I have had a few conversations, lately, with folk who are asking or, more accurately, are concerned about the future of the Church, and more specifically, their own local church. This week, I heard the rumour about a once grand,  old,  Baptist church struggling with the decision to close or not.  (And no, I am not meaning my last pastorate, Murray St. - yet!)

It got  me to thinking.

Deficits, debt, staff salaries  and the expensive upkeep of these old buildings eventually have a toll that the declining and aging participants of the church body can no longer afford. But you can only cut back so far on staff, programming, mission and ministry not to mention the heat, hydro and other expenses before one does not really have any traditional church left.

It is tempting to blame external forces for the Church's slow decline - our secular culture, worldly indifference or apathy, the growth of atheism, technology, sports, media, Sunday shopping,  declining values, emphasis on individualism, and the like. Without a doubt these have played no small part in the decline of the institutional church, as many of us once knew it and for the most part loved it.

But Church Christians, as much as I love them and have witnessed their great words and deeds of faith, also should accept a significant part of the responsibility for the growing and perhaps fatal irrelevance of the Church to most people. Our fierce reluctance to change. Our stubborn and rigid dogmatic approach to faith and spirituality. Our insistence to live by church rules, constitutions, traditions, and  procedures, often rather than exercising  our love for people. Church politics, church fights,  our hypocrisy, our Pharisaical attitudes, our self- serving ways have  been extremely detrimental to the future of the Church. Too much passivity. Playing it safe, talking no risks, no compassion for others.

Generally speaking, and thank God there are a number of exceptions, we have not been very inviting, welcoming, inclusive, open, good neighbours and we are now paying the penalty for it.

Jesus must weep!

In fact, I find myself asking more and more - why is it so hard for Church Christians to be more like Jesus? Too many Church Christians  want nothing to do with the poor, the homeless, the needy, the sick; the very people whom Jesus ministered, healed, restored, saved, each and every day of his ministry. Not all Church Christians are like that, but not enough are going against this grain. It has become so hard, it seems for so many, deeply-entrenched Church Christians to let go and really let Jesus have his church back!

In spite of this, or because of it even,  like many others, I have come to believe that there is a whole new future for Christianity, but it will be radically different. It will be community-centred rather than church-centred. It will be outward focused rather than inward focused. It will be missional - having a large, loving heart like Jesus for the people around  each Christian community. There will a fresh revival in living the Word. People will find and come to know Jesus personally because they find love, acceptance, compassion, inclusion, justice,  just as Jesus meant for the Kingdom of God to be like.

Perhaps, the best  and most honest and incredibly faithful thing that the old, historic Baptist church should do is  to indeed  close - put its past glory and worthy history behind it. Then, let's find some winsome, highly motivated, faithful people to begin again, right from scratch. Tear out all the pews, put in comfortable chairs; let  the neighbourhood have it for  multiple purposes. Find out what is making the locals tick spiritually  and nurture them in the name of Christ from there. Worship, yes! But in ways that people say, "God is really among you!" (1Cor. 14:25). Be Jesus' church to them and not expect them to be the church for you. Become the beating heart of Jesus in the midst of their community and really live the Gospel that Jesus gave us from the start.

 It's a start. It would be really hard! It still might not work. But frankly,  I'd rather go down this way with a bang than a whimper.

Dale