I was not ready to see that poor condition of the church upon my return. She looks and acts weak. I am not 100 percent sure why this is other than the fact that the people that attend churches on a regular basis have no idea what a healthy church looks like. They think they know, but they have not looked at the definition of a healthy church in so long they think they are fine. The leadership of many churches, especially in the South have neglected to notice and take action at the shift in American culture. I recognize that it is easy for me to see this, I have been gone for years and now I land back in the middle of the over churched south. I see churches doing the same good things that they did so many years ago. These were great things that lead to people coming to Christ in high numbers. But as the culture changes so do the methods needed to engage the current culture. Because many churches have not addressed such changes they will eventually die off, and hear it from me, that is terribly sad.

Observations:
Churches are closing. Now more than ever before in the history of the church. It is hard to miss how churches are no longer able to function. Don’t get me wrong I have a list of churches that I think need to close. I truly believe that the people that attend the church will draw closer and deeper in their walk with the Father if they attend another church. Another observation I have noticed is that churches are still doing the same things, the same strategies as they did when I was a boy. In my ten years as a missionary with the imb we changed our mission strategy based off of our target culture every three years. The church missed the fact that even though some of the family names in their churches are the same, they are different people. Their values and priorities have shifted dramatically. So we have to shift the way we interact, love, teach, train, and disciple these wonderful families.

Assumptions:
I made a huge mistake after returning from the mission field and making the observations above. I thought that the church and those inside it saw things as I saw them. Surly they see how bad it is and how much they need to change in order to have an impact on the members and the surrounding community. Man, I was way off. I assumed that churches and sometimes pastors would take notice of the time, money, and resources used every week in order to make the necessary changes to make disciples in their own backyard. Forget the nations for a sec. I just want you to talk to your neighbor about Jesus. I assumed that over the past ten years I was gone discipleship would have a greater priority in the church. But I am not sure that has taken place either.

Conversations:
I have had several conversations with church members, pastors, lay leaders, and various church staff from large and small churches in the South. I am curious to a fault and a strong strategic thinker so in asking questions I am trying to wrap my odd brain around church activity and it can come across mean. But if you are still reading this post I am going to assume that you don’t care and want to hear what I have to say. I think the most frustrating question I ask people is one little word that causes the conversation to shift. I ask “Why”, it is a simple question that helps me get to the strategic importance of whatever activity we are talking about. My follow-up question usually digs a little deeper when I ask, “Is it working? Are you seeing the results you want to see?” The answer is almost always “no” so I ask then why do it. It feels like so many of our churches have absolutely no strategy to share the gospel and disciple new believers. Every church can have a strategy to reach lost persons to Christ. I hope that we can stop having Sunday just to have Sunday and start producing disciples that disciple.

My conversations, observations and assumptions have lead me to be very be concerned about the future health of our churches in America. We have to change, we have to act now, we have to be about the task He has commanded us to be about… until He returns.