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The Future of the Church

by Philip Yancey

| 39 Comments

The statistics tell an alarming story. Mainline churches have shrunk dramatically. The number of Catholics who attend mass on a regular basis has declined by half. Southern Baptist membership has hit a 47-year low. The “Nones”–a group comprising atheists, agnostics, and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular”–is now the largest cohort in the U.S. (28%). Unaffiliated adults outnumber Catholics (23%) or evangelical Protestants (24%).

Observers propose possible reasons for the decline, which didn’t fully reverse after the disruptive pandemic. Have prominent scandals damaged the church’s reputation beyond repair? Or are we simply following the secularization slide that started years ago in Western Europe?

Next Sunday...the future of the churchWhile pondering these questions, I came across an incisive book, Next Sunday: An Honest Dialogue About the Future of the Church, by a mother-daughter team. For more than 20 years Nancy Beach directed programming at Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. She incorporated drama and other creative arts into worship services, in a model copied throughout the world—until the church’s leadership problems burst into public view. Nancy recruited her daughter, Samantha Beach Kiley, as a coauthor in order to include the view of a millennial. Both have experienced the best and the worst of the church, have absorbed some blows along the way, and yet continue to serve in local churches at the intersection of art and faith.

Nancy describes several different approaches to church. As I read her account, it struck me that in my years of churchgoing I have sampled each of them, with their various strengths and weaknesses.

Attractional

This approach tries to make church as appealing as possible. Willow Creek began with a door-to-door survey in which the founders asked non-churchgoers what kept them away. Uncomfortable seats, requests for money, boring sermons, strange music, unfamiliar rituals—Bill Hybels and his crew devised a format to address all these complaints. Well-produced “seeker services” presented the basics of Christianity in clear, inviting ways, often using drama to reinforce the message. Regular attenders were then encouraged to get involved in activities—such as small groups, summer camps, mission trips, or interest groups—that reinforce what it means to become a Jesus follower.

Quality programs take resources, and in recent years megachurches—defined as having a weekly attendance of 2000 or more—have mushroomed, often built around a star speaker who can draw a crowd. Whereas mainline churches compress the sermon into 15 to 20 minutes, many megachurches allot 45 minutes or more for the sermon. Visiting some, I’ve come away wondering which seminary taught these macho pastors (almost all men) how to be so funny and engaging, and to trade in robes and suits for muscle shirts and tattoos.

Attraction - the future of the church

Around 40 percent of the largest churches in the U.S. are nondenominational, having no accountability structure beyond the local church board. This may lead to implosions, as happened at Willow Creek and at Mars Hill Church in Seattle.

The church I attend started with a talented young pastor who grew the congregation from 250 to more than 1,000. After a standoff with the board, the pastor left, taking several hundred members with him. That church still exists, although now about 30 of us, mostly senior citizens, meet together in a rented school room on Sundays. The church has no children’s program because we have no children. Most weeks we sing to downloaded music, following words projected on a video screen.

I remind myself that our congregation of several dozen is far more typical than the glitzy megachurches down the highway. The average congregation in the U.S. has 65 members, after all, so we’re halfway there.

Community

Some people look for a church to satisfy their longing for community. Where else can a person find a substitute family that includes a diverse mixture of children, adults, and senior citizens?

Community - the future of the church

When my wife and I first moved to Colorado from downtown Chicago, we frequented an informal church that had decided against a paid pastor and a church building. Instead, various members took turns with the teaching duties and the church rented a local meeting hall. The teaching was uneven, to put it kindly, but we used the money saved on staff and building upkeep to support worthy causes.

For us newcomers, however, the sense of community was paramount. The service allotted time for people to mention joys and concerns: for example, we learned about Troy’s quest to make the Winter Olympics ski team and heard regular updates on the congregation’s ailing members—and even on Jan’s sick horse. The church finally disbanded, but we still count members of that group among our dearest friends.

In the U.K. only 6 percent of the population goes to church, and yet during the pandemic 25 percent of Brits tuned in to online church services. Alpha groups, which guide small clusters of people through an 11-week course on the basics of Christianity, flourished online as well. In a time of crisis, non-church people sought companionship and comfort even in a virtual community.

During the lockdown months, I regularly tuned in to the London church that had birthed the Alpha course. They created a regular Sunday program featuring great music and video interviews with recent converts, interesting church members, and teams who brought food and medicines to shut-ins. Sermons—more like meditations—were lively and inspiring, and none lasted more than 15 minutes. The uplifting, fast-paced style kept my attention, a bright spot during those dreary days. I felt part of a community who were actively living out their faith thousands of miles away.

