I’d like to steal a portion of a quote I heard and make it my own. I believe, “Whatever you say about the Church is probably true.” You could say the church is irrelevant and in some cases you’d be right. You could say the church has become an institution only concerned with its own survival and in some cases you’d be right. You could say the church is full of judgmental and hypocritical people and in some cases you’d be right. You could say the church has abandoned sound Biblical theology and in some cases you’d be right.
But this is one statement I think gets thrown around in church circles especially here in North America that may be more myth than true. “The church is dying!” Yes, some churches are dying. However, “the Church” with a capital C is not. I mean Jesus Himself said in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell will NOT prevail against the Church.
I just came back from the Innovate 09 conference sponsored by Granger Community church and all I can say is WOW! They had two sessions, one called the arts mash up and the other was the film festival. Man…are there some innovative churches knocking it out of the park to be Jesus to the world around them. I mean these weren’t all mega-churches, these were regular churches with passionate people on -fire for Jesus who wanted to bring “up there down here”! I know in some evangelical books and blogs it’s hip to say churches suck…but there are so many awesome things churches are doing to be Christ to the world around them: One church is making meals for inner city football players who often play on empty stomachs; a church in Florida has this thing called “Flavor Fest” and another church came up with “Dirty Water” campaign to build wells in Africa.
So, yes whatever you say about the church MAY be true. However it may be a myth that the church is dying. If we looked and listened we just might discover that God is still using the church in amazing ways to point people to Jesus.
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