This is the last part of a post introduced here
I mentioned in my first post that the third thing I am more convinced of than ever is
3. People aren’t craving church, or sermons or bible study…the are dying to be in small community where real dialogue and doing life together happens.
We have done all we know to build membership and attendance figures. But I wonder if we have created belonging mechanisms instead of transformational organisms. And if I am honest I am past the wondering stage.
I am starting to identify what some might call a startling trend. Increasing numbers of church attenders are considering once a month (twice at the most) church attendance committed church participation. The other 2-3 weekends they are doing cookouts with family and friends, meeting for “discussion” in alternative venues or doing something with other groups of people in service to their larger geographic community.
None of this competes in their minds with faithful church commitment. They are all about a changed life and they believe they know best how that life change happens for them. So instead of sitting four Sundays in a row listening to an expert sage on stage tell them what the bible says, they have decided to read the bible with their group of friends, discuss what is happening in their lives and then help others in their community toward greater shalom.
This will require us in the church to reconfigure our thinking about what we think the church is providing. We no longer live in what Robert Wuthnow called the “culture of obligation.” That world is nearly dead. This signals a crisis/opportunity for the church.
A crisis because the obligatory mechanism, that if we are honest drove quite a bit of attendance, is no longer in place. And an opportunity because the church is now being forced to rethink what “business” she is actually in, and how is that work to be brokered and resourced to the people of God.
This is a fragile liminal time, but a liminal time is also full of possibility
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with Ron that people tend to give church a miss, much more readily that in the past. Their need for REAL RELATIONSHIPS tend to drive them to other places to find them. Even the Cell group is not enough. The argument is that there is a program that force everything in a direction. It is not a real uninhibited experience where people can have fun, enjoy what they are doing and enjoy talking about God and how God impacts their lives. In my experience people are hungry for teaching, but only and then only after they experienced real relationships. That is probably why the Bikers-service we have at our Church every second last weekend op the month are so popular. We have fun together driving through the mountains, have a sermon, drive some more and then we eat together somewhere beautiful where we can share and talk and be real. Where life together happens.
There is still a firm believe from some of the people that came out of the “culture of obligation” that people who leave the church because of this need is no lost to the Church. This is the one thing that breaks my heart when people leave church while leader say: “O well it is their choice” We cannot dare sit still at this stage, we must realise that the time of “building congregations” (Gemeentebou) is past. We must concentrate on being a faith community! We were so busy making congregation small effective businesses that we forgot the core business of the church. “Loving God en Loving People”
Pastors should stop playing CEO’s and become Pastors: humble, serving ready to love serve and share the Word of God.
Good thoughts!
Interesting and true about the “culture of obligation” … it is fading.