Genuine Transformation - Part 1
November 17, 2005
This is, to use a common phrase, a kairos time in the life of this nation and all the religious communities in it, especially Christian. Not only is the church's role in American society being diminished. I believe the credibility of Christianity itself is under challenge. We all know about the decline in church attendance, but it's worse than the media reports. Rather than 40% of Americans attending church, according to Kirk Hadaway (Minister for research and evaluation at the United Church of Christ's Board for Homeland Ministries) & Penny Long Marler (Associate professor of religion and philosophy at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama), it's close to 20%: "Our initial study, based on attendance counts in Protestant churches in one Ohio county and Catholic churches in 18 dioceses, indicated a much lower rate of religious participation than the polls report. Instead of 40 percent of Protestants attending church, we found 20 percent. Instead of 50 percent of Catholics attending church, we found 28 percent. In other words, actual church attendance was about half the rate indicated by national public opinion polls" (The Christian Century, May 6, 1998).
But America has never been a church going nation. The high attendance of the 50's and early 60's were an aberration, not a trend. Attendance today is a reflection of how things have been during most of the nation's history. This suggests that mainline church decline is symptomatic of a larger problem, especially when we know that the growth of mega-churches has been at our expense. Millions of former mainline members have joined the sociological category called "switchers." That is, they have switched from a mainline church to a mega-church (almost all mega-churches are non-mainline, or if mainline, very "untypical").
The greater issue for Christianity is credibility, or the erosion of it. Religious extremism is sweeping the globe once again. A primary difference between now and past extremism is technology that allows us to hear the words and see the actions of this extremism almost as it is happening. This increases the likelihood that all members of a religious group are judged by the most extreme voices within it. When Pat Robertson, for example, says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be assassinated by the United States government, non-Christians do not distinguish between him and the rest of us, even as we Christians often judge Islam by the actions of Islamic extremists. Given the rise of the Christian Right in this nation, Christianity itself is now under scrutiny as never before, and the reputation we are getting is not encouraging. So we meet at a time when not only are our churches struggling, but the very credibility of our message is being severely tested.
The question we face is how to be the church with integrity at a time like this. In this article I want to underscore a few basic presuppositions that will serve as a basis for what will follow in future Reflections.
The first is that the challenges we face are not problems to be solved. The reason should be clear enough. Churches are not a machine to be fixed, nor a problem to be solved. Churches are living organisms, if we take the Apostle Paul's metaphor of the church as "the body of Christ" seriously. Organisms do not need fixing. They often need healing or replacing. That is a different need than simply solving a problem.
The second thing is that churches today do not renewal. They need transformation. The word "renewal" means "to restore?to take up again?to regain?revive?to reestablish," none of which is what churches today need, or goes to the core of the struggles we are facing. When Loren Mead said in Transforming Congregations for the Future that everyone who works in churches knows they don't work the way they used to work, he said something about which we could all agree. What he didn't say, however, is that one of the reasons churches don't work the way they used to is because they should never have worked that way in the first place. This goes back to our previous point. Churches used to work as if they were organizations. The task was to make them efficient. But as we have suggested, the church is not an organization. The fact that we have thought of that way is a major reason why we need transformation rather than renewal.
A third presupposition is that it is past time for mainliner ministers to think outside the box when it comes to faith and church. The axiom, "To keep doing what you're doing will keep giving you what you've got," is true, only we can add, "To keep thinking [and believing] the same things you've always thought [and believed] will give you the same old ideas [and beliefs]." Perhaps C.S. Lewis said it best when he commented, "If you've taken a wrong turn, then to keep going in the direction you're going gets you no nearer to where you want to be." I believe the church took a wrong turn somewhere around the 4th century (a good case can be made that it was earlier than that). To keep thinking and doing what we've been thinking and doing while expecting different results is to keep traveling the road we're on that will not take us to where we want to be. It is also spiritually draining. We are being called to a new land, and the old paths will not get us there. Following them is wearing us down. If you are tied to the ways things are, and/or are afraid of change, then you will have to confront your resistance to new ways before you evaluate them. I hope that what we do here today will inspire you to do so.
A fourth foundational conviction for future reflections is that marketing the church is not a better way. As a new church pastor, I know all about targeting specific groups and developing programs to meet the needs surveys say they have. In reality, what that means is that we believe consumerism is an attitude that can be converted into commitment. That is indeed a slippery slope that has no history to support its claims. In American culture surveys do not reveal needs so much as wants. Once churches cross the threshold of giving people what they want, prophetic ministry has already been compromised. The pressure to keep members satisfied, if not happy, has a chilling effect on discussing the political issues that confront this nation & every institution in it.
My last comment is that I believe it is time mainline churches to give up mega-church envy. In most instances, people who are attracted to mega-churches are not attracted to ours, and if they do attend once or twice, it is likely they will not come back when they understand who we are as mainline Christians. More important, though, numerical growth never has been and never will be a sign of either spiritual maturity or gospel faithfulness. When I was growing up here in Lynchburg, VA I don't recall any large church of any denomination publicly speaking against the sin of racial segregation. If yours did, it was either African American or the exception, not the rule. The rule among white congregations was either silence about or opposition to integration. Many people in those churches opposed segregation, but as a body, churches did not say so. The reason? It would mean losing members. When numerical growth is a goal, churches are very reluctant to take stands that risk losing people.
We don't need to focus on numerical growth, or becoming a mega-church or even a big church. We need to focus on integrity in ministry. The credibility of Christianity depends on it. How we can do that will be the subject of my next Reflection.
- Jan G. Linn, Spirit of Joy Christian Church, Lakeville, MN
