My mate Stewart is working on his dissertation.
He’s been working on it long enough that I may never want to go back and get my Masters degree ;-).
And in his dissertation he’s writing about the institutional church.
So far, everything that he’s read says that the institutional church is:
a) declining and
b) increasingly irrelevant
So, he offers three questions:
1. Am I just reading one side of the argument, and if so can you point me in the other direction?
2. If I’m not, and they are right, how come we seem to be pretty much persisting with a model which doesn’t work?
I know that it can be argued that ‘emerging church’ and ‘fresh expressions’ are having a go at something new but at a structural level the churches in the UK aren’t even considering wholesale reform.
3. Why not?
I’m with Stewart. Everything I’ve seen, read and heard seems to suggest the institutional church is in decline.
Now, I don’t think either of us want to bad mouth institutional church but we’re seeing few indications that suggest otherwise.
For the churches that are growing, the majority of the new members seem to be members simply moving from place to place.
And with the tremendous population growth we’ve seen in Texas (and the US) over the past 10 years, you’d think we’d also see a tremendous growth in the number of churches as well — but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It seems churches who are still maintaining the “status quo” or continuing to do ministry the same way they’ve always approached it are dwindling in numbers.
Even the “seeker churches” seem to be declining as well.
As of 2007, a Barna Group study revealed that one out of every three adults (33%) is classified as unchurched – meaning they have not attended a religious service of any type during the past six months. While that figure is considerably higher than the one out of five who qualified as unchurched in the early Nineties, it is statistically unchanged since 36% were recorded as having avoided religious services in the company’s 1994 study.
The study also reported:
An estimated 73 million adults (in the US) are presently unchurched. When teens and children are added, the total swells to roughly 100 million Americans.
To put that figure in context, if the unchurched population of the United States were a nation of its own, that group would be the twelfth most populated nation on earth (trailing only China, India, the churched portion of the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Japan and Mexico).
Included among the unchurched is an estimated 13 to 15 million born again adults and children.
So are there examples where you’ve seen the institutional church thriving? Are there different methods/approaches to how they’re doing ministry?
I think we’d both love to hear about it!
I have encountered groups of committed and growing believers within institutional churches that seem to be growing and thriving despite the institution. From what I can tell the only common denominator is that space is made for them.
Teens aren’t chased out for piercings and baggy clothing, new believer’s aren’t chased out for asking too many questions….
Peter that’s great to hear! Not knowing much about the community, I would say one of the bigger differences from many of the institutional churches I’ve known is allowing questions.
But that’s great to hear. You might drop by and leave Stewart a note on his blog as well – he might be interested in finding out more about your experience! Thanks for the input!