Theology Blog

This blog is based on a sermon I wrote recently. It is something I am still developing and hope later to publish as an article. I welcome any thoughts, feedback, or contribution and ask that you not use any of this material in a written or typed form.

The American church today is in decline. It is dying. This is especially true in mainline denominations. We are not reaching the world, in fact, we are doing just the opposite. The postmodern culture is hungary for something bigger, for community. We have what they need, if only we could get back to being who we are. Below are what I call the three great tragedies of the American church today.

The first great tragedy of the American church today is that we fail to embrace mystery. We have a great need for knowledge and answers in our culture. Our increased access to instant information has only furthered our expectation that questions must be answered. We are uncomfortable with unanswered questions, with things that do not make sense. Perhaps it is our deep desire for knowledge, or the insecurity and fear that comes with the lack of control that questions create. In our attempt to understand God, we have packaged our faith. It has been said that God created us in His image, and we have returned the favor.

The second great tragedy is that we have suffered a loss of identity and the world has changed the church. When I first arrived here at Bethel a little over eight months ago, we held a couple game nights at our house where the high schoolers came over for games and snacks. Other than the product we offer there is little difference between the church and McDonalds. We have started to approach the church in many of the same ways we approach other things in life, as consumers. Since arriving in Colorado Springs 5 years ago, I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the phrase “Church Shopping.” This phrase is very problematic, especially when we look at what the scriptures have to say about what the church is. We come to services (and I too confess that I have done this) and say things like, the music was too loud this week, or I did not like the sermon this week, or did you see that the service went 10 minutes over. I have actually been in church environments where folks will base their attendance on who is preaching. This is a worldly way to look at the church, not a Biblical one. We cannot come to church simply to consume…this is a value of our world, not a value of our God. The church is not at all about us, it is about God. Somehow we have imposed the consumer, corporate, democratic, and capitalistic mindsets of the world on the church. The church is supposed to be different, a leader and a light in the world. This is not to say that we should not learn from the ways of the world and learn how to apply them to our churches, but the pendulum in the American church has swung in such a way that the world has changed the church and not the other way around.

The third great tragedy of the American church today is that we have forgotten the source and our purpose. The biggest contributing factor to the decline of churches in some of the larger denominations today is due to this tragedy. Church after church, and denomination after denomination are walking away from the source—that is Jesus Christ. The Bible, meant to be the authoritative word of God has been turned into another fiction book seen as light reading and good stories. Jesus has become a good teacher instead of God’s son. It pains me to see that this is happening, because trying to be the church aside from the truth that is Jesus Christ is like trying to live without water. While the church itself will never die, if our churches in denominations in America continue to walk away from the source, church, as we know it will die and have to be reborn. The image in the Gospel of John of the vine is an important one when thinking about the church. This is the image of the church, and of our relationship with Jesus. If we do not remain in Him, we cannot have the full and abundant life that is promised to us. We must stay connected to the source. We must be willing to go where the source takes us.

There is hope, and we can overcome this. There may be some pruning, even some death, but in the midst of that, God’s Spirit desires to birth something new.

To be continued…