What is the Church?

Movements such as the great awakening and foreign missions societies began a grand tradition of interdenominational cooperation in North American. These populist and independent movements have shaped growth patterns and expectations of the modern church. Church growth and identity was really shaped by para church organizations in the later part of the 20th century. Everything from foreign aid through World Vision, evangelism through the Billy Graham Crusades, and family ministries such as Focus on the Family and Promise Keepers have greatly shaped the evangelical faith experience.

The challenge that is now posed to the Church on our continent is one of a crisis of identity. All of the above listed movements were done not as an extension but as a substitution of local and denominational church bodies. The absence of "The Organized Church" in the forefront of these bodies has led many to focus their interests elsewhere, namely the personal. The state of affairs for those 35 years and under is grim indeed. We have record amounts of professing Christians that do not regularly attend church because they fail to see the need to attend a local church. They believe in God, but the faith they have inherited has stripped the church of its position in their life and they feel less and less of an obligation to attend church for cultural reasons.

Many modern or post modern Christians feel they can satisfy their personal faith journey with television and radio resources, books, personal prayer and scripture reading or even nothing at all. This epidemic is consistent with the sharp fall in volunteerism in North America since WW2. Rotary, the Salvation Army,  various lodges, PTA's and local churches have fallen victim to this cultural change. The question is, can the church respond to this change and fill a void, and if so, how will it do this. One option is to further deconstruct and follow (pander) to the culture by telling it what it wants to hear, entertaining it with catchy pop choruses, or allowing the membership to shape the common life and worship (or lack their of) as an attempt to restore meaningfulness to the action of Church.

But, there is another way, a higher way. This way is one of a consistent ecclesiology with the ages of old. The view of the church as a consumer product where those who attend do so based on the quality or style of the preaching, music, or entertainment value must be rejected by it's leaders. The real challenge is to take a culture that has chosen their church (or lack there of) by this paradigm and ask far more than they have ever been asked. We need to replace the desire for style into an acceptance of substance. In the ever busy schedules of an overworked and tired generation, what does the church really offer other than another "thing" that has to be done.

"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things." Mark 6:34


When we lower ourselves to the strata of a consumer product, we give people the option of accepting us to pure fancy. We ask nothing of the consumer other than to accept us or find another activity to consume their time and clutter their lives. By doing this we are stripped of our meaning, we have no inherent value: except what a depraved mind may decide to give it in a flurry of emotion.

The problem with putting our cup before the consumer and asking "it" to fill the cup is that we are stripping ourselves, and our faith in Christ of any value. Instead of saying, "Come, drink of this cup and receive forgiveness for the sins of the entire world", we say; Hey, I hope you enjoy the taste.

Our faith is not a consumer item which means it's value is not based on the free market. The value is inherent and eternal, any effort to diminish this through the innovation found in the consumer market place is to diminish the salvation offered to us by Christ. These modern innovations have turned shepherds into salesmen and elders into spin doctors.

The organized church has a mantle of leadership and responsibility in the life of the believer and the world at large.Instead of begging people to like our product, we need to demonstrate the humble authority given to us by our Savior and be what the church has always been called to be: the safe harbour of salvation, and a caring mother to it's children.

Jeff Wilson