Church & Culture
13 Reasons Not to Worry About the Future of the Church
The church has survived and thrived through worse problems than whatever is worrying us today

The church is in trouble.

It must be. My blog feed keeps telling me it is.

For several years now, barely a day goes by without someone writing about the imminent demise of the body of Christ.

Everyone seems to have a different reason why they think the church is dying:

  • The “nones” are growing faster than the church
  • The “dones” are leaving faster than we’re replacing them
  • People aren’t singing together any more
  • Offerings are way down
  • Regulars attend less often than they used to
  • Millennials – well where do we begin with their so-called problems?

But despite all the gloom-and-doom, I have not lost one moment of sleep over the demise of the church. Here are 13 reasons not to worry (there are more, but I had to stop somewhere):

1. The Church Belongs to Jesus, Not Us

And Jesus knows what he’s doing.

2. The Picture Is Not As Bleak as We Think

Ed Stetzer has done some great work on this. His take? "No serious researcher believes Christianity in America is dying. Not one." Check out his post, The State of the Church In America: Hint: It's Not Dying, for a balanced look at this.

In fact, while the European and North American church is dealing with what Stetzer calls "transition", the church in the rest of the world is experiencing strong, steady growth.

3. The Church Always Thrives Under Persecution

If persecution is coming to the American church (let's face it, that's the church everyone is worried about) it may reduce church attendance numbers and perceived cultural influence, but it won’t kill the church.

Prosperity is far more dangerous to the church than persecution has ever been. As the Puritan writer Cotton Mather put it in the early 1700s, Religion brought forth prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.

4. Loss of Privilege Is Not the Same As Persecution

The loss of morning prayers in public schools is not persecution. Neither is the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a courthouse.

Don't get mad at me. I'm not saying those things are good. But they're not persecution.

There are Christians in places like Syria and Iran who know what real persecution feels like. When we claim persecution for what is little more than loss of privilege, we minimize the real persecution our brothers and sisters face all over the world today.

5. The Church Is at Its Best When We Are Counter-Cultural

The church doesn’t hold the reins of power well. We’re better off in the role of a burr-in-the-saddle of the culture than the conquering hero on the stallion. Let's leave that role to Jesus himself.

6. The Church Is Bigger than Our Buildings and Our Denominations

I do believe that we will lose many church buildings in the coming decades. It will be especially challenging for churches like mine – small congregations with full-time pastors and a mortgage in a big city. I also foresee massive problems for many denominations. (But I don't need to be a prophet to see that one, do I?)

We may need to lean on our buildings and denominations less in order to lean on Jesus more.

I sympathize with those who love their church's historic building and/or denomination, only to lose one or both. But I’m grateful that buildings and denominations are not needed for the church to survive and thrive.

In fact, we may need to lean on our buildings and denominations less in order to lean on Jesus more.

7. The Church Is People Who Love Jesus, God's Word and Each Other

This is one the main reasons the church thrives under persecution. It forces us to turn to what really matters and can never be taken away – loving Jesus, the bible and each other.

8. The Church Has Faced Bigger Problems Than This – Whatever Your "This" May Be

We tend to magnify the severity of small pains that are close to us, while diminishing the reality of much larger pains that are further removed from us. Whatever your real or perceived church crisis may be, it is not, as I’ve seen written way too many times lately, “the greatest crisis the church has ever faced.”

There have been bigger problems than this. But the church is still here.

9. MY Church Is Not THE Church

My church may be tied to a particular worship style, theological stance, historical background, denominational identity or any of a wide variety of other distinctives. But the way I worship is not the church. It’s just my little corner of it. If the way I like to worship becomes less popular, that has nothing to do with the strength of the church as a whole.

In fact – brace yourselves – even if the church in America collapses, as tragic as that would be, it would not mean the end of the church.

Jesus has sheep that are not of this fold.


10. Maybe the Parts that Can’t Survive Shouldn't

Anything Jesus does will not just survive, but thrive. Eternally. So I have to wonder, if my favorite form of church is dying, maybe it’s because Jesus isn't building it?

Everything but the church itself (as defined in point #7, above) has an expiration date. No denomination, worship style or tradition is forever. Sometimes a congregation, tradition or denomination dies because it has finished serving its purpose.

(This point is not meant to trivialize the very real pain of a local church going through serious hardships. I stand with you. Like John said to the suffering saints in Philadelphia (Rev 3:7-13), “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.” You have my heart, my prayers and any help I can offer.)

11. The Church Is the Most Relentlessly Growing Organism In History

For almost 2,000 years of great triumphs and horrifying persecution, the church keeps going.

When Jesus builds something it tends to stand. And stand strong.

12. Worry Doesn't Work

In fact, worry makes it worse.

13. Jesus Told Us Not to Worry About Anything

You can toss the previous 12 points. This is all I need to know.

To wildly (but hopefully not inappropriately) paraphrase Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5:25-33:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your church building, where you will worship or fellowship; or about your denomination, what decisions it will make. Is not church more important than buildings, and the faith more important than denominational creeds? … Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his church’s life or a dollar to its offering basket? … But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Whatever is of worry is not of faith.

And we need all the faith we can get.

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The views of the blogger do not necessarily reflect those of Christianity Today.

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