Podcast Episode #279
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When I look at what is happening in the Bible Belt, there are causes for concern as well as opportunities for growth. Today we look at why there is concern and how you can overcome those concerns.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Culture and people have changed over time, but many churches have not.
- Many churches refuse to admit that the world around them is changing.
- Cultural Christianity no longer exists—even in the Bible Belt.
- Sometimes a church’s habits become “the only way something can be done.”
- Some people are more obedient to the traditions of a church than they are to the Bible.
- If you want to find out what a church’s idols are, start changing the bylaws.
- How do you change the culture in an established church? Slowly.
The eight causes of concern for Bible Belt churches we discuss are:
- They don’t recognize the decline in cultural Christianity.
- They have many “church rules.”
- They have leaders who have never led in a highly unchurched mission field.
- They confuse traditions with truth.
- They do outreach the way they’ve always done it.
- They have significant conflict due to frustration.
- They are very slow to respond.
- They have significant facility challenges.
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Feedback
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I’m truly saddened by what I am witnessing in our “Bible belt” congregations. I was raised in the Bible belt–and in it’s congregations. I’ve lived all over the world, and the contrasts are startling. It seems like the Bible-belt churches either “transition” so quickly that many of the “older saints” are left out…or the transitions never happen–so the congregations just dry up. Or the “we’ve-never-done-this-before” syndrome has now reached the point of over-saturation. One of my former pastors remarked (not long ago) that we must “reach everyone”–not just the ones that we think are worthy of being “reached.” We can’t pick and choose our particular brands of “sinners” and “unbelievers”…we can’t confuse culture and tradition with the truths of Scripture…we can’t confuse “comfort” with being in the “perfect will of God”….Our “bible belt” culture has lost the meaning of “sacrifice” for the sake of the Gospel. We have also started worshipping “family” instead of worshipping God. We’ve dichotomized our lives into “church” and “personal”….our main trinity is now “convenience” “mobility” and “privacy.” “Ministry” has been left to, and assigned to the professionals, instead of every parishioner having a ministry, and being encouraged to use their God-given grace gifts. We prefer exhaustion over encouragement and edification. We prefer our “segregation” into the various “demographics” instead of bringing the “family of God” together… and we either move too quickly, or we don’t move at all. My heart is troubled and it grieves for my beloved Bible Belt.
Phil, Unfortunately you’re assessment is very accurate.
Agreed. Well stated, and unfortunately accurate, as Tom commented.
So … what is the solution?
I too, as an Interim Pair of one such perfect-example church, what is the solution?
Sorry, I meant “pastor” not pair.
I was visiting at a church a few weeks ago in the Bible belt country. The church was a very nice facility, however the service was set back in the early 1900’s. No life, all pastor led, poor music (organ) poor preaching, just all very old. To bolster my observations the church that seated at least 350 plus, had perhaps 50-60 people, mainly all very grey haired. I had my young Grand children with me and the folks acted amazed that they actually had some children in the service. Then the Pastor said they were concerned about attendance and were going to start a door to door visiting campaign and asked church members to show up on Monday night to “visit”. My Son-in law filled out a visitors card, and sure enough a visiting team of the pastor and a deacon showed up on their doorstep the following Monday night. There was no advance notice, my daughter was busy getting the kids down to bed, and so it was a “doorstep” visit. Very unplanned and very not appreciated. The Pastor never really said anything, stood behind the Deacon who said a few words of complaining telling them they sure drove a long way to get to their church, (maybe 10 miles) and then they left. It concerns me that there are so many of these type of churches out there, very much like you talk about in this post. Many of these churches will be closing their doors soon. A friend of mine says that there are three types of pastors, Movers and Shakers, Maintainers, and Morticians.
Brad, Unfortunately, in my experience having been in the Bible belt all of my 75 years, this is very typical. Based on my experience, most of these churches have abandoned corporate prayer and have depended on everything but God, which always leads to disaster.
Many Bible belt churches are also opposed to way too much and too insular. Their leaders and clergy (or powerful members) could not understand that the world was leaving them in the dust and that their younger generations could not defend the faith.
Another very important and much needed assessment!
Another HUGE cause of concern (and a very personal one to me):
Most Bible-belt congregations view their “single attendees” as either “in the market for a spouse” or as an “anomaly.” I’ve never been married, and don’t see any prospects any time soon. I’ve been part of the “church” ever since I was 5 years old. I am a faithful, tithing member of this local church. What can the local congregation do to make sure I am fully “integrated” into the life of the local body?
Posts like this seem to conflate dead churches with congregations that don’t resemble the culture around them. The two are very different. Sometimes a church fits both categories, but not always.
The mantra seems to be “change now to fit the prevailing culture or you will die”. But the culture we’re supposed to change to resemble is constantly changing in its own right (and dying).
Are the lost people in this world (and millennials in the church) so feeble minded that they can’t process a culture that doesn’t resemble their own? They do it at work. Or in an extended family. Or on a sports team.
Is there a better solution? Something better than hitching our future to a fickle culture? What IS the solution?
I think the ultimate solution is LIFE. The life of God surging through a church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then unbelievers “will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, ‘God is really among you!’” (1 Cor. 14:25 NIV)
Keith, You’ve zeroed in on the heart of the real problem. It doesn’t matter what else a church is or does, if the recognizable life and presence of God is not there it is in deep trouble. We spend a lot of time and energy focusing on surface issues. When a fellowship of believers is centered on God, dependent on God, as evidenced by corporate prayer, and has a clear understanding of the majesty, sovereignty and awesomeness of God; the Spirit of the resurrected glorified Lord shows up. We tend to forget that God is a supernatural God and He can still guide our churches, when we step back and let Him do it.
Thank you Keith! I was about to write something along the same lines. This post and most of the replies suffer from oversimplification. Yes, there are many problems in churches, but all situations can not be put into the same mold. It is easy to cast stones, but more difficult to offer biblical solutions. I really appreciate what you wrote about the power of the Holy Spirit surging through the church. We are called to be a counterculture not a subculture.
I’ve always believed that the biblical mandate is that spiritual vitality leads to dynamic ministry and dynamic leads to kingdom growth. The “solution” is to focus on spiritual vitality (the power of the Spirit and the Word) in the church so that the church is involved in dynamic ministry, then people will fall on their faces and say, “God is really among you!” If that is the old way of doing it, so be it. I believe it is the biblical way.
Where might I find the book you mentioned, Evangelism in early church? Who is the author?