Introduction.
America is changing and being reshaped about as fast as technology is updated and replaced (see Moore’s Law as a reference). Moore's Law states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years with a minimal cost increase. In saying America is changing rapidly, I am referring to the morality in America by the way. There was once an acknowledgement of God and prayer in every corner of society including schools, and government agencies, but as we know those days are long gone. Now I am by no means saying we were ever a nation without faults, as there have been many atrocities and wrong moral judgements in America. The foundations of America however, at least in theory, used the Word of God as its over arching governmental framework. That being said, the moral decline in America can be attributed just as much to the church as anything else we tend to blame. The church has lost its voice, its convictions in absolute TRUTH, and it has lost its vision to preach the gospel (evangelism) and make disciples of all nations (including our own).
Corporate American Churches.
Like most things in America, we have institutionalized the church, and rather than have local communities of believers in Jesus we have institutionalized social gatherings that plan their events like organizations. Or churches have a top down approach to planning events, meaning the directives come from the larger institution, rather than the local community seeking God for ministry opportunities and having organic events planned. Think of the different industries in America that have died or are close to dying to corporations and technologies, here are just a few examples:
Local hardware stores (Lowes/Home Depot/Amazon/Wal-Mart)
Clothing/shoe stores (Amazon/Online)
Locally owned grocery stores (Wal-Mart/Kroger)
Local advertising firms (Facebook/Google)
Insert the one you're thinking about that I missed above.
Why would I suggest this approach has helped kill evangelism in the USA? A few things come to mind, but one of the biggest I see with the corporation effect is it becomes all about numbers and memberships, which in the case of the church means making the messages more palatable to the hearers and growth at all cost. Corporations are always trying to grow their revenue and increase their profit margins, to keep their share price climbing. Churches/Denominations that began to follow this approach of growth for numbers sake, began to compromise, preaching the hard truths and difficult teachings to keep their numbers high. As most of us are aware and are now seeing the effects of the watering down of the gospel. The results, church attendance and membership have been in decline since the late 1990’s. According to a Gallup poll article from 2021 “Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend. In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque, down from 50% in 2018 and 70% in 1999.”
The problem is the church has lost its salt and preserving effect here, and Jesus said in his “sermon on the mount” in Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” Trying to mix how the world and corporate America functions rather than the Book of Acts blueprint of the church has consequences. The Kingdom of Heaven has a completely different counter culture way to operate than how the world operates. 1 John 2:16 “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” We are not to pattern the church after best business practices, but rather carry out the vision and mandates of our Lord Jesus. A desire to grow churches and not be offensive has us leaving our love for the lost and dying world, which takes lots of work and effort to reach out to and to see won to the Lord. The Apostle Paul put it very bluntly that it took many hardships to see the churches that he oversaw and labored in become established in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28:
“24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.” We may never have to face the things that Paul faced, or maybe some will, but this sounds nothing like what many American Pastors of churches are doing to get churches established. The laying down of one's life and dreams for the sake of the gospel is something that has been lost. This is part of something disciples and followers of Jesus must be willing to do if that is the life God calls them to. We simply don’t hear any of these proclamations anymore for the most part so it doesn’t even cross the mind of many believers today that God would have them sacrifice for the sake of the gospel and for the work of the Lord.
Churches don’t get out and evangelize because it takes effort and patience to work with the unchurched & un-saved. Churches typically are all for big crowds but not converts. New believers are messy and require love, patience, and teaching (which most churches/pastors aren’t equipped to embrace).
How Do We Reverse Course?
I realize this has been a bit more difficult of a message and almost seemingly all negative, so let’s move into the solution. We’ve talked about the problems, and as we know God is a God of hope, and a God who restores. What I am so thankful for is that the gospel is simple, and at the end of the day we must get back to the basics. The preaching of the gospel is the power of God, we need to get back to preaching and teaching the word of God, and it is the vehicle where faith is transferred to others Romans 1:16-17 - “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
We need to get back to prayer, and specifically asking God to give us boldness to share his word with others, in the pulpits, to our families, and with our neighbors. As with all things we must do it in love, love for God, and love for our fellow man. If we get back to prayer, get back to the preaching of the cross, the resurrection, and back to making disciples of all nations (including our own). God can move in a mighty way, will it be easy? No way, but we plant the seed, labor, pray and believe God in faith to do the rest, all while doing these things in love, and we will see a move of God. Will it be earth shattering numbers, probably not, God doesn’t need a massive number of people to make an incredible impact. Think about how God used twelve disciples and the other followers (120 at the day of Pentecost) to change all the nations of the world for evermore.
We must also be willing to set aside our agendas and our identities to be a witness for Jesus. Matthew 16:24-35 “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life[g] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The truth is we need the Holy Spirit to give us boldness to overcome our fear of what others think of us, to overcome our doubts about our ability to share the gospel (we don’t have to have all the answers, we have THE ANSWER Jesus). Acts 4:31 “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” So let us turn back our attention to the priorities set before us in the scriptures, loving one another, reaching the lost, and making disciples in our nation and unto the ends of the earth.
Conclusion.
America in typical fashion, has made churches large corporate institutions, rather than united communities of Christ followers. Church should be simply a place where we gather to edify one another, to have our faith ignited through the preaching of the Gospel, and for discipleship and soul winning to be the main focus of all that we do. Being organized and having a full calendar of events isn’t a bad thing, but taking inventory of why we are doing all the things we are doing is very important. If we have a calendar full of social events and no evangelism or discipleship in place we need to recalibrate and change course. Many churches in America need repentance from the top down, and need to turn back to God and seek Him again. God is on a mission to seek and save the lost, and to make disciples of the redeemed, is that your mission? If not, why not?
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