There’s an interesting shift happening in the landscape of the church today. Interesting in what has felt to be a very disturbing way. Interesting in a way that is scaring leadership of many mainline denominations. Interesting in a way that appears to be, by all outward appearances, the great shrinking of the institutional church. But I am curious.
Is the church decreasing or is it decentralizing?
The shift for churches to an online presence throughout the pandemic has drawn many would-be church goers to stick around at home and watch from a distance. While there are some issues here that we can go into at a later point, we need to resist the urge as pastors to jump to the negative on this one.
Is this a hurdle or an opportunity?
The short answer is yes! This is a hurdle in the sense that many of those who are not joining in the worship experience in person are missing out on some massively beneficial aspects of what the church is supposed to be. They’re missing the family connection when they join worship together with other believers. They’re missing out in many cases on participation in communion as a body of Christ. They’re missing out on the realization that they are part of something significantly larger than themselves.
But it is also a wildly exciting opportunity if we just take time to engage the possibilities. Through the pandemic, as many churches shifted to online worship or made their current online options more robust, the increase in those who participated in some form of worship engagement was astronomical! The church I serve saw an online engagement that was 200% or more higher than our normal Sunday attendance pre-pandemic.
Additionally, now that we are online many of our members who were unable to attend for a variety of reasons from health to mobility to job requirements all have the chance to participate in worship.
So what would happen if we looked at the shift that’s happening as an opportunity? How can we empower and equip these members of our churches to be missionaries in their communities when they’re not at church? Newsflash but when the church first got rolling in the New Testament they didn’t have brick and mortar buildings or programs out the wazoo. They had people to love and hold accountable. They met in homes and in neighborhood settings.
A word of caution to you pastor type people. Don’t lower the quality of your online option to make people come back to in person gatherings. I’ve heard that and it makes me sick to my stomach. How underhanded is that really!?
A word of caution to those of you not willing to engage in worship in person. The longer you’re gone from in person gatherings with your church family, the harder it will be to get back with them. You’ll find any excuse in the book not to come, and we’re already seeing it.
Love one another well. Serve one another without expectation of repayment or without a what’s in it for me attitude. Just be the church (the people of God) for goodness sake and watch what God will do when his people are faithful to his call on their lives!
The church is not shrinking. It’s moving to places we never let it go before and it is terrifyingly exciting! We’re witnessing the great decentralization of church away from institutional into incarnational.