By Dr. Joe Yelton
Interim Pastor
To the surprise of no one, our church has been in numerical decline for many years, even decades. The fact that most congregations are in a similar state is of little solace. Addressing this is perhaps the most meaningful book to date, The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. It does the hard digging of data, helping discern how this slow but steady decimation of American church life happened.
Basically, the book addresses three phases: Phase One, “How big is the dechurching problem?” Phase Two, “Who is leaving, and why?” Phase Three, “What is happening in Evangelicalism?”
In the coming mid-week studies, information from this book will permeate our sharing. This is the kind of information which, to me, seems imperative, needing to be addressed as part of our new pastor selection work.
You know the adage: “Continue doing what you’ve always done, you’ll continue getting what you’ve always gotten.” Can we, right from the start, commit to the hard work of doing things differently, when justified? In making our church more relevant, we must mitigate old habits that no longer serve us, or God.
Christ is constantly wanting to pour fresh living water into the cisterns of faith that lift Him up. Our church is doing so much of that. We have loads of relevancies that bring the Gospel up close. Well done! Still, we need to look within and discover the places where familiarity has become an enemy to our message in the community. There is so much love within our congregation, and giftedness like I’ve rarely encountered. We have a bright future. To get there though, each of us will have to let go of some sacred cows that are no longer necessary. In their places, we must take up a new thing that tells that old, old story in fresh, relevant ways.