The Pandemic of Unstable Church attendance!

     

The casualty of Church attendance this pandemic season is constant topic of discussion we hear off late from Pastors and leadership of Churches. It has raised a serious concern on the commitment of the Church members with decreasing tithes and offerings. In some cases, Pastors have been forced to find alternative source of income to function and manage their families. There are the few fortunate who, enjoying a considerably big congregation, managed to survive these adverse times.

'What has caused the apathy of the congregation?' is a pertinent question all Church pastors and leaders need to ask. I would like to illustrate this with a child development analogy.  Parents complain of their child's tantrums in public and the embarrassment they face. They are determined to reprimand the child at all costs and even consider professional counseling sessions for their child. But the fact of the matter is, the public tantrums of the child is an acquired habit at home, which by and large went unaddressed by the parents. They should have disciplined and trained the child in private of their homes to save their face in public. The unaddressed habit has cost the parents their dignity. Don't we find a similar pattern with our congregation members?

Churches placed a great importance on Church attendance for their success. They instilled in the members’ the conviction that their physical presence in Church and financial commitments are what matters to God and Church, the most. We sadly failed to emphasize on the “engagement” part with strategic approach. The reason being, most of the Churches have superficial or no goals and no definite measurable outcomes. The hype was all about having a Sunday performance and namesake Church activities for their members, which have no connection to a specific goal. Eventually, instead of Church services creating revolution in the community, it pathetically ends up as a grand show.

What is engagement? Early Christians didn’t attend Church. They were the Church. Each individual had the enthusiasm to attract a new believer to his/her fellowship. They were completely engaged. However, even with Jesus, many left Him after their needs were met, which led Him to question His team, “Are you also going to leave?”.

Many Churches (even growing Churches) are still counting on getting people to attend, hoping it drives engagement. Cary Nieuwhof on Church growth comments, “The shelf life on attendance strategy is limited because the number of people who want to attend Church drops every year. Consequently, in the future Church attendance won’t drive engagement; engagement will drive attendance.” It's important the Church defines their mission and educate the congregation of its connection to Christ's mission. A live Church is one with active Holistic Mission. It reflects the early Church model - active Church movement, vibrant evangelism work and structured social intervention for their community. It has direct connection to discipleship.

More than 90% of Church congregations are not active disciples. The job of a disciple is to make disciples. Is this true of your congregation? Have your members shared Gospel and have led someone to Christ in the past one or two years? Sadly, in a Christian’s lifetime, majority of them are not able to share the gospel even to one non-Christian friend. This is reality. The truth is people were never engaged with Christ's mission in the first place. Churches today survive either with no definite mission and goals or with ambiguous goals to ensure the security of the Church and its leaders. The member’s engagement is confined to their spiritual belief of attending Sunday Church or attracted to the worship in the Church or to a person, but hardly to the mission. Isn't this a glaring gap? Are we convinced of the problem of engagement over attendance? 

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Doubting John!

John the Baptist was chosen and appointed to make way for Jesus, the Messiah. In fact, it was his calling (Matthew 3:3). We are all aware that John was straightforward, bold in confronting sin and introduced the gospel of repentance (Matthew 3:2), which was soon echoed by Jesus when He started His ministry (Matthew 4:17).

John had clarity in the moral framework after he started preaching the message of repentance and about the kingdom of God. He soon found himself alone in a prison cell, staring at imminent execution for confronting Herod's sin of treachery based on the moral framework established by Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He was the voice in the wilderness, at the peak of his ministry, to the point of being mistaken as the Messiah. He imbibed moral values in people from different walks of life. In fact, John baptized Jesus Himself and thought all the prophecies concerning the Messiah is fulfilled right in front of His eyes. Yet, while in prison it shook his faith system, knowing Jesus was out free, doing His ministry.

John was battling with the fact that no help was coming his way while in prison. In his disciples’ regular visits to meet him, John raises this question and wanted an answer from Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Matthew 11:3

If we have to analyse this, we would soon realize that we also go through situations which raises questions and doubts on the lordship of Christ because we believe for sure everything will turn out to be good for those who believe and follow Him. We Christians are so familiar with Psalms 23, 91 121, 128 and many more such powerful promising words, but when things happen on the contrary, it shakes our very foundation of faith like John's. Today, we are bombarded with messages saying everything will be fine in the end, for Christians. Well, where does this conclusion come from? Are we brainwashed into thinking so? Did it end well for John? No! He was executed. Did it go well with Jesus? No! He was crucified by the cruel Romans. Did it end well for many faith heroes as described in Hebrews 11:34-40. Not at all?

We need to consider the fact that it does not have to end well here on earth, but surely it does end well in terms of our eternity. Jesus did respond to the surging doubt of John by aligning his faith and calling and with the work and ministry of Jesus himself. He said, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receives the sight, the lame walk, these with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, and blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me.” Two things Jesus said, to report what they heard and to report what they saw. What they heard was the gospel, the good news and the hope of eternity and what they witnessed was the gospel accompanied by signs and wonders. Jesus was the Messiah who came to save and seek the lost.

We may have to face constant challenges, loneliness, crisis and hopelessness. But hold on to your faith in Christ Jesus. Don’t estimate life only to exist on this earth. Life is eternal, inclusive of life after death. Death is just a temporary barrier here on earth but a gateway to meet Jesus face to face. Peter encourages us with these words, "but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 1 Peter 4:13 KJV. Suffering and crisis are part of our life, more so, for Christians to shape us and draw us closer to Him. All that Jesus expects is our unwavering faith on Christ and His finished work.

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