Worship in the 21st Century Church

The church I presently serve has had a contemporary worship service for almost 15 years. They

have done this type of worship well for a very long time. The contemporary worship services at this church are some of the most deeply spiritually moving I have ever been in. What is different for me is having professional musicians as worship leaders. They have a completely different way of expressing things than I am used to hearing. Last week I heard these phrases during worship prep: “I will change instruments when I feel you ramping down.” “Don’t use a bunch of worship jargon.” “While you are praying I will be grooving in the background.” “Back out of the prayer time gently.” My favorite was when we were talking about opening the service and the praise leader said to the minister, “Just say something profound and spiritual.” Gosh, I thought everything I said was profound and spiritual. It is an interesting bunch to work with. I love them.

Several weeks ago I was engaged in conversation with one of our senior members who attends our wonderful traditional worship service. She was sharing with me about how much she enjoys the worship and music in the service she attends and really can’t understand why anyone would want to attend the contemporary worship. To her ears, the music is just noise. I am thinking she feels about contemporary Christian music like I feel about rap music – that’s not music. She was shocked and amazed when I told her that some of the deepest spiritual experiences I have ever had were during contemporary worship.

I have been involved in what is known as “Contemporary Worship” since the early 1970’s. I have seen it move through several changes and the genre has morphed in many ways. Each decade has fostered a change in songs and musical approach – a generation of praise music. When I was first involved there were no publishing companies involved in the movement and songs were passed around the church and the nation through word of mouth. If I heard a song while worshiping in Kansas City, I would write it down and take the song to my church in Louisville. It was cool to watch that happen. It felt a little 1^st Century.

Slowly publishing houses were established that started providing songbooks, chord charts, music tapes and then CDs and then worship DVDs. There was Maranatha Praise and Worship, Vineyard Music, Hosanna Music, Integrity’s Praise! Music, Brentwood-Benson, Word, Hillsong and the list goes on. It has grown from nobody publishing that “new stuff” to a multimillion dollar industry.

Contemporary/Praise worship has been exciting to me because it was a great opportunity to move from doing worship as I had known it to something very different. The greatest change needed was not in music style but in the basic intent in our worship and what it accomplished. I know, because I was there, that for most of the 20^th century the church became proficient in developing what could be called the consumer church. People came to church to consume; to have spiritual their needs met; to develop networks of friends; to have a place to marry them and bury them; to have Christian education provided for their children; to hear a good sermon (whatever that is) and enjoy some good music. People often bluntly state that they are church shopping. We came to church to take, not give. Mission and ministry opportunities were extremely limited. The emphasis was on hands-off missionary work. We paid someone to do it for us and prayed God never called us to the mission field. Not us – we had lives to live.

Sunday morning was the ultimate consumer experience. We went to a worship service. There was little emphasis on worship and a great emphasis on consuming. The average family went and occupied a pew and felt we were doing our Christian duty and doing God a favor by just showing up. We sat and watched and observed and critiqued. It wasn’t that blatant but it was close. After worship we gathered with family and friends and critiqued the sermon. Was it interesting? Was it understandable? Was it doctrinally correct? Was it too long? What was the theme? Next we moved on to the choir. Did you like the selection? Could you understand the words they were singing? Did anybody hit a wrong note? Next on the agenda were the Elders. How were the prayers? Too long or too short? Did they wander from the subject? Sunday dinner was critique time.

In all of the critiques I sat through, I never heard the most important, necessary and critical question asked: “Was God pleased with our worship?” In fact, mention of God never showed up in those sessions. It is not because we didn’t care about God, it was because we were a part of the consumer church and in that church those kinds of questions never came up.

My excitement about and hope for contemporary worship was that we could move from watching worship to participating in worship. And, for me, a few times in a few places that has happened. And when it does, it is awesome. God shows up and it is a powerful, moving, empowering and life changing experience.

Christianity in America still tends toward being a spectator sport that is watched and enjoyed but is rarely participated in. But I see a trend in the church of the 21^st Century of a church that is becoming more missional, more participatory, more hands on. And that is happening some in worship. Lately many have been saying, “Don’t go to church; be the church.” May I add this: don’t go to worship; be the worship.

 Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

 Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ William T. McConnell or on Twitter @billmc45053.

Can a Church Be Unfixable

In conversation with a clergy colleague whom I used to coach in leading a church in transformation (Her church ran out of money to pay me but that hasn’t stopped us from talking.) she asked the somewhat rhetorical question, “Are some churches unfixable?” That really got me thinking.

Theoretically and theologically (According to my theology which believes God can do anything.) no church is unfixable. When I consult with churches, I am often asked by church pastors and lay leaders if I believe their church is going to make it. Honestly, sometimes I have my doubts. It is not unusual for a church to not realize their need for revitalization and transformation until things have become grim. Many of our churches are not just unhealthy, they are on life support and it is time to pull the plug. But if you suggest that to the church leadership they want to give you a sound beating. If church leaders would direct their passion toward transformation instead of denial, more churches would be transformed and flourish.

Most leaders are unaware that a normal church loses an average of 10% of its membership on a good year. If there is change in the church or if there is conflict, the decline will often be much more dramatic. That means that most churches need to bring in a minimum of 10% of their present membership to stay even. Honestly, it is an unusual church that experiences that much “Growth.” Thus, most are consistently losing ground on a regular basis. Often the decline is very slow, incremental and hard to detect. Unless, of course we have one of our good old fashioned church fights that poisons the atmosphere in the church and speaks volumes to the surrounding unchurched about all that is wrong with the church. No doubt the unchurched look at the church in open warfare over issues that seem inconsequential to them (And are usually inconsequential to the church, really.) and think, “See, I knew there were good reasons to not go to church.” Every preconceived negative notion they have about the church is proven when we just have to have a fight. One of the best things we could do for evangelism and church growth is to think about how our fight will affect others before we have one. And then not have it.

But the question of the day is, are some churches unfixable? To answer that, allow me to share a story from early in my ministry journey. I was a student minister the Christian Church in Waddy, Kentucky. The Christian Church in Waddy is one of those wonderful churches that are willing to put up with the ineptness of student ministers to have a sermon every Sunday and help kids like me gain some experience and hone some skills. I still think fondly of those wonderful people. One summer day a car pulled up in front of the parsonage and a lovely young woman, who was a stranger to me, emerged. She introduced herself and told me that her mother was a member of the church. Her mother, Nellie, had not attended for a long time because of a chronic illness. In fact, she had stopped by to let me know her mother was in the hospital in Shelbyville and ask me to go visit her. I was happy to and left almost immediately for the hospital.

When I entered Nellie’s room I was struck by how small she was. A better word would be emaciated. She could not have weighed more than 100 pounds. As we conversed she shared that she had come to the hospital because she could not hold down any food. I asked her how long she had been ill. She said, “About 20 years.” I thought, but didn’t say, Wow! Later in the conversation I mentioned that I had met her daughter and we talked about her for a while. Having a child, I assumed she was married so I asked about her husband. At that question an amazing change came over her. Within seconds Nellie’s demeanor totally changed. No longer warm and engaging, she became hostile and surly. It was as if a storm had suddenly internally overtaken her. Her voice even changed. It took on an edge. She told me she was no longer married. That she and her daughter’s father had divorced. From her profoundly negative response I thought the divorce must have been recent. Divorces take some time to get over – to get past. There is a grieving period.

Again I was completely floored when she said they had been divorced for several years. My mind started clicking and I asked her exactly how long they had been divorced. She replied, “About 20 years.” In my head the lights flashed and the warning sirens went off: Twenty years sick and twenty years literally hating her ex-husband’s guts. Sounded like a significant connection to me.

Being young and stupid I asked her, “Nellie, have you ever considered that your illness and your obvious hatred for your ex-husband could be connected? Could it be that your hatred and unforgiveness are causing you to be ill?” She looked me directly in the eye for what seemed to be a very long time and then said, with the light coming on behind her eyes, “Yes. I believe there is a connection.”

