I’m Not Giving Up on the Church

By Tim Stevens

Published: October 02, 2008

Last week my friends, Jack and Molly, poured out their hearts to me about their church experience. They love their church in Ohio. They have been there for more than ten years now and are involved up to their eyeballs. Jack is a deacon and helps with some of the worship arts. Molly has been on the praise team and volunteers as she is able. They love their pastor and want to support him, but sadly, they would never think of inviting a friend. Not again.

They gave it a shot once. A few months ago, Molly invited a friend from her workplace to church. This was a close friend, and they knew she would be honest about her experience. During the entire service, Molly was wincing. She was more keenly aware than ever that the music was bad, the message was completely irrelevant, and it was all excessively long. When she asked her friend a few days later what she thought, the answer came back, "Molly, your church sucks." It was crass and was hard to hear, but Molly knew she was right.

A lot of churches know this, but they keep doing what is comfortable...what they enjoy. It is just too painful to diagnose what is not working, so the leaders continue to focus on the areas (such as fellowship, worship, or Bible study) they find easier to accomplish. Oh, they still pray for their unchurched friends. They want them to meet Jesus, but they have no idea how that might happen. Unfortunately, over time, as their Christian community becomes more ingrown, the chasm between their "lost" friends and them grows larger and larger.

Is that what Jesus had in mind when He dreamed up this thing called the church? When He came to earth to give His very life so that we might experience His love and grace, do you suppose He pictured churches where the people He died to save would feel like outsiders?

It's not that people around us aren't pursuing their faith. There's a growing percentage of people of faith in our communities who love God the best they know how-they just see the church as completely irrelevant. It does not even cross their minds to go to a church service to figure out the next spiritual step they should take. They've been to church. They've seen so-called Christians who are no different from their other friends. They have sat through one too many songs that are written like funeral dirges and talk about raising your Ebenezer (doing what to my what?). They have listened to some pastor drone-on about living a sanctified life and being washed in the blood of Jesus (are these people cannibals?). So they left, without hope, still trying to figure out the answers on their own. They do this two or three times, and soon they have been burned, and they begin to pursue their faith outside the church.

But they are still spiritual beings. They still want to find hope, purpose, and meaning. So they look for ways to fill the void, and often turn to the only language they really understand at their core-where they feel deeply and experience life fully. They turn to pop culture for their answers.

They turn on the radio and hear Coldplay expose their pain, singing, "...when you lose something you can't replace, when you love someone, but it goes to waste," and it touches them. It marks them in a deeply personal way. They view a movie such as Little Children (2006) and watch the tormented lives of four individuals who are trying to make sense of their humanity and yet continue to make one bad choice after another. They identify with the struggle of the actors and it moves them to take a step-to do something differently.

It is not that people are turning to culture just to learn a different angle about God or faith. In truth, the culture is actually shaping the values and faith of most people around us.

What do we do with these two realities? One: Many churches are ineffective. Two: People are pursuing God outside the church. Many say we should give up on the local church.

I understand that sentiment. I have seen more impotent churches than effective ones. I have seen plenty of churches that "suck," and it makes me cynical. Sometimes it drowns out hope that it could ever be different.

But I have also seen churches that get it. I have seen with my own eyes what happens when the power of the local church is energized with the creativity of the arts, utilizing the language of the popular culture. I am jazzed about the spiritual longing I see in our culture. And I love what happens when faith and culture come together in the local church, so that people who were far from God hear for the first time how much they matter to Him.

I'm not giving up on the church. I'm in for the long haul to figure out better and better ways to "do church" in a way that has a real impact on our culture and our communities. You with me?

Tim Stevens is the Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church and author of Pop Goes the Church. Follow his valuable leadership and strategic insights at LeadingSmart.com