Census data is out and chances are if you’re a Xn in a church that is part of a denomination your church is dying. At the moment I'm with the Uniting Church and at the current rate the will denomination will be empty by 2046. To be honest this might prove to be an optimistic projection. The Xn social service agency that provides services to the community under the denomination's name might survive but the functioning body of Christians? I don't know.
A friend of mine said we should just work out how to die well. Of course dying well rather than surviving is no problem if you believe in resurrection. But, we don't do that well. We will fight to the bitter end to hold on.
Personally I like the quote I've heard Pete Rollins cite "The only church that illuminates is a burning one." I suspect that the more we paid scant disregard for the institution the greater it's chance of survival. Imagine if the Roman Catholic church sold all their buildings, gave compensation to all the sex abuse victims then on top of that gave money to victims from other institutions who had not been properly compensated. This sort of radical move would both destroy and revitalise that denomination all in one go.
Maybe the question denominations need to ask is not how do we survive the membership decline? But, how can we burn and burn most brightly.
A friend of mine said we should just work out how to die well. Of course dying well rather than surviving is no problem if you believe in resurrection. But, we don't do that well. We will fight to the bitter end to hold on.
Personally I like the quote I've heard Pete Rollins cite "The only church that illuminates is a burning one." I suspect that the more we paid scant disregard for the institution the greater it's chance of survival. Imagine if the Roman Catholic church sold all their buildings, gave compensation to all the sex abuse victims then on top of that gave money to victims from other institutions who had not been properly compensated. This sort of radical move would both destroy and revitalise that denomination all in one go.
Maybe the question denominations need to ask is not how do we survive the membership decline? But, how can we burn and burn most brightly.
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