Every Church is Dying

From the archives:

It struck me this week that every church is a dying church in some sense:

• Some churches are literally dying. They are slowly losing people and will likely shut down.
• Some churches are glitzy and successful. They look vibrant and alive, but they're really only alive to themselves and their institution. They look alive, but they're dying and they don't know it.
• Then there's the church that could be big or small, glitzy or drab, that dies to itself daily - that has taken up the cross and is more concerned with following Christ, no matter what it costs, than its survival.

All churches are dying. Only the third type of church will experience a resurrection.

Five Changes

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

Interesting answer to a good question by David Fitch (found via):

If you had to list 5 of the most important elements that you would like to see changed in local churches across America, what would those 5 things be?

OK here’s 4 off the top of my head. 1.) Less emphasis on success and growth, more on authentic Christian living and discipleship. This is the obedience God is looking for. 2.) Less on pandering to Christians who have little time but more money, and more pandering to the poor who have more time and less money 3.) Concentrate more on the simple stuff where one encounters the transcendent living God, less on programming that 4.) Leadership that listens and responds to what God is doing, not orchestrating the future they learned at business school.

Mystery Guests?

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

From GalliBlog:

The modern American church is often so large and so businesslike in its approach to ministry that it easily loses track of new people who might walk in the door. Most churches long ago abandoned the idea that a church can be a genuine community—where people really know each another, where they notice every single visitor and strike up conversations with them during and after Sunday morning. In a genuine community, there would be absolutely no need of mystery "church inspectors," because the community would know precisely how they practice the gift of hospitality. But the contemporary church is so lost and desperate for "tools" and "resources" that can help them "study" their "guests," even this might help.

95 Theses for the American Church

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

• Part One on discipleship
• Part Two on community
• Part Three on the Church
• Part Four on the pastorate
• Part Five on purpose

All of these are worth reading. Good work, Jared.

How success diminishes mission

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

From Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy:

Intense devotion to God by the individual or group brings substantial outward success. Outward success brings a sense of accomplishment and a sense of responsibility for what has been achieved - and for further achievement. For onlookers the outward success is the whole thing. The sense of accomplishment and responsibility reorients vision away from God to what we are doing and are to do - usually to the applause and support of sympathetic people. The mission increasingly becomes the vision. It becomes what we are focused upon. The mission and ministry is what we spend our thoughts, feelings, and strength upon. Goals occupy the place of the vision of God in the inward life, and we find ourselves caught up in a vision-less pursuit of various goals. Grinding it out.

via