Churches must work to become relevant

Leaders say it means
utilizing technology in
worship services

By Rachel L. Toalson
Managing Editor
He remembers the morning well. It was Easter, and people were pouring into San Antonio’s Alamodome for a special resurrection service. He hadn’t been to church in years, but he’d come at his mother’s request.
A homeless man hovered outside the doors of the dome, a few feet away from Josh Dean and his family. He was shaking from the cold. Hundreds walked right by him, averting their eyes.
“Not one single person helped him,” said Dean, 34. “I thought, ‘This is why I don’t go to church. These are the people who are supposed to be helping, but they’re here because they want to dress pretty and talk about how great it is to love God.’ I quit going to church altogether.”
Dean’s story is not unusual. Mainline denominations across the United States have been steadily losing members in the last 30 years, even while the population of the United States has grown significantly, said the Rev. Don Nations, senior pastor of Edgewater UMC in Florida.
Nations works with churches to help them undergo transformation. In his experience, he said, he has discovered that people 18-35 who do not regularly attend church think that “church people” are “critical, hypocritical, rigid, stuck in the past, boring, unwilling to change and out of touch with the modern world.”
Those who do attend church regularly indicate that they almost feel the same way about people in churches.
In a church where the average age of members is 60, where more churches are closed every year than opened and where half of all the pastors will retire in the next 11 years, something has to be done, Nations said.

A changing society
Forty years ago, a large percentage of people raised in the church remained in the church as adults, Nations said. Today, a large majority of people raised in the church leave it some time after graduating high school. Many of them never return.
The percentage of the United States population that identifies itself as United Methodist is about half what it once was, Nations said.
Much of that has to do with a changing society and the church’s inability to keep up, he added.
What once was a society that depended on the written word and the talking head—standing in one spot or sitting in one spot while preaching or broadcasting—has today become one based on media, music and motion, Nations said.
Christianity used to be the major religion of choice, but hundreds of religions are vying for attention today.
“We have moved from a society in which there were some things considered to be ‘absolute truth’ to a society in which many do not believe there is anything such as absolute truth,” Nations said. “There is a shift from, ‘Let me send my money to a good cause’ to, ‘Help me become involved in doing something directly that will help someone.’”
Some churches are doing a good job reflecting the changes in society. Others are struggling—and failing to reach the people in their communities.
“There are churches that are growing, thriving, reaching people of all ages and helping people become authentic disciples of Jesus, but so often they are not mainline churches,” Nations said. “Even when they are, those churches are very much the exception.
“I believe God has called us to change the world and help people meet, know and serve Jesus. I believe this can happen in United Methodist churches of all sizes. But I also believe that this will only happen if we embrace transformation.”

Embracing change
By transformation, Nations said, he means an “increase in worship attendance, an increase in the professions of faith, turning declining church systems into thriving church systems, training pastors and other leaders in how to connect with the contemporary world and a revitalization of worship and doing things that fundamentally change communities for Jesus.
A number of churches have added a “contemporary worship service, upgraded their sound system, installed a video projector, created a Web site and/or taken similar steps” to “embrace change and grapple with communicating the message of Jesus in a new age,” Nations said.
“Having said that, I do not believe that most churches have kept up with the pace of change,” he added. “Some don’t recognize how much the world has changed. Some see the changes and are doing whatever they can to keep those changes out of the church, and some have simply decided that if people are seeking a church that has embraced change, then those people can go find another church.”
Churches are having what Nations calls “worship wars”—battles between people who prefer different styles of worship. They haven’t incorporated dramatic reading, drama, dance, art or other forms into worship experiences.
The Rev. Mike Lowry, executive director of New Church Development and Transformation for the Southwest Texas Conference, said transformation only happens when church members are open to prayer and seeking God’s will above their own, when they have the right clergy and lay leadership and when leaders and members are willing to take risks.
“Healthy churches are always engaged in ongoing transformation,” Lowry said. “Transformation means change. And the dilemma—this is true in business, school, the military, church or families—is we tend to resist change because it takes us out of our comfort zone.”

