Dismantling Christian Churches From The Inside

Much has been said in the mainstream media, and even here in this forum, about the decline of Christian churches in the United States and other parts of the world. You have probably even noticed this in your own experience.

Before you feel compelled to say it, I am not saying that every Christian church in the world has declined. I rarely deal in absolutes, and I am not so familiar with what is going on in other countries, except for what I read or see in documentaries or videos, so my comments will be largely restricted to the United States.

Certainly, there are some huge Christian churches, generally built around a television and radio ministry and/or dynamic speakers who know how to play on emotions and bank accounts. As soon as one of these megachurches goes bust due to a scandal, another springs up.

Again, this is not absolute. I am sure there are some very large churches that have grown up around Christian theologians who have mastered their knowledge of the Scriptures to the point that they have a lot to offer a lot of people.

What I am mostly talking about is the neighborhood or community churches that have long been the backbone of Christian ministry throughout the country. These are the churches that have ministered to, and through whom generations of Christian families have been a part.

These are the churches that are staggering along with a handful of members if they haven't closed already, their buildings converted to other purposes.

The decline of Christian churches can be attributed to a lot of things, and over a long period of time. Many of these are from the outside, such as several decades, or longer, of a barely hidden government persecution of the Christian church, not by draconian methods but through more insidious means, carried out largely through government school systems. Of course, the media has had a large part in it and, more recently, Big Tech. Some of these things have been spoken of elsewhere in the forum, although not necessarily in one place.

What I want to talk about here is the dismantling of the Christian church from the inside. This isn't a doctoral thesis, so I won't pretend to have thought of all of them, but a couple of ways in which this has come about seem clear.

As public schools, colleges, and universities have become more secular and liberal, this is reflected in Christian colleges and seminaries as well. In part due to the government justice system, Christian educational institutions are increasingly hiring non-Christian teachers and professors. Even in the Christian college that I attended in the early 1980s, the man who taught the Covenant course (and others) made no secret of the fact that he was not a Christian, nor was he Jewish. Of those who do ascribe to Christianity, the teaching staff in Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries are becoming increasingly liberal, not politically (although that, too), but in the way that they interpret the Scriptures.

Non-Christian and theologically liberal Christian colleges, universities, and seminaries are graduating people who are likely to be less Christian when they leave than they were when they entered.

Viewing their positions as a career rather than a calling, these people become pastors, and many of them work their way into influential and leadership positions within their various denominations, the result being nominally Christian denominations that can no longer affirm the deity of Christ or the validity of the Scriptures as a guide to the Christian life or to the practice of the church.

While this might appeal to those who don't want to have to live up to the teachings of the Scriptures, and would rather be free to interpret it however they wish, these churches become little more than social clubs.

Thus, those who strongly believe in the existence and deity of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are no longer served by these churches, and they either band together to form new denominations, move to another church, become disillusioned with Christianity, or, increasingly, no longer attend a recognized church, although they still practice their Christianity at home or in groups. More than half of the Christians I know are no longer active in a local church.

In a sense, rather than fighting the Christian churches from the outside, Satan is joining these churches and tearing them apart from the inside.

In the past few years, already struggling neighborhood and community churches have further participated in their own demise through their response to the Covid virus.

Yes, you might argue that this was imposed upon them from the outside since governors were ordering these measures, yet the Church has persevered through much greater persecution over its history. Certainly, the apostles and disciples didn't say, "Oh, the Romans say that we can't do this anymore so we'd better not meet together."

The few churches that I am aware of that defied Covid regulations openly, or who continued to meet together secretly, are doing better now than the ones who acquiesced to the government's orders, but I don't think there were very many of them.

Most of the Christian churches put their faith in Dr. Fauci and the government or caved into their demands.

When the only way that someone can attend church is through online streaming media, they can find someone far more dynamic than their local pastor, and why tithe or contribute to a church that is no longer meeting together?

Thus, the megachurches that have been doing online services for decades grew, while local churches declined.

I work for a web directory and, for the past couple of years I have been concentrating on the regional section, so I regularly review local church websites in order to list them in our directory, and have mostly been appalled at what I have seen.

