Where did we lose Thanksgiving?

 Many of the houses on our street are decorated for Halloween. Some have much more elaborate decorations than they put up for Christmas. This weekend hundreds of children will walk down our street asking for treats. Some will be wearing cute costumes while others will try to look as scary as possible. I don't know if it's possible, but I think Halloween has become even more commercialized than Christmas. But, we don't hear much about Thanksgiving.

Yes, families still may gather for a big dinner and watch football games between naps, but there's not much emphasis given to Thanksgiving. Many stores begin putting out their Christmas decorations for sale about the same time as they promote their Halloween items, but try to find a section dedicated to Thanksgiving. Unless you're looking in the meat department at the frozen turkeys you won't find many items for Thanksgiving. I wonder where we lost Thanksgiving.

I think it reflects the general lack of thanksgiving that people have today. We spend more time complaining about things than we spend expressing our gratitude. We have become a very selfish, self-centered society that believes we are entitled to more than we have. Our greed for more keeps us from being grateful for what we do have.

The apostle Paul said he had learned to be content in whatever state he was in. That's something many of us have not learned. It's also important to note that it was something he learned. I'm not sure that gratitude is something that is natural to many people. We need to learn to be grateful, and we need to learn to express that gratitude to God and to others.

I'm 73 years old and in mostly good health. My wife and I have been married for 55 years. Our children and grandchildren are healthy. We have food to eat, a roof over our heads, and a God Who loves us more than we can ever imagine. I am thankful for each of these things. Each Sunday I gather to worship to express that gratitude to God. I try as often as possible to make sure my family knows how much they mean to me and how grateful I am that we are a family.

Even though we are still almost a month away from Thanksgiving I encourage you to begin thinking about the things in your life for which you are thankful. You may want to make a list and share it with family and loved ones as you gather around the Thanksgiving table.

When leadership fails

We recently spent 10 days in Panama City Beach to celebrate our anniversary. We've done this almost every year for probably 20 years now. We have found many great restaurants that serve fresh seafood dinners, and most evenings we'll go to one to eat. I was surprised this year to find that many had closed permanently. Some might say that the Covid shut-down caused that, but you'll never convince me of that. The ones we went to were packed out every night with long lines waiting to get in. These restaurants certainly survived the Covid shut-down. How are they doing so well when other good restaurants down there did not? I think it is leadership. I told my family one evening that any restaurant that can't make it in that beach environment has nothing to blame but poor leadership. 

As I've written here many times, everything rises and falls on leadership. Even with all the competition from other excellent restaurants in PCB, with the millions of tourists who go there every year there is no reason that a well managed restaurant cannot do well in that environment. 

I look at our nation today and see all the problems that we have. I don't need to list them; you're aware of them. How has this great nation found itself in this condition? The answer is the same...poor leadership. I don't even refer to those holding national office as leaders anymore. They are office holders. They couldn't lead a two person parade let alone a nation. They get re-elected to office because people are too lazy, uninformed, or apathetic to vote them out of office and replace them with people who are truly interested in this country. The same thing can be said of many state and local people holding political office. Look at the states that are struggling and compare them to those that are doing well. The difference will be in the quality of their leadership. The same thing is true of cities. Don't say that the solution to the problem is term limits because we already have term limits. Every two years we have elections so there are plenty of opportunities to vote out those that are taking this country down the drain. All people have to do is study the candidates, see what they've done and vote for those that will be lead this country. If we took our responsibilities as citizens seriously few of those currently in office would still hold that office after their next election.

John Maxwell tells the story of having dinner with the president of a company that bought failing hotels. He asked the president what they did when they bought one of these hotels, and the response was that the first thing they did was fire the managers. Maxwell said he was surprised that they didn't try to talk to the managers or offer them training. When he asked about that the president said if they were any good their hotel wouldn't have failed. They fired the managers and brought in people who would provide the leadership needed to make the hotel successful. Remember this story during our next election.

