Why Some Churches are in Trouble (And the Remedy)

This isn't news, but some churches are in trouble - whether realized or not - because they're following a model requiring that they exist to satisfy the appetites of casually connected consumers instead of making resilient disciples transformed by the cross to embrace self-denial.

The approach isn't about contextualization, being missional, or belonging before believing. It's not about Kingdom hospitality that welcomes all as we would welcome Jesus. It's about a posture of pleasing people rather than pleasing God.

Rather than loving God supremely so people learn the way of love, rather than making God's glory the highest aim and savoring his presence as our greatest delight, rather than trusting the simple means of grace instead of complex productions, and trusting the compelling communication of Scripture's truth in intersection with our lives, some tend to imagine that just the right blend of technique, marketing, branding, or scintillating show will somehow make the Gospel more acceptable. It won't. It's always offensive even as it heals. It's a scalpel and it will leave a mark. It both confronts and comforts.

I don't know how else to put this, but the Best News you'll ever hear, the truth that sets people free, might sound a lot like some pretty bad news to start with. The Church's job is to make the message clear, not acceptable - only God can make it acceptable and beautiful to a heart that’s hardened and shattered by sin’s deceitfulness. That's no excuse for arrogance or other forms of religious jackassery performed in the name of being radical. On the contrary. As I noted at the outset, the idea is making disciples that follow rather than audiences to be entertained. There's nothing wrong with entertainment. That's just not the mission.

I'm not talking about some kind of self-righteous, high-walled, enter at your own risk religious club - that's just another version of the consumer approach, a niche-marketed convocation for the reactionary withdraw-from-everything sect.

No, the thing is this: Your church should welcome all the way Jesus welcomes, treating every guest as Jesus himself. But we offer all the true Christ, the whole Christ, and that's also true for those who say they know this Christ. Because that Christ did not come to give you the American dream, make you successful, reinforce your racial, ethnic, or political idolatries, fly the flag of your church or denomination, or highlight your theological tradition's main points. Nope. As Bonhoeffer wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."

It's going to get ugly. Sacrifices will be made. Priorities will be challenged. Relationships will be tested. The art of forgiveness and mercy will be cultivated. Fires will be lit. The Spirit will go through your heart on search and destroy missions because God is more committed to our eternal holiness than our temporary happiness. He will tear and he will heal. He will draw us near and he will steal away where we can't find him. He will say things we can't explain and he won't explain himself either, and he will do all of this without apology.

This isn't new. He's not changing even if we do. He's not disillusioned with us as he had no illusions to begin with. He's also infinitely more committed to us than we are to him. This is because he has a relentless, yes reckless, love that led him to the cross where we discovered what love and life looked like in the most unanticipated, unexpected, dumbfounding demonstration of compassion history has ever seen. And when he did that, he not only did it for us, he did it to us. That cross? Not a decoration. It's a way of life.

That may not make a lot of people happy. It might empty churches before it fills them. I get it. But it is, without doubt, our only hope against the ravages of death and darkness. Deep darkness. Abyss stuff. It's all we've got. It's also enough.

See that cross? Rise and Follow.