To my disappointment, after the lockdown expired the church returned to a straight televised church service. The medium no longer seemed to fit the message.

Outreach

Outreach - the future of the church

Samantha Beach Kiley recalls, “I never had much luck getting any of my friends in the Chicago theater scene to visit my church on a Sunday—not even at Easter or Christmas. But one weekend our church canceled services to go out and serve the city. I signed up to help sort clothes in a homeless shelter. When my group leader texted us that we could use a few more volunteers, I sent out a text early Sunday morning to eight friends—folks who had never been to or participated [in my church] before. Within an hour all eight showed up at the homeless shelter. It was the easiest invitation I ever made.”

While living in Chicago in my thirties, I belonged to a downtown church that launched urban ministries such as school tutoring, a counseling center, and a legal aid clinic for the poor. My wife directed a senior citizens’ program. Before long that mostly-yuppie congregation found itself hosting several pews full of African-American senior citizens from a nearby housing project, along with younger clients of the counselors and benevolent lawyers. They wanted to belong to the group that had helped them through tough times.

Earlier this month I visited Resurrection Church in Kansas City, the largest United Methodist church in the U.S. With 24,000 members, it’s a bona fide megachurch. And yet if you ask the people of Kansas City what they know about Resurrection, they’re likely to mention its work with Habitat for Humanity, or refugee settlement, or the schools they’ve adopted to provide free breakfasts and lunches, or the food pantry, or the trucks that deliver free beds to any child who lacks one.

Samantha, the millennial author, sees practical help for the needy as key to the church’s future. She says, “Most people in our world want to do something to make a difference, and they jump at the chance to help in practical ways. Their experience often leads to community, to the beginning of relationships. And eventually, for some, this will lead to a step of faith and a commitment to Christ.”

St. Francis of Assisi is often quoted as saying, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” Jesus did both. His first sermon, after all, spoke of good news for the poor, freedom for prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind (Luke 4). In what might be considered his last public sermon (Matthew 25), Jesus extolled those who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and visited the prisoners. “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me,” he said.

The future of the church

Sociologists such as Rodney Stark point to the early church as a model. There were few missionaries or evangelists in the Roman Empire, and no such thing as a “seeker church.” Instead, Christians simply showed their neighbors a different way to live: adopting rather than abandoning unwanted babies, nursing plague victims rather than fleeing from them, inviting all social classes to worship together, sharing resources with the poor. Ultimately Romans decided, “I like how they live more than how I live. I want what they’ve got.” Not a bad formula for church growth.

Philip Yancey

No church does everything right.  As you read about these different styles, which elements most resonated with you?

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Discussion

  1. Darrel David Giesbrecht Avatar
    Darrel David Giesbrecht

    Good day Philip
    Last night, I woke up at 1:30AM and read the last half of your book, Where The Light Fell, thanks! I think that God does more with our weakness and mistakes than with our strengths and successes, although, He uses them also. I believe that what you wrote demonstrates your courage and freedom in Him!
    I want as many people as possible to know personally permanently abundant indestructible eternal life in Jesus. That doesn’t depend on their ability or performance but only on what Jesus has done and will do! We are no longer living in the first covenant, actually as Gentile we were never living under the law. Even the Jews could not live under the law. One of the biggest problems with the church today is dragging the first covenant into the present covenant.
    I have been living in Jesus for over 38 years. During the past 2 years I believe that God has given me many new insights. If you’re interested, I would like to give you an example of these insights for possible future conversations?
    Philip, what would you think if a man told you that God didn’t forgive your sins? But, told you that Jesus TOOK away, ( John 1:29 ), all the sins that you would ever commit close to 2000 years before you were born? I hope that that got your attention because that is my intention! In fact, Jesus took away, then, every sin that everyone who has ever lived, is now living and everyone who will ever live in the Universe. The Greek for “world”, in John 1:29, is Cosmos which means world or more accurately Universe. NO! I am not talking about Universal Salvation! Everyone must still believe and receive Jesus as their Saviour in order to have Eternal life in Him. Salvation is not about sin or not sinning, it is about LIFE! God’s intention from before creation was to be more than walking with Adam and Eve in Eden! His intention was to permanently live in us and for us to permanently live in Him. Adam and Eve did not wreck God’s plans, their disobedience was voluntary but always was part of His plans. God never intended to give them everlasting life ( DESTRUCTABLE life with a beginning but no end ). If an elephant stat on Adam or Eve the would have died!
    God intended to give them Eternal life, ( indestructible life with no BEGINNING and no END ), by living in them. So, in order to creat a dwelling place for Himself, He had to permanently solve the problem of sin because no one stops sinning at Salvation. We only stop sinning by being in Jesus and physically dying. If God was living in us and we committed a sin that wasn’t taken away we would physically die! Which would prevent Him from permanently living in us as His desire and intention is! I have much more to share like the permanent gifts of Justification and Righteousness, which are (just as if we had never sinned ), and a permanent right standing with God. Gifts of a new, clean and good heart and a new and good self. We still sin because our minds are in a process of renewal and transformation. Also, we still have sinful habits. Our old sinful self was crucified, died and was reborn with a new self (that we are not to deny ) and resurrected with Jesus! I think that God left us with minds that need transformation by renewal because He wants us to depend on Him for that renewal.
    Philip, I noticed that your second name is David as mine also is, do you know that David means dearly loved? My first name Darrel also means dearly loved. There is no way that my parents knew in 1951 that both the names that they gave me meant dearly loved. But God knew what my names meant! And, I now know that God loves me more than twice! Actually, He loves me more than I can possibly imagine!
    Thanks, I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

