Well ... HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE ?

The church does not have the luxury of “hanging in there” over the next few years. The church has lost her status in the community and people by the droves are leaving and will continue to leave if the church chooses to “hang in there” even if hanging in there means peddling harder and doing better.
From www.barna.org, and from an Update entitled “A Faith Revolution Is Redefining ‘Church,’ According to New Study”

"One of the most eye-opening portions of the research contained in the book [Revolution] describes what the faith community may look like twenty years from now. Using survey data and other cultural indicators he has been measuring for more than two decades, Barna estimates that the local church is presently the primary form of faith experience and expression for about two-thirds of the nation’s adults. He projects that by 2025 the local church will lose roughly half of its current “market share” and that alternative forms of faith experience and expression will pick up the slack. Importantly, Barna’s studies do not suggest that most people will drop out of a local church to simply ignore spirituality or be freed up from the demands of church life. Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons – hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means."

What!? Am I reading that correctly? Are people leaving church in order to find God? That’s insane! That is like saying that people are having difficulty finding a grocery store that sells… food! Or maybe it is a crazy as having to look long and hard to find a bank that cashes checks! Am I unreasonable to assume that the one place God could be found is the church? If the research is true, and I have no reason to cast doubt, that is about the most serious indictment on the church I have ever heard. In my estimation, that is right up there with the Crusades and the selling of indulgences!

I sure wish Francis Schaeffer were alive. “How then shall we live?” is even more poignant now than when he first posed it. That is what I mean when I say that the church cannot hang in there – she must, must answer Schaeffer’s question.

Here is my answer (I am not now interested particularly in the How? Another
post, possibly.) ….

1. The church must be about putting people in the Presence of Jesus. I am not referring to evangelism per se; I am talking about literally putting people in the Presence of Jesus. See John 15:1-11 and Acts 4:13 (“… They recognized them as having been with Jesus”).

2. The church must purify any and all that she does so that is building God’s kingdom (Matthew 6:33).

3. The church has got to be a fellowship of intimate followers of Christ. If there is no community, there is no church and, therefore, no impact. Read Acts 2:42 and following.

4. The church must seek to enrich her worship experience. She is woefully lacking in this area. There is a holy God near by that we have yet to imbibe like we can.

5. We must maintain a sober and careful adherence to God’s written Word. We must learn it and teach it with passion and precision.

6. We must create community à la John 13:34,35. The church is not the church without love and koinonia as her warp and woof. This is hard, hard work.

7. We must forsake the negative side of Institutionalism, Individualism and Rationalism. I get this from Dr. Robert Webber in Ancient-Future Faith. We must embrace mystery.

Like Paul told Timothy, we must “discipline ourselves for godliness.” Nothing else will do. We certainly cannot hang in there! The process does not begin with our own resolve to correct or remedy something. We must find ways to “be still and know that He is God.”

“For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said, ‘In repentance and rest you will be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength.’”

Until we begin to experience the transformation that comes with hearing and knowing the voice of the One who calls each of us His Beloved, there is no other message!