What on Earth is Going on?
June 5, 2009 // By: Bob Hamp // 2 Comments
Change is accelerating in every arena of existence and at an unprecedented rate. Today, regardless of what arena you operate in massive shift is happening. It is not just the United States, and it is not just human society. It’s even more than just the natural world. Politics, economy, human perversion, human achievement, natural phenomena, and the world religious climate, all these and many other arenas are in a state of upheaval. I am fairly sure we need not fear, but I am equally sure we should tune in and be wise.
It is especially important to really understand what is going on in the religious climate. I am not even referring here to the thrust of Islam into multiple societies and the impact of the Muslim culture in those societies. I do think this is an impactful change, but not the one I think we should most draw our attention to.
It is the Christian church that I think we need to attend to. In many of the major Christian groups, change is happening, and it should happen on purpose. Not just on purpose but on target.
People are leaving church. Church is changing. It is difficult to miss this exodus. In many instances, churches are leaving church. Institutionalized Christianity is in a shake up. One of my good friends declares, and I think rightly, “people are not leaving God, they are just leaving church.” In fact, I would go a step further. I think many are searching for God, and this search is part of the exodus.
As a result of this departure, as traditional forms of church lose people in large numbers, other churches are growing rapidly. People who see this shift are trying to answer the question, “what do we need to do differently?” “How can we attract these people to our church?” Churches and church leaders are also searching for answers. It is this search that has me intrigued, excited and more than a little concerned.
As a counselor, I am familiar with change. I am familiar with the kind of change that brings about problems, and the kind of change that solves problems. I am particularly familiar with the kind of change people seek to implement when they become aware of problems. It is this kind of change that usually escalates disintegration, and precedes an individual or family seeking professional help.
It looks like this; the problem(s) become evident. Someone, or several someones define the problem. Sometimes they define it intentionally, sometimes they define it reactively. Either way, this is a very important step. The way the problem is defined directly affects the nature of the solutions that will be applied. If the problem is defined incorrectly, every subsequent step will increase the intensity of problems.
We are now at the stage on these changes in institutional Christianity where we can begin to examine the important questions. Have the problems been defined rightly, and are these definitions leading to solutions that will bring about the desired change?
I see that most groups have tried to define the problem as this; the church as it was, had become irrelevant to the culture as it is. Now the answers begin to flow. We need to adjust the message, we are seen as too judgmental. We need to adjust our services, people are not interested, or tittilated. We need to adjust our technology, our strategy, or our look. You name it, we should change it. Whatever it is that people believe has made us irrelevant, can be adjusted.
This is the other thing I know about change. As a counselor, I was often helping people solve bad solutions, By the time they were ready to pay my bill, the solutions they had been attempting had become far worse than the problem they began with. The husband who was dissatisfied with his wife, so he decided to criticize her into changing, or the man who was unhappy with his life, so he decided to drink to deal with his unhappiness. These and countless other “solutions” can turn fairly simple problems into complex, systemic disintegration.
When solutions have become problems, it is time to go back and examine the definitions of the problems. The longer people wait to redefine problems the more deeply entrenched the bad solutions become. In my next several posts, I am going to ask the question…what went wrong, leading the church to become irrelevant?
My apologies; yesterdays title came from Ed Funderburk, not Marcus Brecheen.
2 Comments
Bob,
I can relate to your topic. I was recently living an unfulfilled, empty, fearful life. One where I questioned my own personal salvation. I won’t go into my search for a church or better yet my attempts to reconnect with God but will begin with my wife and I finding Gateway Church and God present in the first meeting there.
What did Gateway provide that was different? The Holy Spirit was present and convicting. We were greeted with love.
What proceeded my first meeting or visit? I attended a G8 Men’s group. The Christian G8 men were honest, open, understanding, equipped, and acted on authority of God in rescuing me. I belong now, I am part of this God fearing, trusting, and loving group of men. “ALL IN”
Then my wife and I discovered the fact that Pastor Robert and all his staff of loving compassionate pastors are of one accord and teaching the same message, that God has uncondentional love for us and wants to not just save you for his eternal glory but by rebirth he restores us as new made whole again, and thru The Holy Spirit led Gateway programs he equips us to become productive relevant disiples for his earthly service. Thank you Jesus!
