Is There Hope for the Future of the American Church?

Josiah Reedy on August 23, 2022

A recent Religion News Service (RNS) panel discussed the themes of reporter Bob Smietana’s new book, Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why It Matters. Smietana summarized the question behind his book: “Is this sustainable? Are we going to be able to stick around? And what’s going to happen if that happens? Who’s going to resettle the refugees? Who’s going to be there when people show up in trouble and looking for a helping hand? Who’s going to gather friends together? Who’s going to run food pantries? Who’s going to run shelters?” 

The panel featured Phil Vischer, the filmmaker behind VeggieTales and What’s in the Bible?, Jemar Tisby, author of The Color of Compromise and How to Fight Racism, and Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University, as well as Smietana. RNS reporter Adelle Banks hosted the panel.

Banks opened by posing the question, “Is this a time for despair, or action, or hope?” Smietana gave a rather bleak outlook on the changes occurring in the church, noting both the recent closure of his own home congregation and the shift over the time he has been a religion reporter, during which the average church has gone from numbering 137 members down to 65. He said, “It’s not that one thing is changing after another. It’s that everything is changing altogether, and people don’t know how to keep up.”

Tisby described his work of writing and speaking about race and the phenomenon of the “quiet exodus” of black evangelicals from primarily white congregations. He instead encouraged “leaving loud,” saying, “We need to actually tell our stories, and do two things – give the opportunity for these organizations, institutions, and individuals to repent, to learn what they were doing, to see how they were harming folks… and also as an act of liberation and dignity, to say, ‘We’re not going to keep our pain to ourselves.’”

Vischer noted the new phenomenon of churches dividing over an axis of politics and culture wars, rather than theology. As he puts it, “There’s an idolatry of politics that has made it impossible for many of us who were fine worshiping together to continue worshiping together.” He added, “Our kids find it preposterous. The next generation finds it embarrassing that this is what we’re fighting over… If we all look like we can’t do church together because of politics, our kids find our theology powerless.”

Responding to a question concerning whether we will have “church deserts,” Thumma stated, “We’re starting to see now a real change of people innovating the old models of gathering and doing religious life together. There will be the megachurches… but we’re also seeing dinner churches, third space kinds of churches, all sorts of digital and virtual realities, and so we don’t know which of those models is really going to fit in the future.” 

Much of the conversation focused around the social pragmatism of churches’ continued existence. Thumma emphasized congregations “doing an immense amount for society,” and later characterized New England as “vastly over-churched,” adding, “It’s probably good to get rid of some of them.” He said that the effect of non-profits like Alcoholics Anonymous not being able to use a church’s spaces was “larger in many ways than just a congregation disappearing.” 

Tisby also concentrated on social impact, portraying churches as “ineffective in terms of transformational systemic change” and calling for more people of faith in institutions that can affect change. Smietana mentioned how churches in communities can help people with physical needs like groceries, gas money, or making rent, saying, “Congregations can provide that little bit of help that keeps your life from spiraling out of control, and if those close, they’re not going to be replaced.”

However, absent from the entire discussion was any mention of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, many churches may be struggling to stay afloat or to gain new members, and good social programs may be negatively impacted by such trends. But the reality is that for many churches today, their declining numbers and the divisions that present themselves have everything to do with theology, not just with “politics” or “culture wars” as Vischer alleges. After all, if churches were catechizing their members well, wouldn’t more than 35% of Protestant Christians embrace the Bible as the actual Word of God?

We must refuse to call a place “over-churched” until the knowledge of God’s glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. When we see churches closing, our first question should be, “Who’s going to tell people that salvation is found only in Jesus?” Confidence in future church growth won’t come from experimenting with new models or prioritizing societal impact. It will come only from a bold reclamation of the gospel message.

  1. Comment by Tom on August 23, 2022 at 5:30 pm

    “However, absent from the entire discussion was any mention of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

    You took the words right out of my mouth. This is the problem that they have. The church refusing to talk about Jesus is like Baskin Robbins refusing to sell ice cream. What else is left, and why would anyone go there?

  2. Comment by Gary Bebop on August 23, 2022 at 9:41 pm

    We thought we could do ministry without explicitly mentioning salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That program didn’t work. Church are still dumbfounded about this because they regarded their good works as enough. Now the fragmenting of denominations has exposed the ineptitude of trying to be a church that doesn’t announce the gospel of Jesus Christ aloud. The situation is going to get worse because there’s a whole generation of quiet church folk who don’t know how to make a verbal witness. They won’t even speak clearly to family members. Which is strange because if you ask these same folks for a good eatery, they will blather profusely and unbasjed.

