Christianity in the Western world is increasingly vanishing. The decline is partly due to a deep-seated, chronic denial by entrenched “Church culture” survivors, who live in the present, while heading into the future with their hearts stuck in the past.

We all wish that every congregation was healthy, boasting thousands, or at least hundreds of passionate believers. But some congregations just aren’t willing to recognize the chronic state of their branch of the body. The difference between those very few congregations that actually see such growth and spiritual vitality, and the majority of congregations that are in a constant decline or, at best, remain temporarily stagnant, is partially due to a willingness to recognize that people have changed. What leaders of strong congregations see is that which George Hunter III recognizes:

“These populations are increasingly ‘postmodern’; they have graduated from Enlightenment ideology and are more peer driven, feeling driven, and ‘right-brained’ than their forbearers. These populations are increasingly ‘neo-barbarian’; they lack ‘refinement’ or ‘class,’ and their lives are often out of control.”

Until we are willing to admit and respond to the fact that younger generations are unable to recognize the language, habits, and values of those of us who grew up in the Church culture, we will continue to see a decline in Western Christianity.

I believe that the decision which we will have to decide upon is whether we care more about our own values, or reaching the West for Christ.

As a songwriter in Nashville, one of the cultural axioms that I picked up rather quickly was that of calling a songwriter’s song his “baby.” I learned that, when a writer performed his song, he was not just trying to sell a product, but he was showing off his “baby.” And if someone didn’t like his “baby,” the writer took the dislike very personally. Rewriting the song was like giving the song up for adoption; something many young or new songwriters were unwilling to do. “This is ‘my’ baby, and I’d rather it never be heard by anyone than see it change!”

The mature songwriter learned that, as beautiful as his baby was to himself, if he wanted it to be recorded and have a chance at being played on the radio, he would have to learn how to make the baby loveable to others, even if the baby would no longer be his. If he was unwilling to give the baby away, it would almost certainly die with the songwriter.

Most congregations and Church leaders are not willing to give the baby away in order for it to be loved. In other words, many of us would rather see our congregation die than see it change.

It is written in the Scriptures that King Solomon had the opportunity to express his great wisdom, when two prostitutes brought in a baby that both claimed as their own. One prostitute’s baby had died during the night, because she suffocated it by sleeping on the baby, so she stole the child of the other prostitute during the night, and left her dead child with the mother of the living child.

Solomon’s suggestion to the two who fought over the child was to have the baby cut in half and each of the women were to be given a part of the baby. Of course the true mother was willing to “give the baby away” so that it would not die, rather than have her baby killed (see 1 Kings 3:16-30).

It seems that many believers would rather have our congregations die a slow death than make it something that another would be willing to love. Even in the face of certain death, many Christian leaders and congregants make no effort to change so that others will be able to love the Church.

Are our traditions and paradigms so valuable to us that we would rather see our baby cut in half than rewrite the song?

In His dust,
Johnny

George G. Hunter III The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West… Again (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), p. 9.

© 2010 Jonathan P. Gainey and Flock’s Diner.
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