Part 1: The Collapse of Church Culture. By Maurice GouletHaving traveled four corners of this country, I have witnessed firsthand, imminent demise and collapse of unique culture in North America that has come to be called church. This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside church and out. A growing number of people are leaving institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving church to preserve their faith. Not only do we not need God to explain universe, we don't need Jesus Christ to operate church. It’s written in word that in last days of this age Christ is outside of Church knocking and looking for anyone who is willing to let him in. Many operate like giant machines, with church leaders serving as mechanics. The Lord doesn't have to show up to get done what's being done. People no longer want powerless God of modern church.
Some are asking, how Do We Do Church Better? All effort to fix church misses point. You can build perfect church and they still won't come. People are not looking for a great church. Most of growth of mega churches represents people transferring from small fishing boats to cruise ships. The real question should be, how Do We Deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?
I have observed that there is a spiritual awakening occurring in America. However, it is not informed by Christian theology, and it's not happening in church. God is pulling end runs around institutional North American church to get to people in streets. God is still inviting us to join him on this quest, but it is invitation to be part of a movement, not a religious club.
The Church Growth Movement that began in 1970’s had both some things that were right and some things that were wrong. Here's one of wrong things: Unfortunately, it fell victim to an idol as old as Tower of Babel, belief that we are architects of work of Christ. As a result, we have best churches men can build, but are still waiting for church that only Jesus Christ can get credit for. I say this because I hear wrong question asked frequently. How Do We Grow This Church? How Do We Get Them to Come to Us?
In their quest to be attractive to potential congregants, churches added staff, added programs, added buildings (including full health clubs), all to improve their market position. And it worked! A study released in 2002 found that one-half of churchgoers attended churches in top 10 percent of church size.
Keep in mind all of this has been done with what results? Diminishing returns! In other words, overall church attendance continues to decline. We can keep on this track just to watch even more dismal results, or, we can change our focus to: How Do We Transform Our Community? How Do We Hit Streets with Gospel? The Pharisees' evangelism strategy sounds eerily familiar. Their approach to sharing God was, "Come and get it”. Jesus' evangelism strategy directly challenged Pharisees' approach. Instead of "Come and get it" it was "Go get'em".
Jesus' strategy was to go where people were already hanging out. This is why he went to weddings, parties, and religious feast day celebrations. Taking gospel to streets means we need church where people are already hanging out. We need a church in every mall, every Wal-Mart super center, every Barnes and Noble.
Bottom line: we've got to take gospel to streets. This is only appropriate mission response to collapse of church culture. I am not talking about short forays into ports off of cruise ship. I am speaking of an intentional 24/7 church presence in community.