Last week I said I was worried. This week I feel a little melancholy. Next week I should probably see a shrink…
In general, the church in America is dying. Sure, there are some ministries that are growing due to a variety of circumstances, but the statistics do not lie. In 2019, for instance, 4,500 Protestant churches closed their doors for good. That’s 12 churches a day.
Some might say good riddance. After all, the history of the church both in antiquity and in modernity has suffered high profile failures. People have been hurt, fleeced, and betrayed by those who purport a changed life.
To be sure, those most antagonistic to religious underpinnings revel in the opportunity to show the nation the hypocrisy, duplicity, and corruption, found in faith communities and their leaders.
For this, we are often guilty as charged.
But I wonder, would those critics also condemn an entire baseball team because one member decided to gamble on the games? Would every pilot be considered complicit if an impaired pilot crashed a plane? Does every child in your family get disciplined when one child misbehaves? Unlikely.
Setting aside the bigotry that exists toward religious people writ large, there are certainly others who do not have an axe to grind, but simply find the church wanting.
As consumeristic as society is, the expectation is that the church manifests some basic modernization. When I enter most businesses, staff, like trained parrots, welcome me with, “Welcome to Ross, to Subway, to Ashley’s” etc. And so, the church has tried, too, to mimic this approach. “Welcome to Mountain Church, to Our Savior’s Church, to New Living Church”. Is it working? In a word, no. You cannot teach or demand sincerity.
Thus, in imitating societal methods, the church has ceased to lead. If the local faithful simply offer a competitive alternative to Sunday Morning NFL, we lose.
The problem is that we are struggling to define and communicate the purpose of the church. In the absence of identity, we muddle through well worn liturgies with little depth reaching the inner soul.
What, therefore, can we do?
Somehow, like wanting to eat better and exercise, we must hunger and thirst for truth. And like physical training and a dietary program, it is not an easy sell when being spiritually out of shape appears to cost so little in the short run. Of course, the long view is poor health and death. And isn’t that what the dying church appears to be experiencing?
If we are to stem the tide of church closures, which is the delight of the detractors, it will mean a truly changed disposition. It is going to be an introspective search for ultimate meaning. Will it involve church as we know it?
I am not certain, and this leaves me melancholy.
Kent Simmons is the pastor of Canyon Community Church in Kingman, AZ.
