I quote:
Starting this site was a bit of a milestone for me. I was at a conference and something snapped. I’m not sure why, but I had a kairos moment. Instead of trying to make church better, maybe churches had to do the opposite – to get out of the way to let God move.
I wasn’t sure what this meant, but I’m not alone. I’m pretty sure that God is behind a divine discontent that is sweeping across western Christianity today. Reggie McNeal talks about people quitting the church not because they are giving up on their faith, but to preserve their faith.
This is spot-on so far, keep reading Why I started dying church…. (HT: Darryl Dash) Also note About DyingChurch.com the page explaining what the site is and more about why Darryl is doing this.
I have spent 55 years in ministry, first as a pastor’s wife and when my husband died, abandoning a university teaching career and research to open closed churches. My late husband came from Norway and believed Hitler could walk into Europe because the churches were closed. He believed that if we let our churches die, a worse enemy will emerge. Is this enemy the terrorist? He came to America, won his denominations highest award for church growth in the most impossible places, when he died I carried the dream, won Methodist’s highest award for church growth and wrote “New Life for Dying Churches! It Can Happen Anywhere! which won the international KOALA award as best non fiction by Christian Writers Fellowship International and has gone into eight printins. I shares a life ups and downs, challenges and victories in opening dyiing churches. Readers of that book have sent me non-stop around the world from Africa to Australia and Fiji and all across America in national and international , state and district conferences seeing miracles happen. Every civilization, including the terrorist, believe life exists after death. Everyone really wants to know where they will spend eternity. Only the church and believer have have been given the daunting task of helping them answer that question. It takes getting involved to a point of inconvenience with children, youth, adults. Today only 2% of children are in church, fewer teens. It is time we have to ask ourselves, “What are we doing in church that any good athiest couldn’t do better!” The average age in church today is 57. So, someone shared it with us. We leave behind our material possessions, all we can take with us is those we have led to Christ. It takes loving and caring, believing and working, praying and paying any price to love them into His Kingdom. And when it happens, and it is happening everywhere, nothing is more exciting and glorious. It just defies any gloomy statistics. Lovingly, Dr. R. Sims, simsj@comcast.net.