Yesterday, I was reading a daily blog post from Jim Denison. You can link to it here. Jim writes each weekday with relevant and timely postings dealing with our faith, our world and how the two interact.
Yesterday, his post caught my attention and has had my thoughts on house arrest since. The title of the post was, “51% of U.S. Adults Say Church Is Not Important.” For a pastor, the title alone caught my eye. I wish I could say it was new information. I have read these statistics before and even worse, I see it in my own community and church.
The information in his article comes primarily from the Barna Group which is known for statistical research within the faith community. There are stats dealing with age characteristics that say that the older generations are more tied to the church than the younger – again, not necessarily new news. But one comment opened my eyes a bit. There is a new perception among Americans about what constitutes “regular church attendance.” Regular church attendance used to be defined as attending 3 or 4 times per month. Now, the new perception of what constitutes “regular” is attending church once in 4 to 6 weeks. While this is shocking to see it in print, the reality is, we see it every week in our churches – we just haven’t quantified it.
The old school can sit back, cross arms and look down noses with pious attitudes toward the derelict society but that does nothing to encourage church attendance – in fact, it has the opposite effect.
Jim makes a very audacious suggestion at the end of the post. He says, “Rather than measuring success by how many people go to church, let’s measure success by how effectively the church goes to people . . . Our Lord launched a movement, not an institution. His church is an army attacking the gates of hell, not an ark built to weather the storm.”
For years, I have seen the church as a huge machine that humanity has built that now must be maintained. Don’t get me wrong, I love the church. I believe the church is God’s plan A to redeem mankind. But I have to wonder if what we call church today is what God intended.
Something to ponder . . .
Clay in the Hands 
No truer words were ever spoken (written). We must take a hard look at why we’re here and what our purpose is. Are we close to another “Reformation” season? If so, who is our Martin Luther?
Great points brother. Even better questions. I’m amazed at how many people have taken a hard stand on one side of this issue or the other, but wisdom is asking the best question, “Is what we call church today is what God intended?”