The Ugly End, or the Beautiful Beginning of the Church?
By: Thomas E. Mcdaniels
Tags: Spirituality, Church, Christianity, Religion, Faith

Is this the beginning or the end of the church in America?

Is the church in America in decline? Yes, for sure.

Most days, my inbox includes at least one post or blog about the American church. In many parts of America, people are attending services less or unplugging from church altogether.

This is certainly a story.

The greatest stories have beautiful endings. The greatest storyteller of all times is Jesus. His story and His church will end with victory, power, beauty, and glory.

Is the church finished? Absolutely not.

The graphic below reveals the change in the American church culture.

The statistics for churches in the southern states are better than those for the Midwestern and northern states.

Nevertheless, Gallup reports:

U.S. church membership was 70% or higher from 1937 through 1976, falling modestly to an average of 68% in the 1970s through the 1990s. The past 20 years have seen an acceleration in the drop-off, with a 20-percentage-point decline since 1999 and more than half of that change occurring since the start of the current decade. In 1998 through 2000, one in 10 Americans with no religious preference said they belonged to a church, as did an average of 7% in the past three years.

In 20 short years, we have seen a 20% decline in church attendance. These numbers are shocking and true.

Does the mission of the church change because fewer people are attending? No.

God will just do His work with fewer people.

Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; maybe the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few” (I Samuel 14:6, NKJV).

God completes His work with few or with many. God using fewer people does not change the scripture or the mission of the church.

A lack of attendance never changes the plan of God.

The church has a mission

A missional perspective teaches that the church has a mission because Jesus had a mission.

Here is an excerpt from gotquestions.org:

What does it mean to be missional? “Missional” or “missional living” is a Christian term that, in essence, describes a missionary lifestyle. Being missional includes embracing the posture, the thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to reach others with the message of the gospel. The term “missional” gained its popularity towards the end of the 20th century and is beginning to influence the American church on a wide scale. There is one mission which says that the “missional church is a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world. When the church is in mission, it is the true church.” Though many churches have mission statements or talk about the importance of having a mission, where missional churches differ in their attitude toward the world: A missional church sees the mission as both its originating impulse and its organizing principle. It is patterned after what God has done in Jesus Christ; that is, to be missional means to be sent into the world — not to expect people to come to us. This idea differentiates a missional church from an “attractional” church.

Many churches make the mistake of confusing “the church” as the mission of God, rather than knowing the church has a mission.

God created the mission first, and then He created the church to fulfill His mission.

The mission never changes, but the methods are always changing.

The mission of the church preceded any buildings or gatherings of believers. We can actually accomplish the mission of the church without buildings, hierarchy, or religious activity.

God can fulfill His mission without buildings, or hierarchy, but He has chosen to do it with and through His church.

Christians are the church

We have confused who and what the church is. The church is not a building, entity, or organization. It is an organism made up of believers.

Our primary mission is not to attend church, although God commands us to gather and assemble. Driving to a church building is a method of attending church with other believers.

Buildings are where we gather, train, and encourage one another. These were the methods that Christ chose for us.

Here is an example of Jesus gathering and training His disciples

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand. And seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matthew 13:10–17, NKJV).

Training is a method of equipping believers to go to work and move through life being salt and light to our culture.

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men (Matthew 5:13, NKJV).

Salt preserves, heals, and flavors. The church preserves our culture, heals wounds, and flavors communities.

Training is a method to accomplish the mission. Our mission is to reach and encourage those who do not know Christ.

Could it be the reason people are not attending church is that God never intended for us to solely go to church but to be the church?

In my post “How the Church Connects and Collides with Culture,” I wrote:

Is the Church obsolete? The organized church is experiencing a mass exodus of regular attenders. Are people losing faith or just dumping the church? We aren’t sure.

The church will survive and even thrive.

Can we skip attending church services and still love Jesus? Yes. However, the scripture commands us to gather in His name.

Church expert Carey Nieuwhof says: