My church’s days are numbered.
Churches like mine will not last into the next generation.
At least not looking the way we look today.
There’s a cultural and financial storm underway. Unless we anticipate, acknowledge and respond well to it, churches like mine will be about as popular as printed newspapers, land-line phones and brick-and-mortar bookstores.
So, what do I mean by “churches like mine”? First, here’s what I don’t mean.
Megachurches will be OK. For the most part. They have a big enough giving base to weather the storms.
House churches will be fine as well. They have no overhead to worry about. And they’re doing church and relationships in a way that is increasingly more attractive to the coming generation.
Rural churches will probably be OK, too. Many new new trends tend not to hit small towns as deeply as big cities. Plus, small-town churches are more adept at struggling and surviving through hard times.
But churches like mine – the small to mid-size denominational church with a mortgage and a pastoral salary in a large metropolitan area – will start disappearing at a frightening pace in the next couple of decades.
Sorry to be the bearer of ill tidings. But the only alternative to facing the truth is to deny the truth – and suffer the consequences because of our denial. Read more
Photo: lansingschmansing.blogspot.com
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