What's Happening to the Church?
Ok, we have blogs going on about tech stuff, laughter, and tv shows, but we have a lot of questions and answers in some of our blogs that are getting to the heart of where many of us are. In the youth pastors blogs and in the ones about who do you listen to and what are your difficulties, i am hearing some interesting stuff.
Barna has just written a book called Revolution that Reggie and I have been talking about a lot. Barna believes that the church as we know is is going to be extinct in the not too distant future. There is a lot of talk about it's lack of relevance, and how over 20 million people are walking away from it right now.
Before i pontificate or ask Reggie to, on this blog. Who has read this and what are your thoughts on the future of the church, it's relevance and what we will see change in our lifetime in the "church" .
Lanny
BTW...you might want to go back to some of the posts in some of the other blogs and see what youth workers are talking about.
Barna has just written a book called Revolution that Reggie and I have been talking about a lot. Barna believes that the church as we know is is going to be extinct in the not too distant future. There is a lot of talk about it's lack of relevance, and how over 20 million people are walking away from it right now.
Before i pontificate or ask Reggie to, on this blog. Who has read this and what are your thoughts on the future of the church, it's relevance and what we will see change in our lifetime in the "church" .
Lanny
BTW...you might want to go back to some of the posts in some of the other blogs and see what youth workers are talking about.
posted by Lanny Donoho at 12:52 AM
8 Comments:
Lanny,
Haven't read revolution yet, but a friend and i have had an ongoing discussion on this for a long time. It seems simply by observing...that the churches seeking (token word of the decade) 'relevance' and already at a decent size will continue to grow...at least for a while. But many of the other churches seem to falling by the wayside. And ultimately, you have to ask yourself, 'doesn't it seem like many of our churches are but a few funerals away from closing the doors?' That sounds awful to say...but the writing seems to be on the wall (by the way...what does that really mean? where did that come from? what writing...and where is this wall?)
I see more and more plants and house churches springing up. Church will look different...FROM WHAT WE'RE USED TO...but i wonder if that's really all that bad?
phil owen
What's hard is that when we start talking "church" we think of Sunday morning, and when Christ said "church" he thought the body of believers. I wonder if perhaps Sunday mornings could die down simply so the body of believers would grow out. Like "Roaring Lambs" says- perhaps we need less Sunday morning Christianity and more Tuesday afternoon lawyers being Christians, Wednesday morning teachers. Perhaps being concerned more with the change in culture than the attendance would make the church grow.(church being body of believers).
But NO! the church can not and will not fail- simply impossible. "The gates of hell CANNOT prevail against it". Think of the power that gives US, the freedom, the joy, the creativity- knowing we are on a team that WILL win- that should challenge us to push the boundaries, seek new ways, and invite culture to dialogue WITH the church. Because we know that culture cannot defeat the church, so why not interact with culture. Some guy named Jesus did, and that worked out pretty well.
It seems to me that the building blocks of churches, big or small, are going to look more like the first churches if they're going to make it.
Just from personal experience, my dad was a minsiter of music while I was growing up. He was in college and seminary during the early 60's, and has used what he was taught then ever since. As a result I grew up in churches where my brothers and I were the youth group, and the average age was 50+. In the last 10 years of his ministry he was the minister at 3 straight churches that closed their doors, and sold their property, because they dwindled into nothing. And yes, much of that dwindling was passing on.
He's not in ministry anymore, because he couldn't adapt, and neither could the congregations he ministered to.
Lanny,
I am so excited about the future of the church in America. I am excited because I think what is happening around the world may eventually reach us. I am excited because I have students in our student ministry who only want what is real and not what is churchy. I think this generation of teenagers is going to change America. There is a distaste for church lingo and things that don't matter. There is a definite excitement about the mystery of God and the power of Jesus. Teenagers today are beginning to ask why we have rich Christians in America while children are dying from AIDS and starvation every day across seas.
I wonder if the (Sunday Morning) church will, like Barna says, shrink in size only to grow stronger than it has ever been. It is so exciting to me that people are leaving what's seemingly irrelevant to explore the excitement that is the Community of believers. I can't help but think that the church will be much more influential in the future. I don't mean influential on politics, but people. The politics will take care of itself when people's hearts begin to change.
Talking to my in-laws reminds me that there are many well-meaning Christ-followers stuck in the box called "church." And from talking to them about the change in the church, I can tell that they are afraid of how it will affect the church's influence on society. I'm sure they aren't the only ones.
Last thing . . . this is all a bit scary for my wife and me. I just graduated from Seminary and spent the last 8 years of my life preparing to pastor a church that looks nothing like the church of the future. I am not very marketable in the secular work place (Speech Communication major), and I don't even know how long I will be in full time ministry. I am a youth pastor right now, but am in the midst of rethinking our philosophy of ministry. Confusing. Just ask my wife.
I'll try to close out: I am excited about the future of the church. I am not as excited about my position in the future church. I am trusting that God will nudge this "grown-up-and-stuck-in-the-box too long" follower of Jesus in the right direction.
I will post more about the question later this afternoon so I can try and compose my thoughts. But I wanted to let you know that I picked up the God's Blogs book today and it is as MS. Dolly Parton said, "going through me like liquid fire." I love the way you portray God. I honestly believe sometimes we turn into some mean old man sitting atop a giant hill when in fact he is a loving and caring father who shares many of the emotions he blessed us with.
Oh...and if interested. My blog can be found at www.xanga.com/stevenrussell
Have a great day..and thanks for sharing your gift with us in book form.
I also hope you don't mind...I linked to this blog from my blog. I wanna share the good insight with everyone over at Fish Eyed Lens.
by the way...lanny...i think i just found a new sight that you'll dig. Have you seen google fight?
it's simply brilliant
ok...so i meant to preview...anyhow...here's the link
www.googlefight.com
i was just thinking you could match up...i don't know...
lanny vs. reggie. oops...you may not want to do that one. Or lanny vs. doug fields...nevermind man.
It's fun none the less. Enjoy the fight!
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