What is the future of God’s Church on Earth?
It has taken me a long time to prepare this talk, most of it spent searching on Amazon for a suitable Crystal Ball which I could bring along as a visual aid to demonstrate my amazing powers of seeing the future! But I couldn’t find one so you are going to have to make do with my own reflections, based not on what I see in a crystal ball but on what I see happening in our church today.
The subject, when announced in church last week, seemed to merit a bit of a smirk from many in the congregation, a few raised eyebrows too. I even had a few comments along the lines of ‘I don’t envy you speaking on that one!’ I wonder what you are expecting … doom and despondency? Predictions of the imminent death of the church? Or perhaps you are looking forward to an exposition of all the wonderful things which are happening in the church which are leading to a huge revival. Whichever of those two extremes you are thinking of I am going to disappoint you!
The word Church can be taken to mean different things in different situations. It occurs just twice in the gospel of Matthew and not at all in Mark, Luke or John. However in Acts and the letters the word crops up about 115 times. The Greek word which is translated as church is ECCLESIA which literally means ‘the called out ones’. I am sure I am not telling you anything new when I say that the word church did not originally mean a great cathedral or a small village chapel, church meant the people who were called by God to follow in the way of Christ.
Andy Twilley, the Southern Synod Training and Development officer, uses a little grammar test to help people to grasp the idea that the church is not a building, the church is the people. I thought I would try it (apologies to Joyce and Madeline who have heard this from the horse’s mouth quite recently, please bear with me and don’t give the game away.
But the rest of you can shout out the answers –
What is the plural of dog? Dogs
What is the plural of cat? Cats.
What is the plural of disciple? Church!
Church is the word we can use to describe the body of faithful people, the called out ones, those who are seeking to love God and love others.
So it is all about people not buildings.
So I am not going to talk about the future of church buildings, about their maintenance to ensure they are still standing in the future. I don’t think that is quite what Diana had in mind when she put forward the title ‘What is the future of God’s Church on earth?’
I am going to talk a bit about statistics, both globally and in the UK, we need to know a little about the numbers of people who make up our churches.
I will talk about the current state of the United Reformed Church, apologies to our friends from other denominations but I suspect much of what I have to say will ring true for your churches too.
I will offer you my own reflections as to why we are seeing a decline in the church.
And finally I am going to give you my own visions for the future of God’s church on earth, thinking specifically about the church which is the body of disciples who meet together in this place.
So numbers -
There are roughly 2.2 billion people across the world who claim to be Christians. When you look at that statistic you could paint a very rosy picture for the future of God’s church on earth. But dig a little deeper and you discover that there are only certain places ‘on earth’ that Christianity is really thriving. The church is flourishing in some places, for example in just one year (2015/16) there was an increase of 50 million Catholics in Africa. Parts of Asia and South America have similar good news stories. And, furthermore, amongst Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America between 80 and 100% say their religion is “very important” in their lives, a statement which I feel qualifies them to be ‘church’ , in the plural-of-disciple sense of the word. These are people who are living a life of worship and service. They are church and as such have a clear and positive future ahead of them, living lives of faith, sharing the gospel and growing more disciples.
But in North America and Western Europe, and in the UK, in particular, the story is very different.
The statistics aren’t that bad at first glance – in the 2011 census nearly 60% of the UK population said they were Christian. That sounds pretty good to me, 6 out of every 10 people. But here is the interesting bit - amongst those who claim to be Christians in this country only 11% class their religion as ‘very important’ to them. Putting a tick in the Christian box on a census form is very different to being an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ.
Church attendance dropped hugely in the last 10 years. There are of course exceptions to the rule, some churches have grown, many of which are the Pentecostal churches.
In the United Reformed Church the figures are not good. Every year each URC has to complete an annual return saying how many members, how many children, how many bums on seats on a Sunday etc. Martin Camroux, past minister of Trinity Church in Sutton, takes it upon himself to analyse the results each year and draw some conclusions. His summary of the 2019 membership figures makes interesting, if somewhat depressing reading.
“In most years since 1975,” he says, “the decline has usually been in the region of 2-3%. This year’s decline of 5.3% .... is our worst ever.”
Along with membership, the average congregation size has also dropped, 23 churches have closed and there are fewer stipendiary ministers. Again there are of course churches which buck the trend but looking at the figures I can’t help but suggest that the future of the United Reformed Church is looking pretty bleak.
So why?
Many of you were here a few weeks ago for the funeral service of Muriel Sanders, a lovely lady, devoted wife, mother and grandmother and a faithful member of this church. She died in her 95th year. In the eulogy, we reflected on just a couple of the changes she would have seen over the course of her long and happy life – a man walking on the moon and the marvels of smart phones and computers. The world in which she spent her last decade was very different to that in which she grew up and spent her early married life. So many advancements in technology, new discoveries and progress it must have been bewildering – but the church hadn’t changed! Most of the hymns written in the eighteenth century, by Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts and Co, were all still being sung, the services took the same form, organ music still filled the air (with the occasional piano now and again). Sometimes there might be a new tune – a really modern one, written, (dare I say it?) in the twentieth century but things were pretty much as they had always been, as she liked it. The only difference was that there were fewer people in the congregation.
Cultural change has been underway in this country for decades but it seems as though the church has only just realised! The world has moved on but much of the church is still living in the past, still doing the same things it has always done, in the same way it has always done them and wondering why the people are not interested.
I think one of the biggest reasons for declining congregations is quite simply that the church has not moved with the times, it has not embraced new ideas and new ways of being church and it has therefore alienated itself from ‘ordinary’ people.
So what steps can we take to stop the rot?
In some cases, I am afraid, I truly believe it is too late to change, where congregations are not just very elderly but also physically frail and lacking in enthusiasm, where there is no energy for change, no willingness to try something new, then perhaps it is time to pull down the shutters and close the local church. These people will not cease to be ‘church’, they are still disciples, still trying to follow the way of Christ but maybe they would be better placed joining with others where they can offer their prayerful or financial support to new and exciting projects which seek to grow new disciples and draw our world closer to God’s kingdom.
But I think there is still hope for God’s church on earth, or more specifically for God’s church in this place. Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian pastor, explains that what separates the churches that have a future and those that don’t is their varying attitude to their mission and their model or method. Churches, he says that love their method more than their mission will die. The mission is their raison d’etre, what they do, but the method is how they do it.
The difference will be between those who cling to the mission and those who cling to the method.
When the car was invented, it quickly took over from the horse and cart. Cart manufacturers were relegated to boutique status and many went under, but human transportation actually exploded. Suddenly average people could travel at a level they never could before.
The mission was to travel. The method changed from cart, to car, or motorcycle, or jet plane. If people loved their cart more than the idea of travelling and clung on to that rather than explored new ways of travelling they would have had no future.
We can use other examples - Look at the changes in the publishing, music and even photography industry in the last few years.
Companies that show innovation around the mission (such as Apple, Samsung) will be more successful than companies that remain devoted to the method (like Kodak).
As church we need to stay focused on our mission – our raison d’etre i.e. leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus, and be exceptionally innovative in our method – how we do it, changing and updating to ensure we keep up with our ever-changing society.
One of characteristic of that society is the increasing consumerist lifestyle. No longer do we live in a one-size fits all society. There was a time when Henry Ford famously claimed of his T2 model car,
“You can have it in any colour as long as it is black” and people were happy with that, but consumers have become more discerning. Basic needs have been met and now there is greater variety so the consumer has more choice and customer satisfaction becomes key. This is paralleled in the way people choose to engage, or not engage, with the church. Increasingly people make choices between religious options (churches) in the same way as they choose supermarkets. The religious market is wide open; there are no longer any natural monopolies. Denominations have become less important, what interests people increasingly is what an individual church has to offer. Therefore to thrive, or even simply to survive, religious institutions must market themselves.
And of course that leads us into the huge subject of social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all those other things of which I know, just by looking at your faces, many of you have no real understanding. But, like it or not, it is the way forward. People today, and not just young people, use the internet for everything. The biggest increase of internet users is amongst people over 65! The church’s online presence is the first place any potential disciple will look for us.
Today people rarely buy any major item without reading online reviews first or nor do they visit a restaurant without checking it out online. Our online presence will be the general public’s first impression of church, a first step which may, in time, lead them to some kind of engagement with the gathered church, and perhaps ultimately a personal connection with Christ.
The church (the called out ones) in the Acts of the Apostles met where many meetings took place – in one another’s homes, perhaps the church of today should also be meeting where many meetings take place – online!
The idea of Online church or Cyberchurch began in the United States and has now spread to this country, these are sites where visitors can interact with pastors, volunteer on a prayer team, and watch live sermons, or listen to podcasts. Many people scoff at the idea of an online church, maintaining that you can’t be a faithful disciple without being part of a living breathing church community and I would tend to agree with them, but the internet is a wonderful, non-confrontational starting point. Just think of all those online dating apps – they are just the starting point in a relationship, bringing people together so they can find out a bit about each other before having to meet face to face. Couldn’t that method be used by the church too? Let’s allow people to find out about us, with no obligation, to ask questions and perhaps they will like what they see and take the next step of meeting us. To be part of the future of God’s church on earth we need to take social media seriously.
To conclude I would like to return to some words from Martin Camroux – Reports of the death of the church have been greatly exaggerated. God is not going out of business.
Life with God seems to be something of a journey all the time, always calling us out of the familiar into something new. The theme of journey runs through our scriptures: think about Abraham, Moses and others; think about Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem and the cross; and the first Christians who left their homes to take the gospel message to new places. It seems to me that being church requires a life that is characterized by a willingness to leave the old and take on the new.
So I guess my answer to the question ‘What is the future of God’s Church on earth’ is that it is up to us – we are the church, its future is in our hands. If we want it to survive then we must ensure that it moves on, embracing innovation, discovering fresh ways of doing things.
But, most importantly, and this is really important, (if you have dropped off to sleep now is the time to wake up and take notice): the message must say the same. We can try new things, experiment with worship and find new ways to engage with our community but the essence of being church, of being disciples of Jesus Christ must remain the same – a desire to worship the Lord, to love each other and share the Good News. These things are our mission, they are non-negotiable.
Jesus said I will build my church, he started with Peter and the apostles but is continuing with us. He will build it, not with bricks and mortar but with people, people with the spiritual values of love, joy, faith, hope, peace, patience, humility and wisdom.
Let us be those people,
let us be the future of God’s church on earth.
Linda Richards 12.04.2019
It has taken me a long time to prepare this talk, most of it spent searching on Amazon for a suitable Crystal Ball which I could bring along as a visual aid to demonstrate my amazing powers of seeing the future! But I couldn’t find one so you are going to have to make do with my own reflections, based not on what I see in a crystal ball but on what I see happening in our church today.
The subject, when announced in church last week, seemed to merit a bit of a smirk from many in the congregation, a few raised eyebrows too. I even had a few comments along the lines of ‘I don’t envy you speaking on that one!’ I wonder what you are expecting … doom and despondency? Predictions of the imminent death of the church? Or perhaps you are looking forward to an exposition of all the wonderful things which are happening in the church which are leading to a huge revival. Whichever of those two extremes you are thinking of I am going to disappoint you!
The word Church can be taken to mean different things in different situations. It occurs just twice in the gospel of Matthew and not at all in Mark, Luke or John. However in Acts and the letters the word crops up about 115 times. The Greek word which is translated as church is ECCLESIA which literally means ‘the called out ones’. I am sure I am not telling you anything new when I say that the word church did not originally mean a great cathedral or a small village chapel, church meant the people who were called by God to follow in the way of Christ.
Andy Twilley, the Southern Synod Training and Development officer, uses a little grammar test to help people to grasp the idea that the church is not a building, the church is the people. I thought I would try it (apologies to Joyce and Madeline who have heard this from the horse’s mouth quite recently, please bear with me and don’t give the game away.
But the rest of you can shout out the answers –
What is the plural of dog? Dogs
What is the plural of cat? Cats.
What is the plural of disciple? Church!
Church is the word we can use to describe the body of faithful people, the called out ones, those who are seeking to love God and love others.
So it is all about people not buildings.
So I am not going to talk about the future of church buildings, about their maintenance to ensure they are still standing in the future. I don’t think that is quite what Diana had in mind when she put forward the title ‘What is the future of God’s Church on earth?’
I am going to talk a bit about statistics, both globally and in the UK, we need to know a little about the numbers of people who make up our churches.
I will talk about the current state of the United Reformed Church, apologies to our friends from other denominations but I suspect much of what I have to say will ring true for your churches too.
I will offer you my own reflections as to why we are seeing a decline in the church.
And finally I am going to give you my own visions for the future of God’s church on earth, thinking specifically about the church which is the body of disciples who meet together in this place.
So numbers -
There are roughly 2.2 billion people across the world who claim to be Christians. When you look at that statistic you could paint a very rosy picture for the future of God’s church on earth. But dig a little deeper and you discover that there are only certain places ‘on earth’ that Christianity is really thriving. The church is flourishing in some places, for example in just one year (2015/16) there was an increase of 50 million Catholics in Africa. Parts of Asia and South America have similar good news stories. And, furthermore, amongst Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America between 80 and 100% say their religion is “very important” in their lives, a statement which I feel qualifies them to be ‘church’ , in the plural-of-disciple sense of the word. These are people who are living a life of worship and service. They are church and as such have a clear and positive future ahead of them, living lives of faith, sharing the gospel and growing more disciples.
But in North America and Western Europe, and in the UK, in particular, the story is very different.
The statistics aren’t that bad at first glance – in the 2011 census nearly 60% of the UK population said they were Christian. That sounds pretty good to me, 6 out of every 10 people. But here is the interesting bit - amongst those who claim to be Christians in this country only 11% class their religion as ‘very important’ to them. Putting a tick in the Christian box on a census form is very different to being an authentic disciple of Jesus Christ.
Church attendance dropped hugely in the last 10 years. There are of course exceptions to the rule, some churches have grown, many of which are the Pentecostal churches.
In the United Reformed Church the figures are not good. Every year each URC has to complete an annual return saying how many members, how many children, how many bums on seats on a Sunday etc. Martin Camroux, past minister of Trinity Church in Sutton, takes it upon himself to analyse the results each year and draw some conclusions. His summary of the 2019 membership figures makes interesting, if somewhat depressing reading.
“In most years since 1975,” he says, “the decline has usually been in the region of 2-3%. This year’s decline of 5.3% .... is our worst ever.”
Along with membership, the average congregation size has also dropped, 23 churches have closed and there are fewer stipendiary ministers. Again there are of course churches which buck the trend but looking at the figures I can’t help but suggest that the future of the United Reformed Church is looking pretty bleak.
So why?
Many of you were here a few weeks ago for the funeral service of Muriel Sanders, a lovely lady, devoted wife, mother and grandmother and a faithful member of this church. She died in her 95th year. In the eulogy, we reflected on just a couple of the changes she would have seen over the course of her long and happy life – a man walking on the moon and the marvels of smart phones and computers. The world in which she spent her last decade was very different to that in which she grew up and spent her early married life. So many advancements in technology, new discoveries and progress it must have been bewildering – but the church hadn’t changed! Most of the hymns written in the eighteenth century, by Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts and Co, were all still being sung, the services took the same form, organ music still filled the air (with the occasional piano now and again). Sometimes there might be a new tune – a really modern one, written, (dare I say it?) in the twentieth century but things were pretty much as they had always been, as she liked it. The only difference was that there were fewer people in the congregation.
Cultural change has been underway in this country for decades but it seems as though the church has only just realised! The world has moved on but much of the church is still living in the past, still doing the same things it has always done, in the same way it has always done them and wondering why the people are not interested.
I think one of the biggest reasons for declining congregations is quite simply that the church has not moved with the times, it has not embraced new ideas and new ways of being church and it has therefore alienated itself from ‘ordinary’ people.
So what steps can we take to stop the rot?
In some cases, I am afraid, I truly believe it is too late to change, where congregations are not just very elderly but also physically frail and lacking in enthusiasm, where there is no energy for change, no willingness to try something new, then perhaps it is time to pull down the shutters and close the local church. These people will not cease to be ‘church’, they are still disciples, still trying to follow the way of Christ but maybe they would be better placed joining with others where they can offer their prayerful or financial support to new and exciting projects which seek to grow new disciples and draw our world closer to God’s kingdom.
But I think there is still hope for God’s church on earth, or more specifically for God’s church in this place. Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian pastor, explains that what separates the churches that have a future and those that don’t is their varying attitude to their mission and their model or method. Churches, he says that love their method more than their mission will die. The mission is their raison d’etre, what they do, but the method is how they do it.
