Help! What's Happening to My Church?

How Christianity is Changing and Why It Matters

In retirement as an Episcopal priest, I’ve served quite a few very small churches, one Sunday here, another Sunday there. In all of them that I’ve served, they’ve lost a significant number of members. The remaining members, everywhere I’ve been, worry about their church, and rightly so. Most of these churches are in small towns. In one of those towns, the Presbyterian Church and the Christian (Disciples of Christ) Church have closed. Part of my ministry in these places is to do what I can in sermons, to bolster the faith of those who remain. To encourage them with the love of Christ.

The phenomena that they are facing is not happening just to them only. Churches of all sizes, all over the country, are losing members in crazy numbers. The big survey companies (Gallop and Barna, for two) are taking polls to be able to look at the data. Something major is happening. Books are being written about it. One of those books is titled “The Great Dechurching” by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. I have read it. One of the startling facts that the authors bring to our attention, is that some 40 million American Christians have left their church in the last 25 years. Forty million! This phenomenon is happening across all denominations.

Surely there is something much larger and more far-reaching that is happening, than a handful of small churches losing a few members. Indeed the truth of that statement is complex. Cultural phenomena are at play. Technology is morphing into what was sci-fi only a few years ago, and it’s doing it at warp speed. There is a growing disillusionment with traditional social structures, including churches. Some of the major events in our lifetime (just to name a few) that are having their effect at shifting things around: the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001; COVID-19 Pandemic 2021-2023; the internet and Social Media; use of AI tools on the increase. These are only a few of the developments and events affecting current cultural paradigm shifts that are playing havoc with churches.

A subset of the members who have left the church consists of those who were spiritually abused. But even a larger subgroup are disillusioned because of our cultural unraveling, and they don’t know what to do with experiencing their faith unraveling with it. Their faith is eroding. Deconstructing. We are in a crisis of spiritual formation. And it’s unavoidable.

But do you know what? There’s something way larger and more profound than all of that put together. Because church history is also at play. What do I mean by that, you may well ask. Several authors over the last few decades have realized some intriguing events from church history that are happening again in our day. The major overview of this realization? Every 500 years the church undergoes a major paradigm shifting, after which can never again be what it was before that shifting. So consider this very brief romp through church history, as a beginning explanation:

1. The 1^st 500 Years of Christianity. The church as is it is recorded in the New Testament, spread throughout the Mediterranean area and beyond in the first few centuries. Those early Christians faced periodic and severe persecution. Then Emperor Constantine (4^th Century AD) had a religious experience, converted to Christianity and made it a legal religion in the Roman Empire. There were two major branches of Christianity at that time: the Roman branch based in Rome and the Eastern branch based in Constantinople. They were still in communion with each other. In the 5^th Century, the Roman Empire fell. Christianity becoming legal, and the Fall of Rome – huge events that changed the Church.

2. The 2^nd 500 Years of Christianity. In 1054 there was a major dispute and falling out between the two major branches of Christianity. The then current Bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other, rendering what church historians have called The Great Schism. Christianity divided. The Body of Christ broken. Huge event that affected the Church for centuries.

3. The 3^rd 500 Years of Christianity. The church reformers appeared in the 1500’s. People like Martin Luther, among others, who reacted against certain theological abuses that were being practiced in the Catholic Church. In 1517 Luther posted his 95 theses to the church door in Wittemburg, and the Great Reformation began. The Lutheran Church was born, and then several other denominations arose, many of whom promoted the way they believed was the way to heaven. Nobody else had it right. Some of the Christian groups even persecuted other Christian groups.

4. The 4^th 500 Years of Christianity. We are in the middle of the fourth set of 500 years of Christianity. What’s happening in our day? In 2017, the Lutherans celebrated the 500^th anniversary of The Great Reformation. Here we are, folk, 500 years since The Great Reformation! The Church on a global level is again shifting around in ways we may not be aware of, because we’re in the midst of it. But in our day, profound ecumenical endeavors are under way between denominations. Endeavors that make the news when they happen, but then common ordinary people like you and me, may not be aware of their importance, or of their continuing developments, or how they will turn out in the end. But I can tell you, we are in the middle of a major paradigm shift.

Examples: 1. Vatican II has initiated profound and ongoing changes in the Catholic Church. You might be surprised to learn that the effects of Vatican II have also affected other denominations so that we are much more ecumenical than ever before.

2. Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew met several times, embracing each other, signing documents, working toward a healing of The Great Schism that happened 1000 years ago. Can you grasp how huge that is?

3. Pope Francis met with the Lutherans on several occasions, fostering greater understanding and forgiveness. Again, HUGE!

4. The newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England, Sarah Mullally, plans to work with Pope Leo toward greater ecumenical changes between their denominations. All this, and more, happening on a global level, while it seems at a local level, things are falling apart. But apparently, it’s all part of the same and profound shifting. All this happening while other denominations are splitting into two pieces over some disagreements that they deem important.

Historians and authors are already attempting to name what is happening as we wake, eat, sleep. Examples of possible names: The Great Emergence. The Great Resignation, Reshuffle, or Reset. The Great Dechurching. The Great Opportunity. The period we’re in probably won’t receive its “real?” name until a hundred years from now when historians and authors can look back and see things that we can’t see yet.

What is my point in writing all this? We live in a momentous time, witnessing great changes that are challenging to understand, difficult to grasp what it all means. Now is one of those times when it is more important than ever to tend our faith in God who is Love, to deepen our love and compassion for the needy, to guard our heart where our prayer relationship with Jesus lives, to listen within for the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit – and yes, if you can, in this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous culture – attend church. Do what you can to pray for and to build up the Body of Christ.

We are in the middle of an exciting adventure, if you can see the truth of that statement. So look up. Live each day with hope that whatever the Lord is doing in His Church, in the end, it’s going to be beautiful.

I wonder – If you could name this tumultuous yet exciting time for our culture that we live in, or for what’s happening to the Church – what name would you give it?