I have a series of posts lined up which have be floating around my head for a while. I feel it is time that these thoughts come to fore; partly inspired by some on going discussions with a good friend and mentor of mine about how the modern church is supposed to reach, help and serve Albert Rd (our short hand for the non-Christian masses), partly inspired by a great post I stumbled upon by Wess at “gathering in light” (Unless a grain of wheat falls: the church in 25 years), and partly because the local church of which I am a part is in the process of looking at what we are doing now, how we go forward, and why.
In general, the number of regular church goers in British churches is in terminal decline. This is especially true in the 16 – 30 age bracket. There are certain individual churches and certain types on church that buck this trend but as a broad sweeping statement, which I am not going to try and backup with statistics of any kind (*smile*), the church will run out of members in the next 50 years unless something changes.
Put in simple terms, as the older generation dies off. They are not being replaced by young blood. That’s not to say that there are not lots of young Christians out there. But they are, in the main, shunning the Church.
This is not just a problem reserved for the young. Increasingly people over 30 are also finding it more difficult to commit to a church. For whatever reason folk are choosing to either just dip in and out of a church community, or to disassociate themselves all together.
There was a time when the main question was why do people who are not Christians not seem to show any interest in what we do as Church. Now I fear the question is why do Christian’s not seem all that bothered either.
So why has this happened? And should we care?
Why?
Ok, so I don’t really have an answer here. But I have a couple of common suggestions.
- Church is irrelevant.
Whatever that means. - We are victims of other peoples success.
Because of the battles of a by-gone age Church is easy, comfortable, and eventually, boring. There is no challenge, it’s just dull.
- Busy, busy, busy. We are just too busy.
Sunday is my only day off. I want to sleep in, watch the football and spend time with my family. When else am I going to do it? And as for midweek, not a chance. I’ve got three kids and I work sixty hours a week. You get the idea.
- We just don’t get the point of Church.
Stand up, sing a song, sit down, sermon, stand up, sing a song, force out the pleasantries, run. A week until we have to endure again. *sigh*
I’ll try and tackle each one of these in upcoming posts (and probably a few more besides when they come up).
Should we care?
Why does it matter? Those who like church go, those who don’t, don’t. If Church dies out then surely it’s just some form of Christian evolution. The way it should be
Unfortunately I don’t think we can get away with that. The New Testament is very big on us meeting together as a family of believers. We need it, and more than that, our local communities; the towns and cities where we live out our lives need it.
Maybe the “should we care” post should come before all the “why people don’t” posts, but that’s the way I’m doing it; unless I change my mind. So stay tuned.
