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Or take the movement called "the new monasticism." As reported in Christianity Today, in the last decade or so, some two dozen communities have been founded in inner cities across America. Young men and women, some single, some married, live in some of the poorest neighborhoods, together practicing the traditional spiritual disciplines while ministering to prostitutes, drug addicts, single mothers, and the homeless. You only see dozens following this path, not thousands.

This suggests that the more religiously strict a group is, the smaller it will be. This brings to mind those sayings about the narrow road and the few who are called.

As a former minister, I know how often a pastor has to weigh what needs to be said with what can be received. In a culture saturated with the therapeutic, fewer and fewer attenders can hear something challenging without "feeling unloved" or "having issues" with the church. Raising demands is a pretty good way to empty the pews. And pews need to be full if we're going to pay rent and salaries and sustain a church's ministries, all of which are quite worthy of funding.

This is the dilemma we evangelicals find ourselves in at the beginning of the 21st century — how to present the gospel in an emotionally and spiritually shallow culture. It is a commonplace that in this effort evangelicals have succumbed to the culture. So it may be time to move the conversation forward and suggest a practical solution: church shrink conferences. I'm not kidding.

Many pastors and lay leaders recognize that they are in a superficially successful church, and that it's time to introduce the harder edges of the gospel. But how? How do we get comfortable people to listen to a gospel that includes a lot of discomfort? How do you deepen discipleship without introducing despair? How do you insist firmly on faithfulness without becoming legalistic?

Most important, how do you manage the loss in membership? That will happen. The more strictly you adhere to the teachings of Jesus, the smaller the church will "grow." One of the most crucial skills of a military commander is, in the face of defeat, to lead a retreat that doesn't turn into panic or a massacre. And one of the most crucial skills for pastors and church lay leaders is to manage church decline when people are leaving because they see, finally, what Jesus is asking of them. This is not a job for the faint of heart, and will require great wisdom to manage resources, personnel, and morale in such a time.

Evangelicals have become the unmatched experts in church growth, but often end up with a truncated gospel. If we are to live into the full counsel of God in the years to come, I believe we'll need a few experts in church shrink.

Mark Galli is senior managing editor of Christianity Today. Some of this column was adapted from his book Jesus Mean and Wild: The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God (Baker).

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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April (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53