Fade into Irrelevance

April 29, 2008

Dr. Chuck Lawless is the Dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth at Southern Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Today I read this statement by Dr. Lawless that really got my attention. Too much is at stake for us to sit by and fade into irrelevance in North America. We desperately need God to move us, change us, and redirect us to Great Commission obedience. What is he talking about? He is talking about the decline in church membership and baptisms in our denomination.

While all that he said in that statement is important and thought provoking, I can not get away from the words “fade into irrelevance.” Imagine the church fading into irrelevance. Can that happen? Is it possible? One only needs to look at Western Europe for the answer. Cathedrals and churches dot the landscape but say less than 10% of the population attends church regularly. The research on our denomination cannot be denied regarding the trend in membership and baptisms. Much like the x-ray that reveals a broken bone, the research indicates that something is in fact broken and needs to be repaired.

At the risk of sounding like I know what to do or of having a simple answer I humbly offer this “what if?” What if individual believers in Christ just got honest about our lives? What if we just confessed and forsook sin? What if we just came before God in our churches and prayed for spiritual awakening? What if we just started living before others an authentic Christian life? What if we just loved people and practically demonstrated it? What if we just made it a point to purposefully tell our friends about our relationship to Christ and showed them how they could be saved according to the Bible? What if we just invited people to our churches and gave them the best seats and the best parking places? What if we just did those things?