Having traveled the four corners of this country, I have witnessed firsthand, the imminent demise and the collapse of the unique culture in North America that has come to be called church. This church culture has become confused with biblical Christianity, both inside the church and out. A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They are not leaving because they have lost faith. They are leaving the church to preserve their faith. Not only do we not need God to explain the universe, we don’t need Jesus Christ to operate the church. It’s written in the word that in the last days of this age Christ is outside of the Church knocking and looking for anyone who is willing to let him in. Many operate like giant machines, with church leaders serving as mechanics. The Lord doesn’t have to show up to get done what’s being done. People no longer want the powerless God of the modern church.

Some are asking, how Do We Do Church Better? All the effort to fix the church misses the point. You can build the perfect church and they still won’t come. People are not looking for a great church. Most of the growth of mega churches represents people transferring from small fishing boats to cruise ships. The real question should be, how Do We Deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

I have observed that there is a spiritual awakening occurring in America. However, it is not informed by Christian theology, and it’s not happening in the church. God is pulling end runs around the institutional North American church to get to people in the streets. God is still inviting us to join him on this quest, but it is the invitation to be part of a movement, not a religious club.

The Church Growth Movement that began in the 1970’s had both some things that were right and some things that were wrong. Here’s one of the wrong things: Unfortunately, it fell victim to an idol as old as the Tower of Babel, the belief that we are the architects of the work of Christ. As a result, we have the best churches men can build, but are still waiting for the church that only Jesus Christ can get credit for. I say this because I hear the wrong question asked frequently. How Do We Grow This Church? How Do We Get Them to Come to Us?

In their quest to be attractive to potential congregants, churches added staff, added programs, added buildings (including full health clubs), all to improve their market position. And it worked! A study released in 2002 found that one-half of churchgoers attended churches in the top 10 percent of church size.

Keep in mind all of this has been done with what results? Diminishing returns! In other words, overall church attendance continues to decline. We can keep on this track just to watch even more dismal results, or, we can change our focus to: How Do We Transform Our Community? How Do We Hit the Streets with the Gospel?
The Pharisees’ evangelism strategy sounds eerily familiar. Their approach to sharing God was, “Come and get it”. Jesus’ evangelism strategy directly challenged the Pharisees’ approach. Instead of “Come and get it” it was “Go get’em”.

Jesus’ strategy was to go where people were already hanging out. This is why he went to weddings, parties, and religious feast day celebrations. Taking the gospel to the streets means we need church where people are already hanging out. We need a church in every mall, every Wal-Mart super center, every Barnes and Noble.

Bottom line: we’ve got to take the gospel to the streets. This is the only appropriate mission response to the collapse of the church culture. I am not talking about short forays into ports off of the cruise ship. I am speaking of an intentional 24/7 church presence in the community.

We need to go where people are already hanging out and be prepared to have conversations with them about the great love of our lives. This will require our shifting our efforts from growing churches into transforming communities. They’re not coming to us. We’ve got to go to them.

The first Reformation was about freeing the church. The new Reformation is about freeing God’s people from the church (the institution). The original Reformation decentralized the church. The new Reformation decentralizes ministry.

The historic Reformation distinguished Christians one from the other. The current Reformation distinguishes followers of Jesus Christ from religious people. In India and other places these people are called “Great Commission Christians” to distinguish them from mere pew sitters.