This awareness that God is love and his love is uncondentional was unlike any message we had ever heard.
We settled in on the foundation of love and became more receptive to the Holy Spirit and responded as led, growing in a deeper understanding of God’s promises and commandments, realizing sins commited along the way had strongholds over our lives. These sins must be repented of, and addressed according to scripture. With this process in action we are growing spiritually with the Gateway plan of; Christian salvation, growth, becomong servants of God, living with a promise of a secure eternal life.
These are all achieved by the relavent teachings, love, counciling, and small group support we receive at Gateway. The Gateway Pastors and Christian leaders are leading by example, walking the walk, and honestly sharing their victories, challenges, and weaknesses. They follow-up by demonstrating, sharing and teaching how God provides the necessary super- natural tools and resources to overcome these challenges and weaknesses thus living for Christ Jesus.
The Holy Bible’s relevant teachings from God strengenthen, and encourage us to grow-in, trust-in, and “obey” God. The Holy Bible based principals which are taught at Gateway; addressed our needs, gaps, issues, promises, restoring and filling our lives with joy. The result is spiritual growth, conviction, and a daily desire to grow-in the Lord thru the Holy Spirit’s wisdom, power, strength, and devine understanding.
I understand bad fruit can’t bare good fruit and I must change my actions, desires, and total life in true evidence of my salvation. This is what’s different for me I want to do this. I am different.
My life is now more complete full of love, joy, peace, confidence, and compassion with several daily prayers to God of praise, admiration, thanks, and of course repentance. I have access thru prayer and the church to the Holy Spirit spiritual tools or support I need to address and overcome life’s daily challenges and setbacks. I react differently most of the time and am convicted by the Holy Spirit when I don’t measure up.
My wife and I know God will meet our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. With that promise made, we believe Gateway Church, it’s pastors, staff, groups, and programs are part of those glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Our joy of the Lord is that we have his eternal assurance, all is ok.
A solid article, Bob. Not to sidestep your thoughts, but the title instantly had me think this thought:
If: “What on Earth is going on?” really is the question, then the answer is two-fold.
* We went from relational to religious;
* The spiritual battles are escalating because the Godless cultures have infiltrated our culture – and we’ve let it happen.
The decline of denominations is one of the clearest indicators that when Christianity became a Pronoun instead of a Verb, the effectiveness of local churches (and, subsequently, the Church body that made up those local churches) lost their value as relational and shifted to institutionalized religion.
Many “Christians” won’t use that title to describe themselves. I’m one of those people and my two reasons are: 1) I don’t want to be associated with “religion” and 2) I didn’t adopt a title, I was adopted into a relationship.
That’s why I say, with clear intentionality, “I’m a follower of Jesus”.
Now, for the really hard part – change in spite of health and success.
The model of church here in the USA is largely failing. It’s built upon a build-it-and-they-will-come mentality. We can live in a field of dreams, but that won’t make it true. Even churches that the Lord is blessing with ridiculous favor that are effective at evangelism and discipleship and are healthy to their core have a limited-run engagement on the current model.
The community-transforming local bodies we read about in the Word were not just culturally different from us, they put far less emphasis on being a “local temple” (church) and instead focused on changing their communities.
No matter how successful, how big or how blessed a church is today (and I’d say our church is doing incredibly well due to God’s blessing and the humility and obedience of the leadership), there will come a time when even this version of “church-as-usual” will fail and fade away.
Change must happen, not merely for the churches that are failing but also for the churches that are succeeding on the old model.
Something can be successful in spite of itself. Let’s not be one of those organizations that falls into that trap. Churches (and the Church) must embrace change with the focus of changing our communities.
(P.S. – here’s a litmus test: if a local church literally went away tomorrow, would their local community – not the attendees – miss them?)