Challenging the Church Culture of BUCKS, BUTTS & BUILDINGS

Stan Moody:

After 31 years of pastoring evangelical churches in Maine, prescribed home of the “frozen

chosen” within New England’s “graveyard of evangelism.” I find myself struggling for answers to

what ought to be a fairly simple question. “How can we be faithful to the Gospel of the

Kingdom of God, yet adjust the delivery of the message to reach an exploding generation of

families flying through cyberspace?” Maybe it is less about the message than about the

transformational effect of the message. What do you think?

Becoming Agents of Change:

Two things have become clear. First, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pin down such a

diverse audience that ranges from the marginalized to upper-middle-class suburbanites. Family

dynamics are changing; American politics is in a state of flux; people are increasingly transient;

personal interests seem to be changing faster than time!

Second, the institutional Church is notoriously intransigent (resistant to change). Within

evangelical circles, the Church is believed to derive from sacred traditions that cannot be

disturbed except through style of worship and size of the parking lot. In my youth, you couldn’t

move the communion table because it had been “dedicated to God.”

What We’re Up Against:

Prior to the Pandemic, 1.2 million people a year were leaving their congregations.1 Since the

Pandemic attendance has leveled off to 85% of pre-pandemic numbers. Interestingly, small

churches (50 or less)2 have held steady, while the big, non-denominational churches are

struggling to grow. Efforts to live stream services are a tentative first step, but it falsely presumes

an audience longing for tradition.

Can Jesus’ Gospel of the present, dynamic, triumphant Kingdom of God emerge through the

chaos of daily life in America? The following are some interesting excerpts from an article by

author Carey Nieuwhof published in Outreach Magazine in 20213 :

• A Barna Group survey has 67% of those attending online services saying that they learn

  just as much from a streamed message as from an in-person message.

• Churches are using digital ministry for content distribution via YouTube, but in its fullest

  form, digital ministry (must be) about people. Content alone does not lead to

  engagement. Community and connections do.

• Ultimately, the goal of digital content cannot be consumption. It must be connection

  and community. The goal is not the number of followers, views, minutes watched, likes

  and comments, as significant as those might be.

• We in the church tend to share information about Jesus or Christianity. There was a day

  when that was really helpful. Guess what! People aren’t looking for information about

  God. They’re looking for an experience with God! They are hungering for a transcendent

  touch – true community, deeper experiences, and authentic transcendence.

• People don’t want to know what is true; they want to know what is real. What is real is

  deeper than an idea; it’s an experience. It’s a shame when people come to church

  looking for God and only find us!

• The best future churches will have content that leans toward the immanent – practical,

  helpful, and digestible. They will go TO people rather than expect people to come to

  them.

• The 1st Century Church was a church that met wherever people were. The future church

  will be more like that, digitally, through central gatherings and microgatherings.

• Gathering in people’s homes and outside the building on Sunday morning or on other

  days would consist of microchurches that are outward-focused.

• Gathering people on Sunday mornings will be as important as ever. It just won’t all

  happen in a building owned by the church.

Target a Smaller Audience?

I can’t let this go without some homework! Are you ready?? Below is a survey by the Barna

Group showing what was missed by Millennials, Gen-Xers, and Boomers when churches closed

during COVID. I found the survey to be quite different from my gut instinct, leading me to

determine that one answer to this problem of reaching the unreachable would be to target a

smaller group and move forward. For those of us found longing for younger families to attend,

maybe we should focus on ministering to our elderly, picking up new opportunities as they

present themselves.

Thank you for taking the time to think about this issue. We invite you to let us know your

thoughts beyond, “You ought to go to MY church.”

1 Explore the latest church attendance statistics in 2025 and discover surprising insights into the changing

landscape of church attendance. | ChurchTrac Blog

2 Ibid.

3 What Growing Churches Will Look Like in the Future - outreachmagazine.com