  3. Comment by PFSchaffner on August 23, 2022 at 10:30 pm

    What possibly could ‘New England is overchurched’ mean? Maybe an abundance of old church buildings, mostly repurposed buildings, but surely not churches, much less congregants — quite the opposite. The four states with the lowest church attendance (according to Pew) are Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. As anyone who has lived in Vermont can attest, it is virtually churchless — barren.

  4. Comment by Bruce Atkinson PhD on August 24, 2022 at 9:01 am

    The last paragraph nails it.

    I understand that only a third of Protestants and a seventh of Catholics actually believe that the Bible is the written Word of God. That sounds about right. “Many are called but few chosen” (Matt 22:14). Or as the folk gospel song puts it, “If you don’t believe the Bible, then you don’t know the Lord.”

  5. Comment by Mark on August 24, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Many years ago, the UMC marketing wing launched another of its vapid sloganeering campaigns. I’ve honestly forgotten the catchphrase, doesn’t matter. But I do recall them bragging about having spent many millions on its production and implementation.

    Anyway, they sent out a 30 min promo video to UMC congregations. At the time, I was serving on the worship committee at a main street UMC, and the church’s Council on Ministries decided to have a launch party to christen the new campaign that was sure to flood our doors with new members. All committees’ members attended.

    We gathered in our fancy new fellowship hall. I sat in back and watched the show. Jesus was never mentioned. Not once. The word ‘God’ made a brief appearance–as graffiti sprayed on an urban wall. That was it. The rest of the video was all about the great social work being done by the UMC.

    When the projector turned off and the room lights turned on, our congregation’s leaders reacted with proud approval, then resumed the enjoyment of their conversations and desserts. I sat alone and stewed. I should’ve spoken up right then and there.

    Later, I wrote a letter to the COM chair and asked if she’d noticed that Jesus and God had been completely omitted from the presentation. She wrote back and said she hadn’t noticed it at all, and she thanked me for my concern. That was it. The campaign was launched, I suppose. I left and briefly joined the new Anglican denomination.

    This UMC was a small-town, Southern congregation. Established. Nice people. And willfully ignorant. A microcosm of my lifetime in the UMC of western NC. I hope whatever comes from the split offers something truly vital. I’m done with sitting in cold Methodist water, hoping it will heat up.

  6. Comment by Curt Edsall on August 24, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    Biblical and soteriological literacy in churches has been in freefall for years. Social outreach brings people in the door but if that’s all that motivates a family into a church, churches take on the same aspects as schools. Families are interested and involved as long as the kids are there but once they graduate there’s no reason to stay involved (other than some obscure sense of attending on Sunday mornings because it’s the “right thing to do”).
    The message is salvation. If spreading that message isn’t central to everything a church does, we’re doing it wrong.
    I’ll also throw biblical literacy into the mix as a key component of the problem. It’s concerning how small a percentage of church members have read the Bible cover to cover, let alone taken the time to chew on the word, using it as a lamp to guide their feet or using it to shape one’s worldview.
    Perhaps there’s time to change but simply changing models of presentation (social programs, megachurch, home church, feel-good church, small groups, large groups, whatever) isn’t the answer to the problem.

  7. Comment by Tom on August 24, 2022 at 9:24 pm

    “New England is overchurched” can only refer to the large number of vacant buildings that used to be churches.

    When I am in Boston, I attend a very nice PCA church (Christ the King in Central Square in Cambridge) that has a large sanctuary, Sunday school building, bell tower, balcony, and beautiful stained glass windows that was built by a liberal denomination way back in the 19th Century and then slowly went bankrupt in the 20th and 21st. So, conservative churches, look to plant churches in New England. And pick up very, very nice buildings for a song.

  8. Comment by Mike on August 26, 2022 at 2:53 am

    “Is this a time for despair, or action, or hope?”
    As our hope is in Christ, this is a time for hope! The creator of heaven and earth has called us his own. I guess they forgot that even to this day a bird cannot land on the ground without God seeing it, and that Christ’s death is no less powerful and his ownership of our salvation is no less complete.
    How can one despair when God is still in control.
    Every Christian could die tomorrow, and every Bible burnt, God will still be on his throne and even the stones would shout his glory.

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