A Businessman's Solution to Reverse Church Decline


It was refreshing to read a Christian businessman's suggestions as to how Christianity can bring people back to church. He uses terms like "market share" and such which is exactly how church leaders should themselves be thinking.

While he avoids specific topics that are contentious he is specific about current theology--it must change. Today's society, he writes, has a preoccupation with justice. Mostly, the church does not. In order for today's public to identify with the church in increasing instead of decreasing numbers it needs to move in the public's direction.

Justice, of course, means different things to different parts of the public. The most universal theme, I would argue, is that justice refers to equal opportunity for all including minorities and women. Except for its liberal wing, Christianity has not had as much to say about this in recent decades.

When we talk about what the church is or what it stands for, I always refer to Professor Steven Prothero's book, God is Not One. Prothero says one way to define what the church is is to find out what its members are talking or concerned about. This may (or may not) be issues addressed in its official documents.

When Prothero wrote his book in 2010 he thought the main topic Protestants talked about was sin. I wonder if that is true today. The link's author thinks the more modern topic is justice.

That a church's purpose is whatever people think it is follows from the long standing observation that religion reflects the society where it is found. The values of "the masses" become the values of its religion.

One example of this is gay rights. A couple of decades ago, most of Christianity was opposed to equal rights for gay people. Over time, main line Protestant denominations dropped this opposition. There were break away groups whom, I have read, have a higher average age. They will die out and what is left will remain in favor of gay rights, or justice.

Gay rights is a model of how the entire religion called Christianity must deal with a changing society.






Comments

  1. Matt NoahOctober 21, 2018 at 7:58 PM

    Refreshing to you, I guess. But 'market share' has no business in bringing people to Christ. Perhaps the Church has done as well as it has for 2000 years is that it follows Christ, not businessmen. After all, what business is still in operation today that was in operation 2000 years ago?

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