More Than We Imagined

Three Assumptions About the Church

The church in Europe has been in decline for most of my lifetime. However, the steep decline of the church in the United States is still relatively new. Church attendance has been going down since the tumultuous 1960s but according to Barna’s 2022 study of the relationship between Americans and the church, the number of practicing Christians has dropped from 40% in 2000 to just 25% in 2021. 

You probably have family members who have tried to connect with the church but have come away frustrated. You likely have friends who have become deeply disappointed with their local congregation after giving their time, talent and treasure to help the church be all that it claims to be. Many of those close to us have wanted to go deeper in their journey with Jesus but have become disillusioned and now question whether they are even Christians anymore. You might even count yourself as one of their number. I get it. Being intentional about our faith through institutional religion simply isn’t working for the majority of people in the Western world. So now what?

We should begin by testing our assumptions about Christianity and the church. Like any problem, it begins with defining our terms. 

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• Assumption #1 Christianity is practiced through the church.

I recently saw a description of Christianity that was something to the effect of “Christianity is a building where services of worship take place.” This definition reflects the picture that many of us associate with Christianity. We think that practicing Christians are those who attend church. But if we test this assumption with Jesus’ life in the four gospels of the New Testament we find it wanting. Jesus focused his efforts on a group of fishermen, women, tax collectors and others in gatherings outside of the church. But no one would say that Jesus was not practicing his faith. 

Perhaps it is better to say that the church is meant to enhance the practice of our faith. But that our faith itself is practiced in our everyday lives.  

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• Assumption # 2 The church is a building.

If we are asked where someone can find a church, we direct them to a building where Christians gather for worship. But we rarely find the Jesus of the New Testament inside of such a building; even for worship. Jesus and his twelve disciples are most likely met in marketplaces and homes in spontaneous interactions of daily life. His most famous teaching is not “The Sermon from the Pulpit” but “The Sermon on the Mount,” which took place outdoors on a hillside. 

Perhaps it is better to say that the church is a grassroots movement of people who follow Jesus in their everyday lives and who gather together to encourage each other in their faith.

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• Assumption # 3 If we are struggling with the church we are struggling with our faith.

An increasing number of us are struggling with participation in the church. We worry that our difficulty with the church means there is a problem with our faith. But if we test this assumption with the stories of Jesus in the Bible we find that this assumption, too, needs to be adjusted. Jesus had many conflicts with the institutional religion of his day. The most dramatic was his overturning the tables in the Temple. His struggle with the church of his day became an invitation to a new spiritual journey. Your struggle could also be an invitation to go deeper in your faith.

Perhaps we need to disentangle our faith journey from our institutional commitment. Our struggle could be an opportunity to gather with other like-minded people who are ready to step outside of what we know and begin a fresh spiritual adventure. 

A few years ago I was discussing all of this with a friend of mine who had been disappointed with the church since childhood. As we talked together a new phrase surfaced in our conversation: “There is a new spiritual journey…and it is outside of the church.” “Now that’s something I could get into!” my friend said with real conviction. If your heart beats faster as you consider a new spiritual journey you are in the right place. That is what this Substack channel is all about. 

It is hard to be struggling with the church. But here is the good news: Christianity is so much more than we have imagined. Our faith has overcome every barrier thrown in its way over the last 2,000 years. It will overcome the challenges we face today.  

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