Becoming relevant
Leaders say one of the best ways a church can begin reaching out to the lost generation is by becoming relevant.
“I’ve seen glimmers of hope,” said Karen Horan, pastor of Gruene UMC. “The church is working hard at remaining or becoming relevant.”
“We do adjust and change,” said Dave Wiant, youth ministries director at Oak Hill UMC, Austin. “Comparatively, what we’re seeing outside of the church is even more significant than inside the church. But there is a willingness that people have to embrace different worship styles, and that’s a positive thing.”
The Rev. Jason Teague, pastor of First UMC, Goliad, said he’s begun using different language in his sermons.
“You have to use less churchy language,” he said. “If I use a term from the traditional church or from a theologian, if I say, ‘sanctification,’ I better say that all it means is we’re being made into something new by God’s work in our lives.”
“It’s about becoming culturally aware,” said the Rev. David Skinner, pastor of Dripping Springs UMC. “If you’re serving in a little church, you better learn how to make coffee.”
Churches have changed their worship styles. Some have added contemporary worship services. Others have mixed in praise choruses with their traditional hymns.
“The nondenominational church taught us that there was a world out there that wanted a worship that was in tune with their music styles and their struggles,” said Mark Deaton, pastor of Bulverde UMC. “I’ve seen in my 20-something years a complete shift—not by going away from traditional, but adding contemporary options.”
Judy Davis, community outreach coordinator for Laurel Heights UMC, San Antonio, said church today is competing with all the other activities that people choose to do in their ever-decreasing free time.
“Everybody is so time conscious and time deprived,” she said. “They’re not going to go (to church) because they feel like they need to. Church has to be something that’s worth their time and effort.
“We, as a church, have got to get over the thought that if we build it they will come.”
Dean, now a member of Riverside Community in Spring Branch, said most of the friends his age who have higher educations—the lawyers and doctors with Master’s degrees—tend to stay detached from church because they see a hurting, poverty-stricken world that seems forgotten, while pastors drive $85,000 cars or wear $3,000 suits.
“For me, it’s not the idea of changing to modern music or having a PowerPoint presentation with slides that keep up with technology,” Dean said. “It’s about how (church members) serve.”

Transformation’s challenge
Many barriers stand between churches and change.
Sometimes church members don’t see the urgency of change. Many churches have become inwardly focuses, where members believe the church is primarily about them. Others don’t welcome those who are different, those who might “make waves.”
“People who live around our churches are slipping into eternity without a relationship with Jesus,” Nations said, “and it seems as if most church people really don’t care…at least not enough to do something about it.”
Other challenges could include “controlling people, immature leaders, a lack of good ideas, boring and irrelevant worship, ineffective pastoral leadership and an unwillingness to adopt the technology of the day,” Nations said.
“People are comfortable, even if comfortable is not working,” said the Rev. Scott Bradford, pastor of First UMC, Uvalde. “It’s still comfortable. Transformation is about getting out of that and risking reaching out to new neighbors, risking that it’s going to be somewhat different.”
“There’s a lack of focus on the Biblical mission of the church,” Skinner said. “So people tend to go into a self-preservationist mentality. We’ve gone from this flaming hot sort of revival-based-leading-people-to-Christ organization to more of a let’s-keep-the-institution-safe organization. That’s really done a lot of damage over the last few decades.”

Seeing with new eyes
At the heart of a church’s decline is a spiritual problem, not a strategic one, said Dan Bonner, president and lead strategist of the Center for Urban Congregational Renewal.
“People think, if we can just train better preachers, if we can just get more family life centers, if we can just raise more money or have a contemporary worship service,” Bonner said. “Those are all what I consider Pharisaic idolatry. We’ve gone whoring after strategies like Pharisees.
“Jesus had a different context. He healed on the Sabbath, and the Pharisees wanted to know if it was the latest trend. I’m not anti-strategies, but we run too quickly to strategies as if the strategies are going to help us. There ain’t no silver bullet, and there ain’t no magic pill to fix this. It’s about seeking the Lord and listening to how God is at work and committing ourselves to make incarnate the Gospel within these two things.”
Bonner said the task of churches is to “discover the gifts” God has given them and “put them to vital use.” It’s a faith journey the congregation will travel, he added.
“It’s about coming together around a common vision of what God is calling us to,” he said. “It’s not pain free. We’re not talking about something that’s easy. We’re talking about really committing ourselves to God’s will, no matter what.”
Nations said transformation requires more than reading a book or praying more or reading the Bible every day or going to a seminar or hearing a great speaker. It must be sustained over a long period of time and requires “changing the DNA of the congregation—its mission, vision, values and way of working.”
Transformation requires a long assessment process that includes reviewing programs within the church and determining what needs the target area might have. It could take six months or several years.
But the future of the Church depends on it.
“The church is God’s chosen vehicle for the transformation of the world,” Lowry said. “We will either transform and recover that sense of activity or we will die. So part of what’s at stake is whether the church will even be here.”