Why do churches die? (part 2)

In a previous post I wrote about a kind of irrelevance which (in my humble opinion) is causing churches to die... in this post I describe another kind of irrelevance...

but first I need to define 'church' before I continue... in the context of these posts, the church I am referring to is NOT the church universal (which God, through Luke - in Acts - and other inspired writers promises will endure forever and NOT fail nor fall). I am talking about the local 'bodies' of Christ which purport to follow the Bible and attempt to be the people of God...

Also, I understand that churches are made up of flawed people; folks who possess varying degrees of spiritual maturity... people who serve and people who get served...

Having made those disclaimers, it is hard to escape the reality that many 'churches' are withering and dying... there are hundreds of church growth experts and consultants who will talk about building size and programs and parking lots... all in attempt to 'grow' the church... don't get me wrong, many of these efforts are made with good and noble intentions... and many times the results are positive...

But if we really want to discover why so many churches are dying, I believe it absolutely comes down to whether a 'church' is relevant.

The first kind is spoken about throughout the Bible, but perhaps best described in the prophetic book of Amos. It deals with the disconnect between our worship and our ethics... in other words, how we live Monday through Saturday needs to be consistent with our worship on Sunday.... I wrote about that type in a previous post.

Another kind of irrelevance plaguing our churches has gotten more press than the one discussed earlier. It seems obvious, but still it is a church killer.

When Paul says in his first Corinthian letter "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some", he is talking about relevance. I wonder what Paul would say if he were alive today... what would he say if his community was largely Hispanic and the church leaders insisted upon conducting assembly worship in English?

What would the apostle think of a church like the Catholic church whose leaders - a few years back - were determined to conduct mass only in Latin (when very few of its parishioners understood Latin)?

Would he call them irrelevant?

What if our only method of evangelism were to invite unchurched people to attend worship on Sunday?

I believe Paul (and, incidentally, Jesus) would use every available technology and any relevant method to reach and help and teach those around him if they were alive today. He would look for ways to help people... to treat them with mercy and kindness... the peculiarity which Paul and Jesus would be known for would reach beyond a cappella singing and weekly communion...

Think about their respective ministries... they were definitely 'out-of-the-box' thinkers when it came to reaching people. For instance, there were lots of 'faith healers' in Jesus' day... were any of them rubbing dirt and spit in blind people's eyes to make them see? That's crazy! But the visionless man saw! and that was all he cared about... to Him, Jesus was relevant...

If the church of today desires to reach and help and teach the people around it, it (we) must do that in ways which are relevant to the people it hopes to serve.

May God bless us as we try to do just that....