It doesn’t take long for you to realise that people aren’t happy with the state of the church. Generally speaking, in the Western world you can have a quick google, or speak to a few Christians and very soon you’ll hear complaints about the decline of the church. People say that society has changed which has resulted in fewer people attending church. Some argue that church simply isn’t engaging enough for the younger generations. Others say that the global church needs to change a become more inclusive and take on all sorts of ideologies and beliefs in order to be seen as relevant. Regardless of what people think the solution might be, the reality is that many people are looking at the Western church and seeing a decline.
But the question that comes to my mind is this, it’s all good and well to recognise that decline, but what are you doing about it, are you concerned enough to do something or do you contribute to that decline? This question is not just for church leaders but for every single person who goes to church and who would call themselves a Christian. Are you concerned enough to do something or do you contribute to that decline?
It’s easy to stand on the sidelines and to point the finger. It’s easy to stand amongst the crowd at a football match and shout instructions to the players with thousands of others. But you’re not playing, you don’t know the strategy, you don’t have the ball and you probably wouldn’t be able to score even if the goalie had one hand tied behind his back. In football, we get that. But it’s similar with the church. It is easy to stand on the sidelines, to raise your voice and say where the church is going wrong and how the status quo won’t suffice. But the difference with the church is that you’re called to get involved, to take the ball and to run with it.
It’s easy to see problems in something that we’re involved in, but it’s another thing to actually get working on solutions. As we look at the church, if we simply stand there and moan, I don’t think we are concerned enough or care that much in reality. If we truly cared about the decline of the Western church, if we truly cared for the thousands of people who are dying on a daily basis without the saving knowledge of Jesus and are going to spend an eternity in hell under the just wrath of God, then we’d get involved. If we truly cared, we would truly care and we’d contribute. We would go out sharing the gospel, we’d meet with fellow Christians and invest in helping them grow in their faith and we’d make an effort to spur others on in their pursuit of becoming more like Jesus. So if you stand on the sidelines and moan about the church declining, are you concerned enough (and do you actually care enough) to do something about it?
Or the second question is, are you contributing to it?
Maybe you read that and you think “how dare he?! Obviously I am not contributing to the decline of the church, I go to church on a Sunday and I read my Bible!”
Let me push just a little further. It is easy to go through the motions of religiosity, to play the part, to be the good Christian whilst at the same time contribute to the decline of the church. How? Because when we allow our faith to become private, individualistic and convenient, we no longer look outside ourselves or outside our church building, but instead we focus on maintaining.
By focusing on merely maintaining the status quo, we are by default contributing to the decline of the church because we’ve neglected the Great Commission. By focusing on maintaining we’ve decided that we don’t really need to invest in others but to make sure that we make sure we’re ok. This thinking leads to a church no longer being a family, but a group of acquaintances, people who meet once a week and leave again without much investment in one another. It leads to Christians who look out for ourselves and who refuse to help other believers grow and who refuse to share the gospel. That means living for comfort rather then living for God’s Kingdom.
That may sound extreme, but the reality is that if we are looking on at the Western church and moaning about its decline, we must ask ourselves the question “am I concerned enough to do something or do I contribute to that decline?”
The easy thing to do is to not reflect on that, to brush it under the carpet and forget it was ever asked. The easy thing is to walk away and continue as normal, but that might mean that you are contributing to the decline of the church. The harder thing, the more time consuming thing, the more difficult thing and the more sacrificial thing is to give of your time and your talents to invest in your church and local Christians and their spiritual growth and to go and share the gospel freely.
Investing in other Christians is important, because if we truly grasp God’s Word and God’s mission for the world, then we would be out there sharing Jesus. All of the knowledge that we gain as Christians should translate into people that are moved to mission to see the glory of God spread and the name of Jesus lifted high.
The church may be in decline, but it is still HIS church. Submit to Jesus who is the head of the church, busy yourself with His Kingdom work and watch your own spiritual life grow, watch the growth of those around you and see the Holy Spirit at work as the Lord transformes people and does wonderful things by His grace.
Chalmers' Blog 