“Would you like for me to pray with you so you can forgive your ex and seek God’s healing?” I will never forget her reply. She simply said, “I’d rather die.” And she did.

So, can a church be unfixable. Yes, but only if it chooses to be. When a church is confronted with the need to change; with the need for transformation and refuses, it is saying the same thing Nellie said to me all those years ago in that Shelbyville, Kentucky, hospital. I’d rather die.

And that is, to me, the surprising answer I hear from many churches. They don’t say they would rather die. But they do refuse to change and that is basically declaring a death wish. And that is Unfixable.


Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000690219/Developing-a-Significant-Church.aspx. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/pages/William-T-McConnell/812462358785951 or on Twitter @bill45053.
Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

9 Reasons Unsociable People Like Social Media

There is a lot of chatter around the subject of the sociability of social media. Many questions are being asked. And many of them are good questions. Is social media good for our society or are there too many negatives to the large amount of time many people spend on social media? Do we spend so much time and energy connecting with people in the cyber world that we are failing to fully live a non-cyber life?

If you are observant you have seen a table full of teens or young adults in a restaurant with their faces buried in their smart phones texting other people about what they are doing. Which seems strange to me because all they are doing is sitting in a restaurant not talking to the people they have chosen to spend the evening with while texting people they have chosen to not be with. (Yes I know about prepositions.) The question is asked, “Are we missing the moments of life as we attempt to record the moments of life?” We have all seen the people who, during a child’s performance in a play or at a recital, are busy scurrying around the room attempting to get the best shot or camera angle. Will they have to go home and watch the video to really see the performance?

It is not unusual for me to forget my smart phone and go a day without it. Even so, I have been a bit concerned that I am too tethered to it. Yesterday I downloaded an app that registers how many times a day I check my phone. Of course, I have to check my phone to check the app that tells me how many times I check my phone. Somehow, that just seems wrong.

Often I go to lunch and leave it sitting on my desk. The only thing that motivates me to carry it is that if my wife calls me more than twice and I fail to pick up she assumes something horrible has happened to me. I hate to cause her that heartache and concern, so I try to remember to carry my phone. But I will admit that eating lunch without my phone works for me. Unlike some of colleagues who seem to spend a majority of the lunch hour texting and chatting on their phones. No doubt these conversations are of great importance but they leave me, the person sitting with them, feeling rather unimportant and out of the loop. I occasionally think about texting them just so I can have their attention. Since when did the people calling or texting us take priority over the people we are with physically? It is like the old days when I found myself in the check out at a department store and the clerk would stop checking me out to answer a phone call. Why does the phone take precedence? For years I have had the policy: If I am busy, my phone is busy. If I am with someone I will not pick up a call. (Unless it is my wife. Reason already stated.)

Here is the other side of that coin. Social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting and all the other forms it come in, works best for people like me. I am an introvert. Those who don’t understand introverts assume we are unsociable or antisocial. Not true. We introverts love people and we love conversations: Only we like you in small doses and are only interested in talking about meaningful matters. We love to talk but we abhor small talk. And even though most might not think it is designed for us, the “unsociable”, social media is a gift from God.

Unsociable people love social media because:

1. We can engage with you when and as often as we want to – or not.
2. We can end the conversations with the click of a button.
3. If you get on our nerves, we can unfriend you.
4. You can send us long texts and we don’t have to read them and you still got to say all you wanted to say.
5. We can answer you with an emoticon. Like this.
6. We can mark your email as spam and never see it or feel a need to read or respond to it.
7. If we don’t want to check Facebook we don’t have to look at it. For days at a time.
8. We save time because we think: Why spend three minutes texting you when we could just call you. And then we think: If I call you I have to talk to you – forget it. Thus we save all that time.
9. Twitter allows the user a message of no more than 140 characters. That is pretty much our maximum message anyway.

So, if you are looking for me, check out social media. And if I fail to respond to you try not to take it personally.

 Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. His latest book on church transformation is DEVELOPING A SIGNIFICANT CHURCH and is available at Westbow Press. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com. Connect with him on Facebook or on Twitter @bill45053.

