I’ve had several conversations with people in the past few months about the church. What they thought they were doing for the sake of the church was in-fact helping to propel an institution rather than creating a movement of love, grace, hope and faith. It became more about saving the institution of church, rather than sharing the saving grace of Christ with the world.
As I see it, the church has become the focus of our faith. How many times have you heard the story of someone who left their faith at the doorstep of the last church that disillusioned them? In the real world it seems like people have become conditioned to the concept that the church is where our hope should be placed. Why is that? One reason could be how we have preached that ones money and time must be given to the church in order to prove our Christianity. We must tithe to our local church and share Christ’s love through ministries and programs within our local church in order to be considered “members” of that church.
Church as we know it has become about being self-sustaining rather than life-giving. We have put the emphasis on our success as a church rather than being instruments of Christ amongst the marginalized and fringes of society where he walked, dined, and conversed during his 3 year ministry.
Yes, my commentary has taken on a somewhat cynical tone, but if you had been involved in the fifty or so conversations I have had in the past few months, you too would see this trend that people have become disillusioned by the church. As a result, many of them have abandoned their faith. Some of them, while not abandoning their faith, have left their leadership roles within the church in search of something different.
Today’s seeker sensitive movement may not be about seeking God and his Son Jesus–instead it may actually be about people believing in God and wanting to find a place where he resides and seeks our hearts rather than our time and money.
While I may sound cynical about the church, it is not my intention to be critical of the church. However, I do believe that we as the church are losing people to secularism because we no longer have something to offer them. We have unintentionally directed our intentions to the masses of people already in eternal relationship with the Savior at the expense of those that aren’t drawn to our church–or the way we portray our God.
I am burdened by this missed opportunity, yet do not have an answer about how to address it. Let the conversation begin!
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Dave,
Well said. I would agree with your summary almost 100%. I am not leaving the church or my faith because of the failure I have seen. I am however evaluating where my tithe money goes and where I devote my missional time. I want to impact the person next door, the business person I meet with during the day and the hurting young man that is struggling with huge life issues.
We have to make the focus about Jesus and the real life change he can offer. That is it!
Thanks Brian!
There have been several articles and books in recent years that have noticed the growing numbers of unchurched believers, so what you’re hearing may be another example of that, along with the unbelievers in the greater Portland area. Another factor is: the locals there have told me the spiritual climate there is more interested in nature and new age than Christian spirituality.
And, as for those who are already believers and have that eternal relationship with the Savior, there’s is a place for gathering them for worship, ya know :) A lack of evangelistic zeal is found with institutional and uninstitutional churches.. some of my random thoughts about this dilemma you’re noticing…
DJ, I’m quickly learning that when people talk about Portland and new age or spirituality, they are really referring to a very small geographical area within downtown Portland proper. Everywhere outside of the downtown area, be it north, south, east, or west the climate is much different. There are a lot of evangelicals with many of them already attending church services (although it may not be every Sunday). I’ve found more people believe in God and understand the concept of Christ as God here in the Portland area than I did when I was in Sacramento!
My biggest contrast though between Portland and Sacramento is that here in Portland there are tons of church plants all seemingly trying to accomplish the same thing–they want to be missional and unconventional, yet they ultimately seem to evolve into more-traditional churches if they experience any growth. Either they grow into making it all about Sunday services with preaching and great music as an emphasis or they stay small (around 4-10 at a gathering) and remain as a single house church. There seems to be nothing in-between here, yet everyone initially strives to be that in-between church. This doesn’t mean I’m cynical though :) I’m more hopeful than cynical and my hope lies in people starting to recognize the trend and being drawn to starting new movements after already having gone through the experience of realizing the missional-to-megachurch type of progression that seems so prevalent here.
Just as I believe there must be a place for ethnic, cultural churches to exist independent of the predominantly caucasian church, I do realize that there is a place to inclusively gather believers as well. My heart–and my hope–is that somehow I will connect with others that care more about reaching unbelievers or unchurched people with the gospel of Christ and Matthew 28/Acts 2/Ephesians 4 as a basis of being outwardly focused more than nurturing the core at the expense of those outside the four walls of the institution. Thanks DJ!
mmmmmmmmmm………