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39 thoughts on “The Future of the Church”

  1. Good day Philip
    Last night, I woke up at 1:30AM and read the last half of your book, Where The Light Fell, thanks! I think that God does more with our weakness and mistakes than with our strengths and successes, although, He uses them also. I believe that what you wrote demonstrates your courage and freedom in Him!
    I want as many people as possible to know personally permanently abundant indestructible eternal life in Jesus. That doesn’t depend on their ability or performance but only on what Jesus has done and will do! We are no longer living in the first covenant, actually as Gentile we were never living under the law. Even the Jews could not live under the law. One of the biggest problems with the church today is dragging the first covenant into the present covenant.
    I have been living in Jesus for over 38 years. During the past 2 years I believe that God has given me many new insights. If you’re interested, I would like to give you an example of these insights for possible future conversations?
    Philip, what would you think if a man told you that God didn’t forgive your sins? But, told you that Jesus TOOK away, ( John 1:29 ), all the sins that you would ever commit close to 2000 years before you were born? I hope that that got your attention because that is my intention! In fact, Jesus took away, then, every sin that everyone who has ever lived, is now living and everyone who will ever live in the Universe. The Greek for “world”, in John 1:29, is Cosmos which means world or more accurately Universe. NO! I am not talking about Universal Salvation! Everyone must still believe and receive Jesus as their Saviour in order to have Eternal life in Him. Salvation is not about sin or not sinning, it is about LIFE! God’s intention from before creation was to be more than walking with Adam and Eve in Eden! His intention was to permanently live in us and for us to permanently live in Him. Adam and Eve did not wreck God’s plans, their disobedience was voluntary but always was part of His plans. God never intended to give them everlasting life ( DESTRUCTABLE life with a beginning but no end ). If an elephant stat on Adam or Eve the would have died!
    God intended to give them Eternal life, ( indestructible life with no BEGINNING and no END ), by living in them. So, in order to creat a dwelling place for Himself, He had to permanently solve the problem of sin because no one stops sinning at Salvation. We only stop sinning by being in Jesus and physically dying. If God was living in us and we committed a sin that wasn’t taken away we would physically die! Which would prevent Him from permanently living in us as His desire and intention is! I have much more to share like the permanent gifts of Justification and Righteousness, which are (just as if we had never sinned ), and a permanent right standing with God. Gifts of a new, clean and good heart and a new and good self. We still sin because our minds are in a process of renewal and transformation. Also, we still have sinful habits. Our old sinful self was crucified, died and was reborn with a new self (that we are not to deny ) and resurrected with Jesus! I think that God left us with minds that need transformation by renewal because He wants us to depend on Him for that renewal.
    Philip, I noticed that your second name is David as mine also is, do you know that David means dearly loved? My first name Darrel also means dearly loved. There is no way that my parents knew in 1951 that both the names that they gave me meant dearly loved. But God knew what my names meant! And, I now know that God loves me more than twice! Actually, He loves me more than I can possibly imagine!
    Thanks, I would be happy to answer any questions that you might have.

    Reply

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