Church Alive: In a Mission Mode

 

In early 1963, America was quiet.  We were watching "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Petticoat Junction" on TV.  We had a young, charismatic president.  Nobody heard of Vietnam, LSD, or the Rolling Stones!

But a 21-year-old singer songwriter named Bob Dylan wrote a song with the lyrics:

            Come gather 'round people
            Wherever you roam
            And admit that the waters
            Around you have grown
            And accept it that soon
            You'll be drenched to the bone.
            If your time to you
            Is worth savin'
            Then you better start swimmin'
            Or you'll sink like a stone
            For the times they are a-changin'.

Dylan probably wrote more than he knew!  We didn't know it, but a flood was coming.  This flood became a perfect storm for the church!

Leonard Sweet wrote that beginning in the early 1960s, the church in the West sailed into a perfect storm made up of at least three destructive elements: postmodernism, post-Christendom, and post-denominationalism.  In this storm, the church in America began steep declines in affiliation and attendance, beginning with mainline congregations like Methodists and Presbyterians, but eventually extending to conservative ones like the Southern Baptist Convention.

The storm shows no sign of abating, as church attendance and affiliation continue to decline.  In just the past 20 years the percentage of Americans who say they are affiliated with a church has dropped from 70% to 50%.  Even worse, the younger the person, the less likely she was to say she was affiliated with a church!

What should churches do?  The answer lies in the church's beginnings.  In Acts 1:6-8, Jesus told his followers that the Holy Spirit would fall on them, and they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.  He spoke this amid a world and culture that was often hostile to his message.  Yet as unpromising as the church's beginnings were, the book of Acts tells how Jesus' followers were witnesses to the ends of the earth in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The early church tells us at least two things about facing our perfect storm.  First, we need the power of the Holy Spirit to be effective witnesses in our age.  No clever attractional events or methods can substitute for the Spirit's power.  Second, we need to see our communities as mission fields.  We can't rely on the support of a Christian culture anymore.  

Though we're "drenched to the bone," we know God's church is in his hands.  Our job is to be his witnesses through the power of his Spirit!