A Growing Church is a Dying Church!

I confess that I don't have a lot of time to "surf the web."  I'm not subscribed to any blogs.  I don't spend much time on facebook.  It is rare that I even go to a link that has been recommended by friends.  So I attribute the Holy Spirit to the crazy notion of actually skimming through facebook and then taking the time to click on a link from a pastor friend with the title "A Growing Church is a Dying Church."  I skimmed through the blog and about 15 seconds into it, I stopped and slowly read it from the top again.  Tears filled my eyes.  How did he know?  Who was this stranger from New York that is speaking directly to the situation I find myself in.  I have been enamored ever since with a blog entry from J. Barrett Lee, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Boonville, NY.  Click here to read full text. 

He speaks the truth.  The naked, ugly, hope filled, biblical truth.  The message doesn't dwell on the idea, "the pastor can't grow or save your church" though that idea is there.  His thoughts don't just tell you to be missional and think outward, though you can find this notion in the blog.  But he gets to the heart of "What if it works?" warning that growth will not be what you think it will be.  The church will never return to the "glory days."  And the glory days of the future involve people you wouldn't be caught dead with and who don't appreciate "the way we've always done it" and who will make changes you don't like.  And that's the GOOD NEWS! 

Then, what if it doesn't work?  What if you make changes to get the church to grow and it dies anyway?  Was it all a waste of time?  Here's how he ends his blog, "What if all that time you spend studying the Bible, expanding your horizons, deepening your spiritual life, and serving your community turns out to be time wasted?  Tell you what: if that’s what happens, if you commit yourself to all this and still feel like it was a waste of time in the end, then maybe your church really needed to die."  Wow!

I have read and re-read this blog about 10 times in the last 3 days.  Does it give me hope or plunge me into cynicism?  Yes, on the one hand, church transformation is a lose-lose situation.  It's hard and it hurts to change and grow with people who are different.  On the other hand, it's also hard to watch a once vibrant church slowly waste away to death.  And I ask myself, "Why am I doing this?"

But in the end, God always brings me back to hope.  How can prayer, scripture, sharing the love of God, social justice and service, ever be a waste of time?  Are we not more faithful disciples because of these actions, whatever happens to the church institution?  We are actually in a win-win situation.  Whatever happens to the church itself, whether it grows or dies, we as Christ's disciples are more closely following the life he intended us to live.  And isn't that the purpose of the church...to equip people to live their Christian journey more faithfully?

Thank you J. Barrett Lee for your inspiring, hopeful, and honest words.  I am encouraged to continue equipping God's people, whatever the financial, numerical, or institutional repercussions might be.