Bookmark
The answer, which, of course, was never given, was 'just because you built it doesn't mean you get to worship God in your own way'.
Attendance in the teens?
They can’t make their utility payments on that, let alone other expenses.
Then there are the dying denominations that don’t really mind. For instance, there are a number of Episcopal churches with large endowments and bequests that can serve a small congregation indefinitely even if no one donates. Same goes for the Christian Scientists (if you consider them a Christian denomination), where they can sell off extremely valuable properties to take care of greatly reduced numbers in style for a long time (while scaling down expenses like the Christian Science Monitor and the Reading Rooms).
I was in a church that did all 5. We invited a guy from the Conference (it was a UM church) to look at us and give us some ideas. He present these same 5 problems and one of the “influential members” (see #2—paying “dues” to demand influence from the pastor and from lay leadership) stood up and said that he wasn’t going to listen to this anymore and he actually looked at two more “influential members” and pointed at the door with his thumb and they got up and left.
I finally left two years ago because of the state of the UMC, because I recognize that manipulative “big givers” exist in just about any church. I blame the lack of strong theology for the decline of churches. In the case of the UMC, you could overcome all 5 of these problems and the fact that they are wishy-washy on just about everything from gay pastors to abortion to biblical inerrancy to islam.
Well, maybe wishy-washy is a bad term. The average congregant is one side of those issues and the ordained leadership tends to be on the other. That’s the problem! Jesus came to divide. There are sheep and there are goats. Your church can’t survive if it just tells goats that they are sheep and that Jesus is a good buddy who would NEVER tell you that you are doing wrong.
#4 is hard. Non-negotiables have to be argued to remain such, but complaining about pastors not being leaders or not doing something exactly right, just wears him down instead of encouraging him to help in the fight, even if not specifically lead. Don’t blunt the spear!
IF you do not want to see a mosque on every street corner
blaring the Muslim call to worship over a loudspeaker
several times a day; you will haul your butt up, get dressed
and drive over to a Christian church in your town, put your
share in the offering plate, participate, sing, enjoy the
music, the Scripture & do what you can to support the
Christian churches. Otherwise, don’t complain when the imam
sends recruiters to YOUR home. - We attend a church in town;
but took a day off today. Sometimes you just have to stop
& take inventory; but next week, God willing, we go back!
Sounds like he’s hung up on thinking old hymns and church as it was then is “choosing to die”. In this twits mind repetitive chant hymns on screens is what we all need.
The truth is that crap drives as many people away as it attracts.
I wonder what our Roman Catholic friends think of this article. They must think Protestants are an odd bunch at times.
The “advice” offered by Mr. Rainer sounds like something from a board meeting of a struggling corporation.
I know our Protestant brethren tend to shy away from John chapter 6, nevertheless it is a powerful passage that I believe speaks to the church revitalization movement (among other things of course).
After our Lord teaches about eating His flesh and drinking His blood (John 6:53ff), the Bible says in verse 66 “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” (ESV).
Imagine that. Jesus preached and they crowds left Him by the droves. Doesn’t sound like a growing, thriving, revitalized church to me.
What our churches need is not more gimmicks and slick song services. Our churches need men of God who preach the Word and tell it like it is. Men of God who preach Christ in all His glory. Men of God who are lions in the pulpit, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Men of God who believe with all their hearts this word from our Savior: “And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’” (John 6:65 NRSV).
I think a big problem facing many churches is that they have lost the “centrality” in the lives of their congregations.
Accessory to an older church was a meeting hall-dining room, a kitchen, a lounge-restroom for women and girls, small classrooms for Sunday school instruction, and importantly, things to do the rest of the week at the church.
Whenever crops would come in and be cheap, the kitchen might be used for cooking and canning, to provide food for families having a hard time financially. Otherwise groups of ladies would visit shut-ins, the elderly and incapacitated to keep sociability in their lives.
Baptisms, weddings, funerals, all would be guaranteed good attendance out of friendship and respect. This mattered.
Throughout all of it, the clergyman was kept busy.
Numbers are not the measure of a church. Not in God’s eyes. Faithfulness is. That doesn’t mean faithfulness to a hymn book, but it also doesn’t mean you need to sing “Jesus Is My Boyfriend” and serve coffee instead of communion.
Growth can be a cancer. In many mainline churches, they preferred cancer to health, and that is now killing them.
The Gospel requires repentance. You cannot be saved FROM your sins if you don’t acknowledge you HAVE sinned. Few things in modern society are as “hateful” as discussing sin - but you cannot preach repentance without it. If someone believes they are healthy, they won’t call on The Great Physician.
6. They ignore the plain words and teachings of Jesus and invent new lessons to “fit with the times”
This reminds me of MSM artices when they never mention the political party of the subject ...
Our modern society with the lifestyles brought by its technological advances doesn’t go well with Christianity.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. (John 12:25)
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1 John 2:15-17)
I went to a wonderful church with wonderful people. The preacher was great and gave a wonderful 20 minute message. I assume the music was good, my wife liked it but I’m no judge of music. The church wasn’t dying by attendance was stagnant and they only saw a handful of people come to Christ in a year.
We moved to a new city. We started attending a local church and things were the same, lots of music, a short but good message but no growth.
This summer we started going to a new church. Less singing but the preacher gets a good hour to preach and you can hear the bible pages humming in the congregation during his message. I don’t think he is a better speaker that the previous two preachers but there is meat in every message. The congregation give him time to deeply dive into the Word and it’s amazing. I’ve seen more people come to Christ in the last 4 months than I’ve seen over the course of my life! They’ve expanded to 4 services, with standing room only.
The Church is not dead, many congregations are starving for lack of the meat of the Word, but God is still moving.
Legal struggles. One group of parishioners against the other. Very sad.