10-19-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 19, 2024
There is no hard data for the last two years, but four years ago, 6,000 churches closed their doors in the United States. Some people believe the number will be more than double that in 2024. The National Council of Churches says that as many as 100,000+ churches will close in the United States in the coming years. There are, of course, new churches being started. And 20 years ago, the number of new churches kept up with those that closed. In the next few years, they believe the ratio will be 10:1 or even 50:1—churches closing as compared to new churches starting and becoming viable. From 2020 to 2030, the number of churches in the United States could drop from 400,000 to 200,000, and the loss will be seen mostly in Protestant Churches, not Catholic or Orthodox. When offering these numbers, I find a lot of people claiming the end of civilization, if not the end of the world.

For a community that is entirely centered on the idea that out of death comes new life, it feels as if some people are overreacting. It might be a sign, but not what some people believe. Maybe the sign is for the church to wake up and get itself out of the business of hateful, judgmental, and destructive rhetoric. Jesus gave us one purpose, and that is to love one another as he taught us to love. It is also important to remember that fifty years after Jesus, there were only a handful of churches in the world. And over the next two hundred years, Christianity exploded. It is estimated that it went from 10,000 followers of Jesus to 250,000 such people. That is exponential growth, and it often came in times when it was difficult to be Christian, if not illegal.

So… is it time to panic or declare how the end is near? I don’t think so. If anything, this is our generation’s call to a deeper commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of unconditional and unrelenting love that chose to become more than a concept as it took on flesh and became a living expression of those words in a breath-taking example of what is possible.

Holy and Gentle God, I don’t imagine you to be One that panics. You see the bigger picture of what is possible, and you play the long game believing in humanity’s ability to do even greater things in this generation than previous generations. We believe your Spirit of strength and creativity is involved in this work. All things are possible! Amen.