LaneDenson.com

At a commission meeting I went to last month, a woman brought up the issue of the attendance at churches in the Northeastern Conference (read: New England) was dropping dramatically. Her theory was that the churches up there are old, with cathedral ceilings (“Evil”-looking, as she put it), etc. and it was a turn off to young people. That left me dumbfounded… the facility has nothing to do with it. But that always seems to be the proposed solution. Low attendance? Build a new sanctuary/rec center/administrative wing/etc!!!!

Let me suggest another theory as to why the New England United Methodist churches (and the entire UMC outside of Africa, for that matter…) are losing members at an alarming rate:

Tthe attitude among a large part of the United Methodist Church (and many mainline Protestant churches) as a whole is that there are many interpretations of the Bible, many different versions of the Truth. It’s all good… believe what you want to believe, and as long as you’re not a terrible human being, it really doesn’t matter what you do, say, think, or believe. But whatever you do, don’t be “intolerant” (but that’s a rant for a different day…)

The problem with this attitude is this: if all beliefs are permissible, what’s the point of the church? What purpose does it serve? I can get a big heaping helping of “all truths are equally valid” from the secular world. Why would I waste my time at church, when I can hear that same message from every corner of our society?

Newsflash – most people don’t go to church for a wishy-washy feel good message. Some do, but I’d argue that the majority do not. They go to church for Answers – for the Truth. They want to know what God (via the Bible) has to say about life, how to live it, and what to expect after it. You don’t get that in the Methodist church for the most part. I grew up in the Methodist church, sat through hundreds of sermons. And other than the scripture reading from the lectionary before each sermon, that’s about the only time the Bible is directly touched upon. The sermon will usually make some comment in passing on that scripture or some other well-known verse, but as far as in-depth study of scripture? Completely non-existent during the actual church service. There is very little “meat” to the message.

Like the old nursery rhyme says, the church is not the building, the church is not the steeple. A church’s success is not based upon the facility. Some of the fastest growing churches are located in high school auditoriums across the country. The building is irrelevant. The *message* is what draws people into the church, and the lack of a message that *matters* is what will push people away.