How is the health of the Church in America?

How is the health of the Church in America?

There are both signs of health and signs of decay.

One indicator of declining health is a recent report shows that 15% of Americans claim no religion at all (up from 8% in 1990). Another insight is to look at church-attendance patterns; The American Church Report showed that in 2005 only 17% of the population attended church on any particular weekend – down from 20% in 1990. (In Minnesota attendance was 22% in 2005, down from 26% in 1990).

I believe society can also be seen as a reflection of the health of the church. When the church is constructively engaged in society and spreading the redeeming message of Jesus, then the values, behaviors and morals of the society will increasingly reflect those of God. We seem to be failing this test on a number of scales today.

But there are positive signs of growth and health as well – particularly for Evangelical churches. While attendance at churches is declining overall, it has actually increased in many evangelical churches; in Minnesota 1/3 of church-goers attend an evangelical congregation, a trend that has been growing in recent years. In education 90% of new seminaries in the past 30 years have been evangelical ones. Three of our last six presidents have been self-identified evangelicals.

For more than a year the organization I work for has been wrestling with the question of what the Church must do to be more healthy and affective in expanding the Kingdom of God. Through focus groups with pastors and informal surveys we’ve identified four areas that evangelical leaders say the church must focus on:

1) Community Engagement – congregations have to be connected into the fabric of the community surrounding them, and active and present enough in order play a meaningful role in meeting needs, making the life of a Christ-follower visible and appealing. Some pastors responded rather frankly and acknowledged that their congregations really did not know how to connect to their neighbors.

2) Multicultural Ministry – every metropolitan area, including the Twin Cities, is becoming increasingly multi cultural and multi racial. That is partly due to immigration, but is really driven by the fact that the next generation has grown up in diverse, integrated social settings but churches don’t reflect that reality well. A growing number of church leaders nation wide are recognizing the seriousness and importance of reconciling around the issues of race, culture and socio-economic class; the church has a great opportunity to improve its own health – and that of our society – by addressing this issue.

3) Accelerate Church planting – the Twin Cities needed 231 new churches just to keep up with population growth from 2000 – 2005. How many did we have? A net increase of only 10 (accounting for churches that closed. In other words we are falling way behind. We are mistakenly measuring success based on the continued survival of our own congregation and not keeping track of how many new churches are needed for all the new people in our cities and towns. A healthy church is a reproducing, multiplying one and we need to stay focused on this biological process.

4) Reach the next generation – the reports vary, but the fact remains that many Christian young adults exit the church during their 20’s and 30’s (some say as many as 50% ). This generation is coming of age in a rapidly changing technological era, and they are seeking community, authenticity and real solutions to big problems and if they are going to be part of organized church they are expecting to find these answers in Jesus, the Bible and Christian community.

The Church has many strengths, and our opportunities are great, but we need to recognize the serious conditions that affect us and work to overcome them. In the end the Church of Jesus Christ will prevail, the question is, Will we do our part?