Churches are no different. Many churches are struggling at the same time that some are doing very well. Again, the difference is in leadership. Leaders who have a vision will effectively lead their organizations. Those without a vision will not. Pastors who are committed to the Word of God and to ministering to their communities will have churches that will follow their example. God will bless such churches. Pastors and church leaders who are stuck doing the same things that haven't worked in 5 decades, who have little commitment to the Scriptures and who lack vision will see their churches continued to decline until they eventually close.

It must also be noted that there are some excellent pastors with great leadership abilities and vision who will find it impossible to lead their current churches out of decline. No matter how hard they work, they will find nothing but resistance from the congregation. Such pastors should realize that the seeds for failure were planted in those churches years earlier, and it is unlikely that those churches will survive. When pastors find themselves in such situations they need to seek God's guidance. Sometimes, given enough time even the most resistant church can be turned around. At other times it might be best to follow the advice Jesus gave His disciples and shake the dust off one's feet and move on to a healthier place. Only after much prayer can that decision be made wisely.

No church will ever close because it lacks ministry opportunities. We are told that a minimum of 80% of every county in the United States is unchurched. We have a huge mission field in our back yards. Whether we reach that mission field is a matter of leadership. Too often, churches get comfortable with the status quo. We may complain occasionally about the lower number of people attending our services, but we don't get upset enough about it to actually do anything. Things will only change when the leaders want it to change and are willing to capture a fresh vision from God for the church which will be supported by the church. 

The missing generations

Go into many churches, especially if they are older and smaller churches, and you are likely to find some generations missing.  You will often find in these churches senior saints and smaller children who were probably brought to the church by their grandparents. You are likely not to find many in the 18-39 age range. These generations have been lost to many churches. Many in this age range attended church when they were younger, but for various reasons they have withdrawn from the church.

Some people believe they left the church because they found the music and/or the worship services boring. This is probably true for some of them. Others point to college as a factor in many of them walking away from the church or even their faith. No doubt this is also true for some. But these may not be the primary reasons we have lost our young people and continue to do so.

David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, has studied young people for a number of years and believes there are other reasons we see young people walking away from the church. He writes about what his research has taught him in his book You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith.

One of the interesting reasons he has found is that the church is overprotective. Many children today are raised by what has become known as helicopter parents who want to protect them from anything that might harm them. Certainly, no parent wants their children harmed, but it's possible to go overboard with trying to protect them from every possible danger. I'm surprised some kids are not sent outside to play covered in bubble-wrap!

As these children grow us they find many churches doing the same thing. They are constantly warned about the dangers of the world. Again, such warnings are necessary as there is much evil in the world. But they wonder how the church can influence our culture if we are to avoid it.

Jesus always spoke of the risks associated with following Him. He never promised life would be easy or even safe when one became a Christian. He challenged us to be in the world but not of it. We are to be salt and light to our evil world, not avoid it. Young people want to make a difference in the world, and they are frustrated that the church's teaching often discourages that.

Kinnaman wrote, "For many young Christians, there is a realization that they want to follow Christ in a way that does not separate them from the culture. They want to be culture makers, not culture avoiders." When they see their church merely condemning the culture without trying to redeem it, they will try to do that without the church.

The author points out that this is especially true for young people who are creatives and artists. Christian musicians are sometimes condemned by the church for performing for secular audiences. Christian filmmakers also may not receive much support from the Christian community if their movies are not overtly Christian. The music and films may contain positive Christian-inspired themes, but some in the church will still not be satisfied. 

If we want to keep our young people the church must become willing to support them in their efforts to transform the culture in which they are going to live. That could get messy at times and it may be uncomfortable for some people, but this is the risk we must take. We've often heard people say that young people are the church of the future, but these people are wrong. Young people are the church of today if we will help them in their efforts to transform the culture in which we all live.

Reaching a digital audience with the Gospel

 Back in the late 1970s I had a personal experience that helped bring me to the Lord. As I was struggling with some issues in my life at the time I frequently worked overtime, sometimes 6-7 days a week. One of the things I remember from that time was that on Sunday mornings as I would drive to the factory I would listen to a program on the radio called the Mull Singing Convention hosted by the Rev. J. Bazzel Mull and Mrs. Mull. Southern Gospel groups were regularly featured on their program. Even now I remember hearing The Old Ship of Zion sung by the Kingsmen with tears running down my face as I drove to work. The songs and the messages shared on that program helped me understand how badly I needed Christ in my life.