8 Reasons Failing Churches Are Failing to Change

The closing of churches in America is a daily occurrence. Even with as much emphasis denominations are making on planting and developing new churches, the rate of decline and death is far outdistancing the growth seen in the new church initiatives. My question is, “Why, if it is possible, don’t these churches pull out all stops to reverse the decline?” In my many conversations with leaders of dying or plateaued churches, I have discovered there are many reasons. Some of those are:

1. In denial. As has been often said, denial is not just a river in Africa. It is difficult to see and accept that someone or something we love is not doing well and may be moving toward death. Our minds deal with these painful situations by denying their existence. Sometimes it is easy to be in denial because there is still a rather large attendance in morning worship. We fail to realize that those in attendance are aging rapidly and natural attrition will quickly decrease our attendance and membership. Since I have difficulty is seeing my own aging, it is difficult to grasp the aging of my friends and family.
2. Keeping our heads down. Denial is burying one’s head in the sand. Sometimes we don’t do that, but, instead, fail to look up and look around to notice what is going on. From my perspective in my little world, I don’t notice that the church is wasting away. I’m still here and my little circle of friends is still here. What more could I ask for? It is not until my circle starts to disappear that I realize the church is losing members.
3. Afraid of the truth. Many times church leaders are afraid, if everyone realizes that the church is declining, that their leadership will be questioned. We preachers are well known for having double vision when it comes time to count attendance. A recent blog by a fellow Disciples minister (Evan Dolive) suggested perhaps we would do well to stop taking attendance. Maybe we should, instead, concentrated on being a healthy church that is producing disciples and impacting our communities for Christ. I sense the attendance issue would take care of itself.
4. Change haters. It is the rare bird who likes and embraces change. For most of us, the call to change runs contrary to our nature. Beginning as small children we find comfort in repetition. There are a couple of books that, at his request, his mother and I read to our oldest son several thousand times. Like most men, I am challenged at the thought of throwing away a favorite piece of clothing. It just about can’t get too ragged for me to quit wearing it. I tend to drive to work and home again the same way day after day. (Sometimes I arrive in my driveway and wonder how I got there.) I have followed the same system of sermon preparation for years. Many of us say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The problem with the church is that it is broken. We say things like, “If it was good enough for our parents it should be good enough for the latest generation.” For many of us that makes sense. Unfortunately, it is wrong.
5. No longer motivated to do evangelism. We have lost the vision for evangelism. As a seminary professor said several years ago, “We haven’t been nearly as good at evangelism since we canceled hell.” In our multicultural, pluralistic society, we are confronted by ever increasing populations of people adhering to other religions. As we attempt to adapt to our new world, we have become fearful of appearing narrow minded, spiritually arrogant or religiously intolerant. No evangelism no church growth. It is a simple but powerful formula for decline. Sooner or later our passing disenchanted members back and forth can no longer disguise our lack of real growth. We have, somehow, lost sight of the fact that Christianity is unique in world religions.
6. Too frightened or lazy to do what needs to be done. Changing a church – what many of us call Church Transformation – is difficult work. It takes much study, thought, prayer, teaching and trial and error. There are few models of church transformation to follow. It is emotionally draining, calls for long hours on the job, produces very little positive feedback (especially in the early stages) and takes many years to do. Frankly, it is easier to ride out what you have and pray it lasts until you are ready to retire.
7. Don’t know another way. The way we are doing church is how we have always done church. We mistakenly believe that the 20^th Century way of doing church is the way church has always been done and is the only way it can be done. We are just doing church like we have always seen it done; we don’t know another way. For some odd reason we seem convinced that if we keep doing what we are doing it will, somehow, begin to produce different and better results. To make the necessary changes that will make the church healthy, viable, and growing takes learning a whole new way of doing church. It is not that we must change everything we do; but we must come to the point we are willing to change everything we do.
8. Work from the misconception that doing church like we do it is sacred. Along with only knowing one way to do church, we often mistakenly believe that what we have inherited from our parents is the God ordained, sacred way of doing church. To do differently would be sacrilegious. This is an amazingly egocentric way of looking at things but it is very common. It helps a lot to get out of your tiny denomination box and visit churches of a different flavor. This must be done with an open mind and heart. The self-righteousness that fosters the idea that our way is God’s chosen way generally closes one to learning from others. It is easy to discount and look down on how others do church differently and rationalize that their “success” is not real. But if what we are doing is not reaching people, perhaps we would do well to be more open.