The difference will be between those who cling to the mission and those who cling to the method.
When the car was invented, it quickly took over from the horse and cart. Cart manufacturers were relegated to boutique status and many went under, but human transportation actually exploded. Suddenly average people could travel at a level they never could before.
The mission was to travel. The method changed from cart, to car, or motorcycle, or jet plane. If people loved their cart more than the idea of travelling and clung on to that rather than explored new ways of travelling they would have had no future.
We can use other examples - Look at the changes in the publishing, music and even photography industry in the last few years.
Companies that show innovation around the mission (such as Apple, Samsung) will be more successful than companies that remain devoted to the method (like Kodak).
As church we need to stay focused on our mission – our raison d’etre i.e. leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus, and be exceptionally innovative in our method – how we do it, changing and updating to ensure we keep up with our ever-changing society.
One of characteristic of that society is the increasing consumerist lifestyle. No longer do we live in a one-size fits all society. There was a time when Henry Ford famously claimed of his T2 model car,
“You can have it in any colour as long as it is black” and people were happy with that, but consumers have become more discerning. Basic needs have been met and now there is greater variety so the consumer has more choice and customer satisfaction becomes key. This is paralleled in the way people choose to engage, or not engage, with the church. Increasingly people make choices between religious options (churches) in the same way as they choose supermarkets. The religious market is wide open; there are no longer any natural monopolies. Denominations have become less important, what interests people increasingly is what an individual church has to offer. Therefore to thrive, or even simply to survive, religious institutions must market themselves.
And of course that leads us into the huge subject of social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and all those other things of which I know, just by looking at your faces, many of you have no real understanding. But, like it or not, it is the way forward. People today, and not just young people, use the internet for everything. The biggest increase of internet users is amongst people over 65! The church’s online presence is the first place any potential disciple will look for us.
Today people rarely buy any major item without reading online reviews first or nor do they visit a restaurant without checking it out online. Our online presence will be the general public’s first impression of church, a first step which may, in time, lead them to some kind of engagement with the gathered church, and perhaps ultimately a personal connection with Christ.
The church (the called out ones) in the Acts of the Apostles met where many meetings took place – in one another’s homes, perhaps the church of today should also be meeting where many meetings take place – online!
The idea of Online church or Cyberchurch began in the United States and has now spread to this country, these are sites where visitors can interact with pastors, volunteer on a prayer team, and watch live sermons, or listen to podcasts. Many people scoff at the idea of an online church, maintaining that you can’t be a faithful disciple without being part of a living breathing church community and I would tend to agree with them, but the internet is a wonderful, non-confrontational starting point. Just think of all those online dating apps – they are just the starting point in a relationship, bringing people together so they can find out a bit about each other before having to meet face to face. Couldn’t that method be used by the church too? Let’s allow people to find out about us, with no obligation, to ask questions and perhaps they will like what they see and take the next step of meeting us. To be part of the future of God’s church on earth we need to take social media seriously.
To conclude I would like to return to some words from Martin Camroux – Reports of the death of the church have been greatly exaggerated. God is not going out of business.
Life with God seems to be something of a journey all the time, always calling us out of the familiar into something new. The theme of journey runs through our scriptures: think about Abraham, Moses and others; think about Jesus setting his face toward Jerusalem and the cross; and the first Christians who left their homes to take the gospel message to new places. It seems to me that being church requires a life that is characterized by a willingness to leave the old and take on the new.
So I guess my answer to the question ‘What is the future of God’s Church on earth’ is that it is up to us – we are the church, its future is in our hands. If we want it to survive then we must ensure that it moves on, embracing innovation, discovering fresh ways of doing things.
But, most importantly, and this is really important, (if you have dropped off to sleep now is the time to wake up and take notice): the message must say the same. We can try new things, experiment with worship and find new ways to engage with our community but the essence of being church, of being disciples of Jesus Christ must remain the same – a desire to worship the Lord, to love each other and share the Good News. These things are our mission, they are non-negotiable.
Jesus said I will build my church, he started with Peter and the apostles but is continuing with us. He will build it, not with bricks and mortar but with people, people with the spiritual values of love, joy, faith, hope, peace, patience, humility and wisdom.
Let us be those people,
let us be the future of God’s church on earth.
Linda Richards 12.04.2019