A Quiet Exodus

Some call it church shopping. But it really isn’t. Whatever the genesis of the movement, it isn’t shopping. Every year millions of people quietly exit the church they have been currently attending. Maybe they were a part for a year. Maybe longer. Maybe even longer. But every year people are leaving. Each year there is a sort of migration as people, who have become disenchanted with your church, leave to find another that better fits what they are looking for. Now, it can be rightly stated that many of those people are leaving for the wrong reasons. They are looking for the church that better suits there personal “needs.” That is never a reason to leave a church, but it happens. Regularly. Underneath all of that is the misplaced understanding of why they feel unsettled in their current spot. They think the church isn’t meeting their needs, but it is the church that is teaching them that when that isn’t the gospel. So they find themselves frustrated and leave for greener pastures. And that is not the whole issue.

Many are not just exiting your church. Many are exiting the church as a whole. Not the universal one, but the local ones. Completely. And finding community elsewhere. Their faith is strong in Jesus. Just not the church anymore. There is nothing like the church when the church is actually being the church God calls it to be. But the church can lose sight of that when it begins to emphasize the wrong things over people.

So, what happened? It is really a question of emphasis. And many, if not most, churches don’t realize their misplaced emphasis but here is a test. If your first thought is to guilt, or shame, a member of your church for missing services then it is very likely you have misplaced emphasis. What does that look like?

Programs over community

It is an easy trap. Maybe the easiest. Surely it is good to have programs?! Yes, but programs can easily supplant the real mission of the church. They can create a false sense of discipleship security. The emphasis becomes the thinking that if people in the church will just take part in these programs then they are growing. They are good faithful believers. But they aren’t. They are real people with real problems. Programs can create a pressure on members to conceal the problems so that the other people with the same problems won’t think less of them. People will actually begin to regress when programs overshadow community. Spiritual growth springs forth in the context of community relationships, and that isn’t just people in the church knowing each other. It is being in actual authentic community. No 6-8 week class can create that. Now, such a class can help the believer develop tools that will aid in the spiritual growth process. But no believer ever grew spiritual purely from just sitting through a bible study class.

Politics over gospel

There is a lot here. And a lot more to say probably. And it is an extremely tricky subject. But political speech can easily become greater emphasis than the gracious speech of the gospel. No person on earth has been given the task of metering out grace to others. Only Jesus can do that. Too often the church has displayed condemnation over restoration to people, and far too often that condemnation is leveled at people who have no faith, no salvation. They don’t know Jesus. There is no Holy Spirit to guide them. The very people the church is called to pursue are instead rejected and turned away. For too many places in the United States, the “American Dream” has replaced the Biblical ideal. First century Judaism was extremely politically divided. And Jesus chastised all of them not over their politics, but over how they treated the people. He condemned the unnecessary burdens they ladened the people with in order to be “right with the Lord.” The upheaval of today in society is tremendous and the church can and should speak to it. But the manner of speaking is paramount. Preach the actual Bible and, even more so, the radical grace of God through Jesus Christ. By doing so, you will speak boldly to all of the issues of today, both on the right, the left and the middle (wherever that has gone.) The message of grace transcends any and all politics. It is not a right or left sided message. And the church has not been called to decide who is worthy of it. No one is. That is what makes it so incredible and why there is so much responsibility to share it.

Production over authenticity

Church, worship, and all of the ministries along with it need to be done with excellence. That isn’t the issue. Whether a church of 100 people or 10,000 people you really should do it well. But it shouldn’t be a production. Somehow it doesn’t seem like Jesus had to wait for the lights to be brought down and the mood to be set by a slower song before He delivered the Sermon on the Mount. When a slick production is emphasized over being real people will feel the pressure to put on a false front. They lose the comfort to be real. What happens when someone who doesn’t know how to be fake, or to play the game, shows up at your church? What if someone didn’t know how to dress right for your church? Would they show up again? What about your groups? What would they do if someone came who didn’t know they are supposed to hide their messed up - ness? People can only take fake for so long. Eventually they will leave. Or worse, they stay and remain silent while quietly dying inside from their hurt and pain of failures. How much time do you spend making sure Sunday is perfect rather than spending quality time with your family, your staff, or members of your congregation? The ministry of Jesus was a consistent blend of individual conversations, natural teaching moments, and interruptions. The Bible doesn’t detail what Jesus did at Synagogue. It details what He did on a day to day basis. He didn’t have a hazer. He had a mission.

Doing over being

A simple understanding of the above is the idea of the church emphasizing doing over being. It was the fundamental problem with the Pharisees in the New Testament. It is the fundamental issue of the church today. There are a whole lot of really good things happening in church today, but when the church thinks that spiritual maturity in the believer is measured by the number, or quality, of activities that believer is a part of then emphasis has become misplaced. It is like being one degree off in your direction. Early on it doesn’t seem to matter. But the longer you go the farther off course you are drifting. At some point, the light of Christ is made dim by the distance between. Paul, when challenged to boast of his deeds for Christ, would only point to his position in Christ. His boast was that of a sinner saved by Jesus’ grace. Nothing else. In fact, he considered himself the chief of sinners. Something a large number of people today could benefit from understanding. Growth isn’t measured by accomplishments, verses memorized, quiet times had, or anything of those things. It is measured by heart change. That is something only the Holy Spirit can do. And when the heart is changed those things are the outgrowth of the inward dynamic. The more you try to please God with your actions, the further you drift from Him. But let Him work on your heart. Till the ground up. Rip out the weeds and renew the soil. The more the actions of your life will align with the things of God.

People are leaving the church at an alarming rate. Quietly. Not with grandiose actions. Just the quiet patter of feet heading out the door. They leave because they can’t find the real Jesus in that church, or no one has ever done the work to show them what being “in Christ” really means. Is your church pushing a misplaced emphasis for spiritual growth? The mission is really about people, and not anything else.