Years later I was working in the same factory on third shift. I was now a Christian and a bivocational pastor of a small, country church. I kept a radio near my work station where I was able to listen to another broadcast called Unshackled by the Pacific Garden Mission. These stories told how struggling people found hope in Jesus Christ, usually through a ministry of a Mission. These stories inspired and blessed me every night.

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of serving our digital congregations and the challenges churches will face in doing this. My radio experiences occurred long before social media was available, but I think they demonstrate the importance of reaching out to people where they are rather than insisting they walk into our buildings to be introduced to Christ. That old radio program was just one of the ways God was reaching out to me during that difficult time in my life, but it was an important part. Unshackled was one of the tools God used to disciple a young Christian and minister. Our digital ministries will also impact the lives of other young people who are dealing with difficult times in their lives. Who knows how many lives were impacted through these radio programs, and who knows how many lives can be transformed today through the social media tools we now possess.

The Mulls began on radio but began broadcasting on television in 1959. In the earliest years the music groups had to perform live in the station, but later the Mulls began using black and white film and later switched to color video tape. I share this history to remind us that we cannot be satisfied with doing what we had to do quickly when the pandemic closed our churches. Yes, we can celebrate that early success on social media, but we have to keep improving what we are doing if we want to effectively impact people's lives. What was good enough when we first started won't continue to be good enough later. 

God is giving the church some new tools to use in evangelism and discipleship, but it is up to us to maximize their effectiveness. Many of our churches rose to the challenge to be able to offer their services online. Now we are being challenged to raise the bar even higher and offer the best possible ministries online that we can.

The church isn't likely to ever return to "normal"

 In 2008 I was serving as a regional minister for our denomination. As the recession deepened and many people found themselves unemployed and losing their homes and retirement savings many churches experienced greatly reduced offerings. As a result, denominations saw giving to their various mission agencies reduced as well. Our region was no different. Some of us, including myself, believed giving would return to previous levels when the economy improved. Our Minister of Finance felt otherwise and said very clearly that he did not believe our giving level would return to what it was prior to 2008. He was proven correct. In fact, it continued to decline well after the economy recovered.

Many in our churches still believe that if we ever get Covid under control our churches will return to normal attendance and ministries. While Covid is still with us and impacting many areas of our society, it is not having the impact it did in the midst of the original pandemic, but few, if any, churches would claim they have returned to pre-Covid normal. Most church consultants and other leaders do not believe things will ever return to normal. 

What we are finding is that many people have reinvested their lives in other activities on Sundays other than going to church. When churches were shut down some people found that they really didn't miss it that much. They found their lives had not changed much, if at all, by their not attending church services. Others found that watching online satisfied their spiritual needs. While some churches were closed, others were open, and some people who craved attending live services began attending those open churches and won't return to their former ones.

Most churches today need to define a "new normal." How will they minister in a post-pandemic world? We first need to recognize that digital ministry is here to stay. It was refreshing to find so many churches make the move to offering their worship services on social media. Many of those churches would have never made that change if they had not been forced to do so by the pandemic. But, this now presents these churches with four different congregations. As Thom Rainer points out in his book, The Post-Quarantine Church: Six Urgent Challenges and Opportunities That Will Determine the Future of Your Congregation, three of these congregations are the digital-only, who are unable to return to the worship service or remain afraid to do so due to Covid, the digital-transitioning, who are mostly connected to the digital worship service but will attend in person occasionally, and the dual citizens who relate to the church both in person and digitally. Add these three those who only attend in-person gatherings and you are now challenged with ministering to four different congregations. Rainer gives some tips on how a church might do that, but most of us are going to find it difficult to do it well.

The good news is that none of this caught God by surprise. This is not a time for church leaders to despair but to pray and seek God's guidance for moving forward. We are being presented with an opportunity to do ministry in new ways that may prove to be just what we needed as our world becomes even more digitally connected. No doubt we will make some mistakes along the way, but the biggest mistake we will make is if we wait for things to return to normal again.