Are we listening

When Pew conducted a survey connected to its white paper, it asked why those adults chose to be religiously unaffiliated. The most frequent responses included things such as they: 1.) questioned the validity of a particular teachings; 2.) didn’t agree with faith traditions’ social and political positions; 3.) were suspicious of church hierachal structures; and 4.) so no value to affiliation due to basic lack of relevance to their life circumstances. What churches should glean from all of this is the following. Obviously, the passive comfortable approach that has been taken over the last several decades does not work. The “build it and they will come” mindset is not sensible. Church leaders need to be engaged in the real world and not secluded in their own ghettos of their own making. I think that the reason that the whole non-denominational megachurch movement has been so wildly successful over the last thirty years has been for that very reason. Congregations such as Seacoast Church, for example, recognized that there were unchurched people and they set out to create a church home for them. And guess what happened, not only did the unchurched start coming, but churchgoers from other established denominations started to attend! This is what it means to fill a need.

This is not to say that historical liturgical churches such give up their prescribed forms of worship to be “contemporary” or “trendy.” On the contrary, they should continue to be true to who they are in identity because in many ways the liturgy is their greatest missional witness they have as a distinctive church. What it does mean is this: congregations and church leadership’s disposition need to change when it comes to engaging the culture. What we see in many of the declining churches is a fear and avoidance of the culture. It is even taught in some circles, that society is something to be avoided at all cost and not to be lived in at all. All we need to do is read 25th chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew to see that that is in direct opposition to what the Lord Jesus taught when He said that the criteria of judgment on the Last Day is going to be, “as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:31-46).

Churches need to get out of their comfort zones if they really are to be seen as necessary and relevant to people. Or else they remain perceived as museums that exist for their own self-preservation. That is what the “nones” have been telling us for a long time. St. Basil the Great wrote, “I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing, yet would not part with a penny to help those in distress.” Are we going to continue to be so self-absorbed that we ignore the needs of the people whom we claim to serve? Or are we going to make a change? This is a great challenge to undertake, but one that offers even greater opportunity for the Kingdom of God.

John G. Panagiotou is a theologian and scholar who received his doctorate at Erskine Theological Seminary. He is a professor at Cummins Memorial Theological Seminary where he is the liaison offer to the president. Dr. Panagiotou can be reached at johnpan777@gmail.com.

Republished with the permission of the author. 

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