The Church in Chains - “Glory” Days

At a Presbytery meeting several years ago, I ate lunch with a retired minister who told me of his adventures as a church planter in the early 1960’s.

“We put up a sign and ran a few newspaper ads, and it wasn’t long before people just started showing up. First a trickle, then a deluge. We had people coming in so fast, we didn’t know what to do with them. After a few years, we had over 500 members and broke ground on a new sanctuary and educational wing.”

“What was your secret? What did you do to attract all those people?”

“I don’t know. I preached on Sundays, taught a Wednesday night Bible Study, and played a lot of golf. Back then, people wanted to come to church. We didn’t have to do much of anything to draw them in.”

Those were the "glory days" - not just of new church planting, but also of the mainline Protestant church in general. The 1960’s was when membership in my Presbyterian denomination peaked, and it  has now shrink to about a third of that number.

Folks who are in their sixties and seventies today grew up in these “glory days.” They don’t see the post-World War II era as an aberration of population and economic growth. Neither do they appreciate the high level of civic and religious loyalty that dominated the Baby Boom years.

To them, what they grew up with was normal.

The way things should be.

The way things still should be.

And a big part of that “normal” is that most people wake up on Sunday morning and feel the need to go to Sunday school and church.

This memory of the church of their childhood is shielding many of today’s leaders from understanding the much different reality of the 21st century. They know that culture has changed, but many seem to hope it will change back - as if the steady decline of membership over the past 40 years is the aberration, and we can bring back the “glory days” and get back to normal if only we try hard enough.

Much of this desire has been reflected in the popularity of Donald Trump among older white Christians. His campaign promise to “Make America Great Again” includes a return to those days when churches were bursting at the seams on Sunday mornings.

But the culture is not changing back.

The “glory days” are not returning.

The church in Amercia will never again enjoy the popularity and the cultural influence it once did.

If we can accept this reality and let that dream die, the Spirit will be able to birth in us a new dream.

A dream of a New Wineskin that will pour forth the truth and beauty of the Gospel in ways we cannot even imagine today.

But first, we must take our eyes off the past. We must let go of the glory days and the hope they will return, and instead turn to embrace a new day.

The next post will be on the second chain the church must break - the ABC measures of success (attendance, buildings, and cash) - which belong back in those “glory days.”