rather than ‘being’ who we were called to be.
Great response Jenn!
There is definitely a return to liturgical worship in this country even among Protestants. Even though some denominations only use the style of liturgy and not the substance, I am loving a return to liturgical worship.
Mike
A new believer at church was raised in Greek Orthodox tradition. The first part of the service is in Greek and she doesn’t speak the language. After a conversation with a Christ following neighbor, she finally understood the gospel and saving grace. She is now a believer in Jesus and her mother, husband and children attend a modern church with her. So, was Greek Orthodox wrong in their teachings or were they saying the right things but in a language that could not be understood?
I just don;t think there are many religions that are as honest as true christians. We are more apt to tell someone about our shortcomings and the battles we fight in real life every day. Most other religions I have come to know tend to bury all of that negative stuff and rely totally on the tradition.
I just think the christian faith might be finally figuring it out and understands that what you are doing has to be real and not just a nice neat wrapping around a dirty soul. That is hard for many people to deal with the honesty and realism and so they go looking for what is easy
It’s important that we define “membership”. A lot of churches are doing away with tangible membership and going for the route of calling the church a community and a family. Also, a lot of these church plants are staying away from national recognized membership due to voting powers being decreased.
Does more membership equal more nonbelievers being reached?
Does less membership equal less nonbelievers being reached?
Maybe I’m way off track where this was even going. However, that’s my thought on it all.
http://www.vagabondrunn.wordpress.com
Sorry that last comment was from me not Annonymous.
i just started reading a book: The Next Christendom by Jenkins….it talks about how the western Church has leveled off, but the Church in Africa, Asia and South America is taking off…maybe i’ll gain some good insights in reading about god’s movement in other places.
Here are some practical strategic reasons for the decline of the church in America. I’ll let someone else talk about the morality issues even though they are related.
1. The cost of running a church has skyrocketed. Most churches of 300 people or all around less can no longer afford to keep their doors open. The institutional church is crumbling beneath its weight.
2. Smaller families – A church today needs to double the amount of families attending to match the same number it had 30 years ago when families were bigger.
3. A Mobil Society – People rarely stay in one place very long anymore. The church doors are swinging open and close like a saloon in the old west. We just move around a lot.
4. Church planting models are not easy to duplicate. You almost need a super team along with big bucks to even have a chance for success. Meanwhile population growth will continue out pacing the ability to plant these type of churches.
5. We measure the wrong things –
“What we measure is where we put most of our effort”. With good intentions, we put so much effort on increasing and maintaining church attendance(which is normally comprised of rotating church hoppers looking for the next big thing). The truth is churches cannot keep the doors open if not enough people attend to support it. How ever this brings little benefit to the community compared to the population as a whole. Ouch! Sorry.
The church (that includes everyone in it) needs to focus more on planting spiritual movements which equip large groups of ordinary people, benefits whole neighborhoods and communities, and unifies the church because it’s to big for one group to control.
Yes, there are practical solutions available to us. To see it we just need to step out our doors (Thats everyone including staff and church goers) and see the dynamic living world Jesus interacts with. You will be surprised with what and who you find to help move us in the right direction.
Anne,
I believe your thoughts to be right on. People are in search for the sacred -something bigger than themselves. Modern Christianity loses sacredness when we attempt to reach the unchurched by looking more like them. Other religions portray sacredness. The sacred happens to be a divine pursuit of man.
yep…i really don’t have much of substance here :)
i’ll say, though, that the older i get, the more suspicious i am of statistics – not the intent of the researchers; moreso, the challenge (particularly with faith issues) of obtaining valid and accurate results.
if the results are a true indication of where U.S. folks stand with God, i would not be too surprised. we live in a culture of relevance. that is fine for most things – not when it comes to God.
What “other faiths” specifically, Anne? I’ve got thoughts. I’ll likely blog them though and link to you. Too much to clutter your comments with.