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Bill McConnell is Senior Minister at Lindenwood Christian Church in Memphis, Tennessee and is a Church Transformation consultant and a Christian Leadership Coach. He is a frequent speaker at Church Transformation events. He can be contacted @ bill45053@gmail.com.

Leadership Takes Courage

The church of the 21^st Century in North America is struggling mightily with some significant problems and challenges. I am proud of the church for being willing to engage in such a struggle. For much too long the church chose to take the approach that there were no challenges; that there were problems, not with the church but, instead, with the culture.

Many have addressed the plethora of problems confronting the church: From a lack of authenticity, to a lack of mercy, to a lack of love, to a lack transparency, to a lack of direction, to a lack of consistency, to a lack of direction, to a lack of hospitality, to a lack of mission, to a lack of whatever. What the church lacks has been thoroughly dragged out and inspected. Except one thing. We haven’t taken a hard look at one of the church’s greatest weaknesses; one of the things lacking that is causing the church the most distress. I believe that to be the lack of courageous leadership.

When I talk about church leadership I understand that churches are led by both clergy and lay leaders. But I, as a member of the clergy, am going to only address the lack of strong leadership that our pastors are failing to provide for the church.

It is more than understandable why our pastors are failing to provide leadership for our churches. Most of us did not answer a call to leadership; we answered a call to the pastorate; to be pastors. Most of us went to school – 4 years of college and 3 years of seminary – to train for the pastorate. We learned to read and write and speak. We learned some theology, Greek and Hebrew, pastoral care, Christian education, spiritual disciplines, church administration and, most importantly, how to run a projector. We took classes in almost everything except leadership. Leadership wasn’t on the agenda and, for most of us; it is not on our radar screen.

In fact, most of us were taught to do church in reverse leadership. Instead of answering a call to a church and leading the people forward in God’s calling for that church, we were taught to go to a church and ask this question: “What do you want to do?” Like most politicians of our era, we attempt to lead from behind. Back in the crowd is a place of comfort and safety. Nothing of much consequence happens in the life of a group (or a country) when such non-leadership is exercised, but one’s life expectancy in the organization is markedly increased.

Most of us fail to lead because we were not taught to lead and leading never occurs to us. We just coast along from church to church to church wondering why nothing particularly significant happens in our ministries and finally land safely in retirement. We become so accustomed to not much happening in our churches we come up with statements like the one a dear preacher friend made to me several years ago: “If you move them and inch, you’ve done some great work.” The truth is we have worked hard but we have not done great work. We have hardly moved them. And we won’t do great work until we learn to lead our churches in the Mission God has called us to.

When we look at the topic of leadership we must think in terms of courageous leadership. Leadership that does not display courage is not truly leadership. And this, I believe, is where we have a profound problem. Like a majority of folks, being courageous day in and day out is too much to ask. We can have flashes of courage. But courage as a way of life is difficult. Because of the personality type attracted to ministry, many of we preacher-types tend to want people to like us and approve of us. More of the ministry we do than we would like to admit is done so people will like us and approve of us. Doing pastoral ministry often brings gratitude and thanks from those receiving that ministry. And that gratitude really massages the old ego. Having people recognize us in public as being “wonderful” for being there for them during a difficult time is addictive. It is not a bad thing, but it can become primarily why we do ministry. And that is unhealthy.

The courageous leadership it takes to lead a church forward often is met with opposition and sometimes with anger, unkind words and even threats of violence. It takes courage and conviction to deal with such criticism and remain on task and on target. In a vast majority of churches I have worked with, any display of opposition immediately halts the forward momentum of new or proposed ministries. We are so afraid of offending someone that we allow the most negative people in the church to “lead” the church. We abdicate leadership for fear of incurring someone or ones’ displeasure.

