Churches in America...Leaders Take Notice

Over at Christianity Today's blog, Ed Stetzer began a blog series on "Churches in America" this summer. Over the next few weeks, we'll course through this with some thoughts and questions to engage you, church leaders, with some of what he says.

His first post is here.

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"Facts are our friends." This is an important point Stetzer makes. We can embrace them or ignore them.

One fact: the church's influence on people is fading. It's a slow fade, to be sure. But it's still fading. It might be that the slow fade has been part of the problem. It's been slow and gradual enough that too few churches and church leaders really noticed. But now, for many churches, the fade has hit a crucial point, and it seems for some that there's no return.

Stetzer also points out, however, that there is no credible research that shows Christianity is dying. It's just people are less interested in attending church and less influenced by the church. That, I think, is a really interesting dynamic.



At the same time, "frequent" churchgoers remains what it has been--there's little sign of decline. So, the regular, frequent churchgoers are still going. Those on the fringe or marginally involved are becoming less involved.

It's unmistakable that the church's influence in society is decreasing. It's also clear that the people who are invested are still  invested.

One response might be to try and figure out how to get the less-than-interested to be interested, to get them in church on Sundays.

What if we try a different tactic?

Who are the ones invested in your congregation--the regular, "frequent" participants? It seems to me that they are the sleeping giant to bring the good news of Jesus to people. Notice that I said bring to people. This is the goal, isn't it? The end of our striving is not "more people in church." The end of our striving is more disciples. This might mean more people in church, but it certainly SHOULD NOT be measured by that.

Maybe the information in Stetzer's article is opportunity for the church to think about putting more resources into equipping, empowering, and sending out the ones invested--the frequenters--to bring the gospel to their environments, to the workplace, the marketplace, the schools. Maybe it would be good to train and instruct the frequenters to be solid disciplers. Maybe the main influence should not be "The Church" as an institution or as a social force, but rather the lives of those called and empowered by the Spirit to be the body in the details of everyday life. Are we spending our time, our resources, our sermons, our creativity for this purpose? Or is it to figure out ways to get new people to come to church? What if we put our efforts into equipping for disciple-making?