The short version? The answer, I believe, is in Acts. Every time numeric growth is recorded there are two things that are both or individually mentioned at the same time. I think these two these are mentioned alongside the numbers for a reason. And they aren’t found in marketing books. They are uniquely Christian. And they cannot be manufactured or faked…for long.
And, as has been mentioned already, numeric growth of course is not guaranteed fruit from these two things. Faithful doesn’t always equal growing.
Perhaps that’s a better question for us to answer personally? Do I believe that if I do everything “right” that numeric growth (record sales, attendance, child-sponsorships) is guaranteed? And, can you do nothing right and get the same numeric growth?
LDS, Buddhism, Islam, Hindu in the years 2000-2005/2006 (I can’t find the link where I got it from, but I hate info porn, so always check my stats before) :)
I realize these are just stats, but I do believe represent something.
If you look at the statistical decline of Christianity in Europe a century or so ago, and the consequential increase of other faiths, aligning it with cultural decline (unemployment, suicides, violence, and alcohol abuse)…it’s interesting…churches built to seat thousands, with only a handful of people meeting there now.
Currently the house church movement is ramping up over there, as it is here…and the numbers of true believers representing the love of Christ to the world is unable to be counted…
I personally don’t think that if we do everything “right” that will result in more…or if we screw it all up, that will prohibit the spirit from working in others. It (we) might prohibit him working in us, but I am humbled by the grace and hope and love that I know will be revealed to individuals in a variety of ways.
The “work” is already complete — it was completed on the cross.
Thanks for the comment :)
“Currently the house church movement is ramping up over there, as it is here…and the numbers of true believers representing the love of Christ to the world is unable to be counted…”
All – please turn to Acts 2
plus you can have people over to your house and pound a few cold ones at the same time!
hmmm…maybe i missed it. But where are the non-denominational churches in the stats? They might be there – but i didn’t see them. I would think they make up a very large “population”
I think I would also ask about the definition of mainline denominations. I think some of the decline could be attributed to growth in the churches that have “modernized” and are no longer counted among mainline denominations.
God is still working in hearts and lives, but it may look so different in the next few years that traditional means of measuring growth no longer apply.
Stumbled upon your blog. Love it!
As church leaders our attempt has been to become more like culture so as to be better received. We used the model of missionaries: knowing culture and being sensitive to the language and dress of that culture, in order to win some. However, I’m not sure we’ve carried the “cup of water” to the thirsty.
I think looking like culture and meeting their genuine needs are not opposing ideas. After all, Jesus, the ultimate missionary did not look like Abraham’s generation.
I am not sure this exactly fits with what you’re asking or getting at Anne but one thing that is happening is that a lot of Christians and/or regular church attenders are leaving their small churches and are heading to the mega churches and the newer contemporary churches.
One thing that many of the mega churches are doing is watering down the gospel. They don’t want to offend the “seekers” so they don’t come right out and preach the true simple gospel. Instead they give nice little motivational talks and have great fun programs for the kids where they basically learn nothing but have fun, and have great rock bands, coffee, donuts, small groups, theatre like buildings and on and on, to look like the world. These things are fine but you need to preach the gospel, PREACH THE GOSPEL and for the most part they aren’t doing it. All these other things aren’t going to save anybody. It’s the gospel that will set people free. And please don’t get me wrong. I’m not an old fogy. I’d much rather go to a church where there’s contemporary music for example as opposed to organ and choir. But I’ll go to where they preach the word most importantly. By closely studying the book of revelation you’ll find that many churches today are doing exactly what the church of Laodecia did and He will spew them out of His mouth. The small struggling churches of today who are barely getting by are replicas of the church at Smyrna.
y godly Mother in law told me about a book, “Satan in the Sanctuary” over 20 years ago. I didn’t believe the book then but I do now. The title tells it all. Pastors of these churches that follow Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Ed Young, Andy Stanley and others are allowing the world to come into their sanctuarys and that is very dangerous to put it mildly.