Bill Hybels, pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, encourages pastors to ask and answer a difficult, soul searching question. “As a leader, how often have I aborted a vision secretly because I’ve lacked the courage to do the hard thing?” This is true in far more cases than any of us would like to admit. Leading a church into change and transformation is difficult, demanding and dangerous. The possibility of verbal abuse, exhaustion from long hours of work and having people oppose every new initiative is extremely high.

Many clergy look at that and decide to not take on the challenge. Instead, we quietly exist in dying churches patiently waiting for the day of our retirement. I say, shame on us. We are afraid someone may not like us. We are afraid we might be fired. We think: Life is good, why upset this good deal? Brene Brown challenges us: “You can choose courage or comfort. But you cannot choose both.”

For those of us honest enough to answer yes to the question Hybels proposes, he also says: “Don’t go to your grave with you cool visions and dreams. Don’t die a coward.” Strong words but good words. As many have already said, I want to come to the end of life regretting the mistakes I have made instead of regretting the many things I did not have the courage to attempt.

The church in our culture is losing ground in any way you choose to measure it. Most of our churches “leaders” choose to wring our hands, bemoan the demise of the church, encourage our people to hang in there and invite others to join us in dying as an organization, and continue to do business as usual. This is not leadership. The most often repeated command from God, “Be not afraid,” was not given by chance. If you are going to be a God follower and a church leader, be of good courage. Please.

Copyright © 2013, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved

Fuzzy Church

Fuzzy Vision
I can’t see. I didn’t know that until I entered the first grade. When I complained of being unable to see the writing on the board I was whisked off to the eye doctor and fitted for my first pair of glasses. The eye doctor mumbled some odd numbers like 20/200 and kept shaking his head. Soon I was fitted with a great pair of very unattractive glasses. This was back in ancient times before several great innovations in lens technology so I had glasses with rather thick lenses. Kids being kids they immediately dubbed my glasses and me “Coke bottle bottoms.”

Frankly, I didn’t care what they called me. I could see. There I was, six years old, and for the first time in my life I could see the things that other kids had been seeing all along. I discovered that one could see individual blades of grass without having to lie down on the grass. Trees have individual leaves. A baseball thrown to me could be seen before it was just inches away. A whole new world and a whole new way of seeing the world had opened up to me. Call me names, I didn’t care. Life was suddenly bright and clear. I especially loved the clear part. It took a bit of adjusting to but adjust I did and love it I did.

Fuzzy Church
We live in a time when we like to label things and people and ideas and politics and just about everything. We, in the life of the church, like labels too. There are all kinds of “Church” going on out there. There is traditional church, contemporary church, emergent church, progressive church, house church, open and affirming church, life church, simple church, cyber church, and the list could go on and on. I would like to propose one more “type” of church – Fuzzy Church.

Fuzzy Church is what most of our aging, mainline denominational churches seem to be practicing. By Fuzzy Church I mean we are doing church without our glasses on. We can’t see where we are or where we are going. We, the church, lack what I lacked before entering school and visiting the eye doctor – clear vision. We insist on doing church, or are at least willing to do church, without a clear, powerful and empowering vision from God. And without a vision our blurred, fuzzy perceptions are causing us to stumble around, running into problems, arguing with each other about minutia, running after whatever appears in our paths as something cool and trendy to do, attempting to build our churches on what we might consider to be good ideas.

I am not a proponent of Fuzzy Church. Not only do I not want to practice Fuzzy Church, I believe if we keep doing Fuzzy Church, we are going to kill the church. Well over 100 years ago, in what I believe was an amazingly egocentric move, Frederick Nietzsche pronounce God dead. He, of course, didn’t mean that God had really died, but that God had never existed. It is a cheap shot but I will take it by announcing that 100 + years later God is much more alive than Nietzsche.

Since the days of the announcement of the death of God, many people have been writing about and arguing about and worrying about the life and health of the church in North America. For the past several decades those within the church and those who observe the church from a safe distance have opined that the church is on its way out. Many people have joyfully pronounced the church dead. I don’t think the church is dead. Well, I don’t think it is all dead, but it is just mostly dead. (My thanks and apologies to the writers of The Princess Bride.)

