Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Status


The place where you worship is in “Incline…Decline…Recline.”

The conference presenter moved on quickly. But I was mesmerized by that thought. I couldn’t believe that he said it. But I think he is right.

What about your church? What about the place where you worship? Where is your church along the continuum?

“Well,” you say,
“if this or that were different, then our church would be (fill in the blank)”

Here’s the question. It’s an age old question.
“Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?”

Do healthy people make healthy churches? Or, do healthy churches create healthy people?

Studies tell us that North American churches are experiencing unprecedented decline. Oh, sure there are some striking exceptions to this, but if you look around it seems that churches are experiencing what some observers identify as “flat-line” growth. An oxymoron.

There are a lot of churches that are in “recline.” The reasons are legion.

Then there are churches that are on the “incline.”

At the risk of being over-simplistic, could it be that our churches reflect us, they mirror our spiritual condition?

Just a thought…

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