METHODISM, ONCE USA’S
LARGEST DENOMINATION, IS IN CRISIS as are many churches with declining
membership. This year, 16% of the UMC
churches have quit and by 2025 an estimated 25% will leave over leftist
doctrine. This doesn’t count the many
individual conservatives who will likely leave (44% of members call themselves
very conservative). Estimates that the 11 million in 1969 will decline to about
4 million in 2025. A major obstacle,
ownership of all church properties by the UMC, has now been relaxed allowing
churches that don’t want to stay to keep their place of worship.
Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists and many
others have faced similar splits and declines. Even the American Catholic church was shrinking until
the Latino surge. What should Christianity do? I Thessalonians 1 has the
key. Scholars say that of all the
churches Paul started, only 2 thrived, grew and became large centers of
Christianity in the second century—Ephesus and Thessalonica. So Paul’s letter
to Thessalonica was to a thriving church and was full of thanksgiving and
praise. Thessalonica’s key on the personal level is in chapter 1 verses 9 and
10, “for you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and wait
for His Son from heaven.” An important
word is “wait”. That, to the Hebrews
meant to talk to God a lot and then wait for the answer. In present
terminology, “have a real close relationship with God.” Watch Him answer. This fits with my own observations
from being in 4 interdenominational groups: Christians who involve themselves
in much confession, prayer and reading of the Word often become rock solid in
faith and the happiest people. Once a
Christian realizes that God has done the work (saving you), yet one remains a
messed-up person in practice, it’s obvious God is after more. Those
who start finding answers to personal problems in passages they’ve read a dozen
times before chance upon new meaning. Hearing
His voice nudging your thoughts, hearing it echoed from like-minded friends, perhaps
even some wildly cool experiences creates a deep unforgettable bond to God. And
nothing can take that away. This is the
Holy Spirit at work. Knowing God is near gives confidence unlike anything else.
If then a church has a nucleus of such humble believers, such people often find
they can’t shut up about the faith, the experiences, the delight in serving
others. When the group focus is Jesus (vs. 8), quibbling mostly stops. When they
imitate good leadership and their Lord, despite obstacles(vs.6), they grow. Such
was the Thessolonians and many other Christian groups since.
Face time in confession to God is critical.
It is there that the Christian realizes how spiritually dependent they are and
the frequent conversation with God comes
about. Theology isn’t just theory. Church isn’t just allegiance. Justified by
faith in God’s grace means that you must utterly accept His definitions and
rules. If He says it is sin, it is. To deny that, to label some sins non-sins takes
that sin off the table for forgiveness. In political compromises or indulgence, faith dwindles. The dystopic
can’t reach out to God if he/she sees no problem with the self (a recipe for
despair). Yet in God’s upside down
economy, a murderer is in the same boat as a the gossip spreading dirt about
the neighbor.
Good News! God’s pushing your boat.
This writer thinks the problem is more
than just leftist views in the churches.
It is more like the seed that fell among the weeds in Jesus’ Parable of
the Sower. The weeds, cares of the world,
are choking out Christian belief. The popular
culture convinces that all mankind’s longings are likely to be solved only by
science, economics, politics, etc. But
Christians realize that there’s more than just the physical universe. There’s a force beyond that reveals Himself
to us. And in the still small voice of
God inside, He wants to weld you to Himself to revolutionize the world.
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