As we navigate the strange ministry terrain of the post-pandemic era - with so many churches having collapsed, a lot of blaming is going on. By blaming, I mean that church leaders are seeking to understand why their churches are dying. The popular culprits: loss of faith within the culture, hedonism, the bad rap that evangelicals are giving to all organized religion, human busyness, changed weekend habits from the 2020-22 experience, selfish church members who will not make changes to welcome new people. On and on the excuses go. Each of these items bears a bit of truth.
But one of the problems with these reasons is that they are each overwhelming: they seem bigger than we can constructively address - and as such, they may invite us to just give up on reaching new people, and to coast with the ones we have until the last remaining few turn out the lights. What if the core issue were very simple - and easier to address?
I just (yesterday) hit SEND, and the 2023 revision of I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church is now in the hands of my publisher. I assume that it will come out to the public in early 2024. This is 17 years after the first edition became my best-selling book, a distinction it still retains. I enjoyed the re-writing. I was surprised by how dated it was in places, and how the basic framework remained unchanged, for me, even in the 2020s! I still refuse to lead a dying church. I remain defiant, choosing Life over Death, in the face of the current crisis within organized Christianity. I serve part time on the staff of a church that grew through the pandemic years; this further feeds my defiance. I don’t believe giving up on our evangelistic task is faithful to the Gospel of Christ.
I think there are two core issues at play in the current decline. One is related to our encounter with God in Christ - I suspect we may need fresh encounter, the other is a matter of ministry design. Yes, design. A lot of our troubles are that simple. I find places with great people, deep spirituality, solid worship, and the churches are in free-fall. None of their kids darken the door of the church anymore. In almost every case, there is a design dis-connect between what we do at church and most of the population around us.
One popular misconception is that the high-income people, the cultural elite and the inteligencia are leading the way out of organized religion - and since they are influencers, the rest of culture is following them out the door. But actual statistics teach us that the highest levels of disconnect with church belong to people with household incomes under $50k a year, to single people, to people without children, to people without a high school diploma, and to persons under age 40 who came to grew up in the digital age. They do not tend to be atheists or even agnostic. They just look at church - or at the current popularized conception of church - and yawn. It is not a place designed for them.
1. If my household is low-income, and also possibly dealing with high student loan payments, I know up front that I cannot afford to pay to play so many of the things that my parents were able to afford. Church is not free - and I do not want to be a moocher, or to feel guilty. This is becoming an enormous hindrance. Church is designed for middle class people who can afford to financially support the ministries. And the middle class is disappearing.
2. If I am single, it is easy to figure out that most church folks are married - even if many attend services without their spouses. Being single, I am likely to find primary community at the gym, at work or in groups organized around life affinity. I am also likely to be exploring relationship and having sex outside marriage. It is well known that the church wigs out about sex more than almost any other topic - even if they pretend to look past it. Church is designed for married people. And even though it is poorly designed for today’s married people with children - the church is always sooo happy to see a married couple with kids walk through the doors. We know when we are not the favored children.
3. For many decades - probably centuries - children in our homes have been the number one motivation for adults choosing to get involved with a church. Today’s adults may be prioritizing other wholesome activities for their kids over church - but take away the motivation to give my children moral structure, and you just took away the best known motivation to get me out the door on Sunday. I may even like church - have had great memories of it - but I am tired on Sunday from a workweek, and I need new motivations.
4. The people with low education are far less likely to do church than those with high education. A lot of those Trump voters are not evangelical, by the way - many are totally unchurched! In church, we do a lot of reading, and in small groups, we share thoughts and opinions - if I have low education, that is likely not my scene - I will gravitate toward settings where I won’t stand out or feel embarrassed. Church is designed for educated people in most cases. And our highly educated clergy reinforce this, even when we don’t consciously wish to exclude anyone. The stuff we talk about on Sunday can feel pretty wonky to people unaccustomed to wonk. And wonky is a close cousin to bo-ring.
5. People under 40 are much more likely to cover themselves in blue ink, to wear jewelry in their noses, and to wear clothes that reflect the niche (and endless) tribal identities which they may have discovered. They are much more likely to partner with persons who are from a different ethnicity - multiethnic couples are almost a tribe unto themselves. Unless the gospel invitation comes to us from someone within our tribal identity, it may not be taken seriously. Most churches are older than the median age of the community around them. If I am under 40, church just looks a bunch of old people, lacking ethnic diversity, dressed in ways I would not comfortably dress, and utterly devoid of body ink. Church is for them, not for me. Nothing against those people at all! I will eat turkey with them on Thanksgiving - but every Sunday?? Hell no, not my scene!
To these five demographics - I might add a more general issue - Church is a place for people who have their shit together, financially, relationally, spiritually. Even though none of us have it together as much as we pretend - I might feel intimidated if I am at a really broken place in my life: bottoming out with addiction, going through a divorce, dealing with my children’s crises in adolescence, losing my job.
Friends, these are each design issues. Ministry design issues. Culture has changed and our ministry design fell well behind the change curve. Yet design is an issue that we can deal with constructively. In the next month’s newsletter, I will speak to how we might improve our ministry design with each of the demographics above.
Summer blessings to each of you!
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