During the time that these churches were closed by order of their respective governors (who they have elevated to the status of head of the church), many of these church websites had more about Covid than about Christ, and pretty much all of them were clearly devotees of Dr. Fauci, or unthinkingly repeating government propaganda.

When the governors decreed that churches could reopen, their websites couldn't possibly have been less inviting. One of them retained the wording about being greeted by smiling faces while showing a photo of people wearing masks.

Then there were the rules, the regulations, and the warnings about not going within six feet of anyone who was not a member of your immediate family, the wearing of masks, and the suspension of congregational singing. Because more than half of the available seating was left empty for purposes of spacing, members were asked to attend the virtual services instead, and many churches required people to register their attendance in advance or to sit in their cars during the service.

I'd say that at least half of the church websites I review still send the message that we want your money but we'd rather you not attend. But then, I am working on the Michigan category, and not all states are as bad as Michigan.

Now that the churches are open again, I think it's fair to say that a whole lot of people aren't going back. In many cases, these are people who are still Christians, but not so sure that their church is.

There's more, but this is enough for an OP.

 

I do miss being part of a local church, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." -- Matthew 18:20

 

Probably a bit of all of these. It is nice not to have to get up and get dressed, and by not being a part of a local church, we are absolved of the responsibilities that not everyone took on, anyhow, but, during my time in various churches, I have served in various capacities, including youth minister, interim minister, deacon, Sunday School teacher, secretary, treasurer, and so on. When I was a member of one of the Baptist churches here, I was a deacon and I presided over the Wednesday night Bible studies. Now, I have all that time back, and I suppose there's something to be said for that.

However, a functional local church provided balance, accountability, and challenges, in that, while I didn't always enjoy the responsibilities, they helped me grow.

That should be one of the responsibilities of the local church, or, at least, a co-responsibility. I have never been one to feel that I have to agree with every tenet of the church that I am a part of, but I do have to believe that we're serving a common purpose, and I haven't seen that lately.

 

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it." -- Matthew 7:13-14

“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." -- Luke 13:24

 

I grew up in an Evangelical Covenant Church, but in a place and time when I was expected to be in church whenever it was open, although my dad only attended on Easter, the early morning Christmas Eve Service, or when one of us kids was on-stage doing something that embarrassed the hell out of us. My mom wouldn't hear of any of us missing a service, a youth program, or anything else. My brothers and I each took our turns cranking out the Sunday bulletin on Saturday nights, something that I spoke about in this post, and this one. The church was at the top of the hill on our road, and our house was halfway down the hill, so there was no getting out of it. Even if my mom was slipping, one of my uncles or aunts would have tracked me down if I wasn't there. I was related to pretty much everyone I knew through the eighth grade.

I think that has as much to do with the likelihood that these churches adopted a whole lot of other liberal policies as well. Although I accept that it is Scriptural, the prohibition against women in some of these church offices is not one that I have understood. God has never felt the need to explain Himself to us to our satisfaction, but when we choose to ignore everything that we don't understand, we relegate the Scriptures to a backseat, and that's a slippery slope.

 

No. The "Unforgivable Sin" was the only one that served that purpose, and, conveniently, no one could agree on just which sin was the Unforgivable Sin, so we were left wondering whether we had committed it or not.

When I grew up, we were led to believe that Catholics were all going to hell, although I don't remember anyone specifically saying that. I think the Catholics believed that the Protestants were all going to hell too, so we didn't have to feel bad about that.

In elementary school, I had a friend (one of the few of my classmates to whom I wasn't related) who was Catholic. He lived a ways away from me so we mostly saw one another in school, but he was at my house one summer when one of my aunts came over. While we were in my room, I could hear my aunt say, about my friend, "But he's Catholic, isn't he?" Since my friend could hear it too, I was glad that my mom replied with something like, "What difference does that make?" I hadn't known he was Catholic because we never talked about that stuff.

 

The best answer I got was similar to that, as in knowing God and then rejecting Him, except that the Apostle Peter came pretty close to that, and after having been warned.