The Results of Fuzzy Church
The church in the northern hemisphere, as we have known it for several centuries, is just about dead. That is not an opinion. It is not an accusation. It is not a complaint. It is not a call to arms. It is just an observation. If the statistics being reported to us are accurate, it is an astute observation of the obvious. The church in North America is dying and it is dying rapidly.

I feel badly about that… kinda. First let me address the “I feel bad” part of that statement. I feel bad because I love the church. In general, the church has been good to me and for me. Some of the best (and some of the worst) experiences I have had have been in the church. I believe in the church. I think Jesus founded the church as His vehicle to impact this sadly sick world with His message of love, health and forgiveness. The church, at its best, is an awesome, beautiful thing. But all too often, the church is not at its best. And at its less-than-best the church must be seen as unacceptable.

I feel badly that the church is dying because it is me and people like me who have just about finished it off. It has been under my generation’s leadership that the church has taken a nose dive in attendance, mission, ministry and cultural influence. The church has survived some amazingly toxic assaults, both ecclesiastical and secular, over the centuries. But nothing can measure up to the toxicity of our present North American culture. I am not attempting to fix blame for the state of the church; just making an observation. Without going into a cultural diatribe let me just say that our present culture is a challenging place and time to do church. Personally, I like the challenge. I believe it is in just such a challenging arena that the church can flourish and grow to its fullest potential. That is where my “kinda” came from. Though we, the church, seem to be dying rapidly, I believe we are perfectly positioned to profoundly impact our world.

Get a Clear Vision
This article is not a plea or an apologetic for everyone to do church like I think we should do church. It is a call for us to quit doing church driven by our personal preferences, our political agendas, our perceived needs, or our human frailties. Instead we must start doing church driven by the vision God has given us, you and me, for the church. It is not about trying to meet the needs of the people in our communities (Though that is not a bad idea.), or speaking to the preferences of a specific generational group (But that is not to be ignored.), or pushing a political agenda in the name of justice or righteousness (Though justice and righteousness are great things to pursue.), or putting all of our time, energy and effort in developing programs and events that might grow the church (Again not a bad idea.). Instead we must get a Godly vision.

Quite honestly, I have attempted to “do church” using almost all of the previously mentioned platforms, policies, programs and processes. And in doing those things I have been moderately successful… for a while… sometimes. But the church always seemed to be wandering, feeling its way around, not going anywhere in particular or doing anything with strength and vigor. I have come to believe we were doing fuzzy church.

It is probably pretty common to find it easier to try to do church by searching out new and innovative programs, plugging them into my local church situation and trying to get them to work. Most of us find it to be much more difficult to get a vision and using that vision to drive the church. By vision I do not mean coming up with a good idea. Coming up with a good idea or two is easy. I can come up with a couple of good ideas a week. I am talking about finding a God-given, divinely inspired vision for what God would have your local church be and do. Taking the time and energy to seek God and to listen to what God has to say is difficult. Some, if not most, churches seek God’s vision by having a meeting and inviting everyone to come and have their say. And I am all for people having their say. But the voice I want to hear is God and that voice is usually heard in the quiet of prayer and meditation and in conversations with follow visionaries. To find God’s calling, mission and vision for your church is going to take a deep investment in prayer, study of the scripture and deeply spiritual conversations among the spiritual leaders of the church.

With a clear vision to guide the church, fuzzy church goes away. Discussions are held in the context of the vision. Instead of making decisions based on personal preference or past experiences, decisions begin to be made according to where the vision is directing the church.

• Should our worship service be traditional, blended or contemporary? What is our vision?
• Should we invest in a children’s sports ministry? What is our vision?
• Should we consider remodeling the present structure or should we relocate? What is our vision?
• Should the church develop a small group ministry? What is the vision?
• What kind of staffing should the church add? What is the vision?

Being guided by a God given vision changes how we do church. It changes everything about what we decide and how we decide to move into the church’s future. Vision brings clarity. No more fuzzy church.

Copyright © 2010, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved