50% of adults will not read a book after 18 years of age.
That was a statistic shared this afternoon at a CKN Learning Event. We gathered with 18 pastors, authors, and publishers from around the country to ponder how to better align culture, ministry, leadership, and facilities. It was a remarkable experience and there’s a sense of urgency here to reverse this long, consistent decline of church attendance and influence in the US.
We’ve been pondering causes and the church’s inability to arrest it. It’s clear we have more resources in the church than ever before. These pastors and leaders sincerely care, so it isn’t lack of motivation. Here’s one leader’s take:
What we lack most in the church is spiritual imagination.
We read in Hosea 4:6 that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. 
So are knowledge and imagination one and the same? Is imagination divine? Is the fact we still measure and drive church success by the ABC’s of:
- attendance
- buildings
- cash
simply a testimony to our weak imagination?
Why do you think the church is failing?
How do you think we should measure church success?
Yes I know, there were more questions than answers today.
.
Interesting. Yes, we do seem to measure by attendance, giving, and the condition or size of our structure.
As I left a writer’s critique group today, the thought struck me that the only people who may ever read my book are the ones in this group. What if it’s never published. What if God has me writing to reach one maybe two people in that group?
And I smile at my self-inflated images of being famous author. If I only reach one or two people, then it is enough.
Perhaps, we measure ourselves by how focused we are at doing His mission?
I once suggested to the church council (of which I’m a member), to think about what the congregation could accomplish if we sold the church building and leased an empty storefront. It would free up countless hours and money spent on maintainence, landscaping, mowing, cleaning, decorating, etc. We could spend that money on mission.
I really didn’t want to sell, but I wanted to try the idea on. I found the idea just as incomprehensible as my fellow council members. Do we have an identity without a building? Would we grow? Where would we have meetings? All good questions, but all centered around “we”. You see the problem?
Yet, this doesn’t answer the inital question you proposed and what plagues most churches: What’s the root of church decline,? But I hope it allows us to step outside of ourselves and ask the other question that you posed: How do we measure the church’s success.
What if the answer IS: We measure our church by the lives we’ve sincerely touched? Wouldn’t that be just like God to smile as we try to measure ourselves by something that’s immeasurable?
Maybe that’s why Our Creator assures us, “I AM enough.” Thanks for the interesting thoughts.
First of all, I love Barb’s comment. Thanks for that. Two of my own cents:
* Been reading Church Unique, and I think the temptation to “photocopy vision” is a really biggie. Churches who have really deeply understood their own unique DNA and mission continue to make big differences. Unfortunately, many, many churches have either ‘dug in’ and trying to live in a mission from years ago that is probably already accomplished or has moved without notice, OR, are interested in a new mission and move from one copied attempt to another. We really do need to hear God’s personal voice to our congregation and move in that unique calling.
* A log of young folks are not at all in to the ABC’s, and are outside the camp, being spiritual without embracing ‘churchianity,’ or if in the church are tending to engage in (forgive the buzzwords) emergent or emerging and missional areas of ministry. They are far less interested in “attractional” stuff which lends itself to counting (implicit in each of the ABC’s, really). When we make a qualitative shift (thank you, Barb!) from the quantitative, things begin to come a little clearer. How do we ask the qualitative questions – again, our unique mission, our heart, our hope, and begin to move in a faith that allows the quantitative things flow (yes, we must still count the cost, but we don’t have to talk so much about it, and only AFTER we have truly discovered the vision).
Well, as much as I want to wring my hands at that 50% comment, with the internet and 50 news channels, is book reading a fair measure of anything other than the addiction to acid-free paper?
Why is church failing? (define failing, please) Attendance is now sociatially(sp?) “optional”, no longer required. So maybe lower attendence is just evidence of what was always there.
How should we measure church success? Since words can be understood in a rainbow of ways, perhaps we should fall back on a long term analysis of the action of the attendees, as “by there actions ye shall know them”.
(PS- I wanna be buried with a Bible in one hand and my library card in the other)
I could feel the energy all around the church today while you guys were meeting. Sounded like a powerful time!
I am wondering if anyone brought up the issue of the changing demographics of our country as a potential reason for church attendance decline? I attended a fascinating conference this past weekend where Dr. Soong-Chan Rah of North Park Seminary addressed that issue and talked about the urgent need for the church to “escape its captivity to Western cultural trappings and to embrace a new evangelicalism that is diverse and multiethnic.” He has a book coming out in April that I have encouraged Dave to read, because I think this has huge implications for the NewThing Network and church planting in general. If you are interested, you can read about it at http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3360.
Maybe we can use our collaborative effort in East Aurora to move in that direction!
Barb,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
We met with 18 pastors, authors, leaders, and thinkers the past two days wrestling with the question of how God does measure our efforts. The parable of the talents clearly suggests he expects us to act with our gifts. But just what is success. What do we measure.
I do think you’re on the right track with your thought about “the lives we’ve touched”. I’ll have some follow up posts in the next few days sharing the groups take on it.
Thanks again
Ed
Dan,
You are reading the book aren’t you? The author Will Mancini was with us the past two days and I had time to hang out. He’s a sharp, provocative mind. By the way he’s a twitterer and you can connect to him through me if you’d like.
Kurt Andre’ from the Transforming Church Institute was there as well. These two are some of the best minds out there regarding discerning your unique code and ensuring your aligned with it.
Of course its hard to measure success without this clarity of direction. It’s like that story about coming to the “Y” in the road. If you don’t know where you’re going either path will get you there.
I do think Barb is hitting on a core issue with her relational/transformational thoughts. I believe that’s where we’re heading.
More soon.
Bob,
Thanks for your comments. Yes there are many factors effecting attendance. You have societal issues and the digital environment of course. However, that said it’s hard to argue the church isn’t losing influence these days.
Defining and measuring success is a challenge for sure. We spent several hours today pondering it with some really bright dudes. I’ll try to post a summary soon.
Bible and a library card….humm never thought of it.
Ed
Kirsten,
There was some serious energy in that room. And, a serious measure of the Holy Spirit as well. A diverse group of church models (small, mega, liturgical, traditional, non denominational, and home church models) were represented and they connected warmly around our love for and hope in Christ. It was special to witness. I’m challenged by the realization that God is so much bigger than I imagined.
We did have a lengthy discussion regarding the “Third Culture” idea of diversity and collaboration. Your right on! Dave and I have spoken about the Lighthouse effort being an innovative influence to inspire CCC to reach beyond its comfort zone. Learning to do so will become vital for any growing church in the near future.
Great thoughts Kirsten,
A context is referentially opaque when a substitution of one co-referring term for another yields an invalid inference. ,
Loy20,
Hummm…I’ll chew on that a while.
Ed
Loy20:
I don’t understand what you’re talking about. Of course, your statement is entirely correct. Ambiguous terms should typically be clarified (via context) if their multiple meanings invalidate the inference (though I’d imagine there’d be more of a problem with false propositions and less so with with invalid syllogisms).
But, unfortunately, your own near-contextless statement doesn’t clarify the term, co-referring term, or the inference. So I had to guess at what you meant. My first guess was that you were referring to the term “imagination” (certainly ambiguous) where Ed asked if it may be considered as “knowledge” or “divine”.
Yet, with the statement before that, where the leader suggested that what we’re lacking is “spiritual imagination”, the statement isn’t substantially changed by substituting it with “spiritual knowledge” or “divine imagination”. Ed didn’t make any direct inference that I saw. The closest thing above is if this is combined with Hosea 4:6:
We lack spiritual knowledge.
Those lacking spiritual knowledge are destroyed.
Therefore we will be destroyed.
Of course, none of this is invalidated by the “substitution of one co-referring term for another”. Then again, I guess I’m left where I started. I just don’t understand what you’re talking about.