These are just some thoughts I wanted to share.
Or maybe we should look at the Churches John mentioned in Revelations, how some are faithful and others are lacking. It seems that maybe the problem is that we are trying to blend into culture too much, where the lines were once solid they are now fuzzy, we now lack tradition not that all tradition is good, but somehow this seems to tie into being connected in spirit. I don’t know. I love music but I am tired of getting up on Sundays to hear a message and instead end up going to a concert or play and hear maybe 15 minutes of the Word. Maybe it’s just me.
It’s not just you Nate. That’s true about the church blending into the culture. We as Christians are supposed to be Holy, because He is holy. We are called to be seperate from the world. We need to reach our culture for Christ but not become like the culture. Being all things to all people, as Paul preached does not mean someone has a license to do the things the world does and become like them. If we are like them, we don’t have anything better to offer them.
Sharon, I agree with your post 100% What else can I say. You hit some nails right on the head.
Not only is the church declining within, but the rate of growth is more alarming. In California we have around 3 million Christians attending a church. Sounds great right? Not when you look at the state population of 36 million. And it’s growing about 300,000 people a year.
I think there’s a multitude of reasons churches don’t grow, but a huge one is that they don’t plant enough new churches.
The appeal of the other world religions you mentioned is that they either have a high evangelism value (LDS) or a high cultural value (Buddhism, Islam, Hindu). The modern evangelical church is mostly made up of middle class white Americans (a shrinking margin of the population in America).
This is why “missiology” (gaining a missionaries mind and heart) in America right now is so important!
@Tom
I think you might be over generalizing.
What defines a “mega church”?
Although I do agree that mega churches can be breeding grounds for bad theology, there are plenty of small churches out there that also teach terrible theology.
Mike
great post!
… maybe it has something to do w/ to many traditional churches catering to their people vs. reaching out…
and about those traditional churches-been there done that. i was raised amish and trust me the only reason those churches grow is, yes kyle p., having large families is very encouraged and they literally convince you that if you leave their denomination you will def go to hell. i’ve always wondered if they mispelled denominations when they were first created, how about demoninations? hee, hee just kidding! on a serious note though, i would encourage everyone to read the book called The Heavenly Man, you wont regret it.
buy it here-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/082546207X/ref=dp_olp_2/104-5089350-7337555
real interesting. for sometime i have been hearing people go on about the answer to a post-modern world is not a post-modern church.
i think decline is in part linked to inconvenience or out better things to do for those attendees leaving the body. 30 years ago the average church-goer attended 57 sundays in a year that has dropped to 24 a year which breaks down to 1 or 2 weekends a month.
while i’m new, in the term of working for a church, i do believe the decline is based on a imbalance or misalignment.
there are multiple ways to think about alignment. but i like to talk about it with a photographers mentality; a tripod. a tripod is a three-legged object, generally one used as a platform, if one leg is of balance you platform is unbalanced. while this was something i used in the corp world, it applies perfectly to the church.
The three legs are (1) Message, (2) Medium, (3) Market and while the order maybe different in each organization they all must be aligned or the message, medium, or market distract. this is the point i think most churches and organizations go wrong; they don’t keep a laser focus of unity and balance in their overall brand.
with all of this here is some food for thought, i found out last week the fastest-growing edge of the assemblies of god is among young people. “in the past 10 years, the 13-18 age group in our churches has grown from about 250,000 to more than 370,000—an increase of about 50 percent. In fact, 1.1 million of our 2.8 million adherents are under the age of 25.”
why? it’s generational. generations are not changing any more after several decades, but rather every 10 years. millennial’s or y generation are most optimistic generation since the greatest generation they dream and have big aspirations, but are grounded. the biggest catch phrase from the generation is “keep it real.” they don’t like fluff or but rather the truth, the truth in the gospel and while i believe churches are experiencing the growth in younger gens.
what do you think?
peace,
-matt
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WOW! Great discussion! Thanks for this, Anne.