HOW DEEP?

If home is where the heart is and the church is losing most of the young people in the congregation, what about the churches that are filled with young people?

A very good question and one that needs an answer and here it is.

You can always attract people if you give them what they want. Which shops in a shopping centre attracts the most teenagers? Simple isn’t it. The ones that sell fashions that teenagers want to buy.

Which churches attract the most teenagers? The ones that provide the music that they want to hear and the entertainment that they want to enjoy. Simple isn’t it.

Almost without exception the churches that have the most teenagers in them provide entertainment, not worship.

One Sunday I watched the TV programme of one the biggest churches in Australia. In the middle of it I flicked over to another channel that was showing video hits. It was identical apart from the music content. The audience in both causes were doing exactly the same thing. Jigging up and down, waving their arms about and jumping into a Moshe pit. Block your ears up and you would not know who was who.

That is not biblical religion that is entertainment. But you say, isn’t it good that they are attending church services anyway? Is it? Let’s look at some facts.

Generally speaking, the larger the church gets and the more entertainment it provides the more superficial is its expression of faith. It has been said that these sort of churches have a faith that is 3 miles wide and three inches deep.

Most of them appeal to the lowest common denominator. In other words to the least spiritual and they do this to keep them happy without too much challenge and to keep them coming back so as they can boast about the numbers who attend. In most cases, that is all they do, attend get their weekly fix of entertainment and then go home and do nothing for the rest of the week.

I am led to believe that one large church loses 50% of its membership over a period of five years. You can entertain for so long and then it gets boring so people are either fed, which they are not or they leave to find somewhere where they can grow.

The people who run everything are quite happy because they are doing and telling others what they should do. Those that are being told are not growing and get bored with rules, instructions and expectations and eventually leave because they are dying spiritually. Those that stay usually do so because they are happy just being entertained.

The dying spiritually is inevitable because they are not being fed substance. A baby’s bottle is OK for so long but deprive a baby of solid food as they grow and you will have serious problems on your hands. Imagine only giving a baby bottled milk for five years!!