Pace of Change

In my previous post I prattled on about what church was like in “the good old days,” but it appears to me that the pace of change at church is out-striding any period of time I have seen in my lifetime.

Churches keep striving to get the methods right to fit the times.

I recently ran across a blog post by Thom Rainer entitled, “Eight Major Changes in Churches in the Past Ten Years.” As I have observed churches, I believe the pace of change is even faster than what Dr. Rainer discerned. So, with all due respect to a guy who is a lot smarter than me, let me throw in my two cents worth with eight dramatic changes I have seen in the past two to four years (in no particular order):

Regular church attendance is down.

When I say down, I mean it’s dropped off the edge of a cliff. I have brought this up with a couple dozen pastors in the past year and they say, without exception, that a regular attendee is considered someone who comes to church less than two times per month (1.8x seems to be the consensus). That’s way down from 4.3 times a month not many years ago.

The mode of giving has changed.

The church has finally caught up with society in electronic finances. Many churches now see more than 50% of their income come in electronically, and there is a trend in churches to remove the passing of offering trays (buckets, bags, etc.) from the service altogether. Those who give by cash or check will do so at a kiosk in the lobby. I like to think of giving as an act of worship. Just as worship styles change, so does the way people give their tithes and offerings.

Capital campaigns are a dying breed.

This is not to say that churches are not raising money for capital projects; they’re simply doing it by different means. There is a transition to asking people to increase their regular giving in order to help cover the extra expense churches experience with large building projects or reducing existing debt.

Racial barriers are breaking down.

As I visit churches I have witnessed a significant decrease of homogeneity. Churches are being intentional about reaching people of all races and striving to change the old adage that Sunday morning at 11am is the most segregated time of the week.

Tech ministries are on a rapid rise.

This one has been developing over time, but lately there has been a swift increase in how technology is transforming church services. Twenty years ago it was the introduction of Power Point to various parts of the service. Today, tech comes in the form of a complexity of video, lighting, and acoustics that outstrip anything that has been done in the past. I remember in 1984 an elder in our church showing me a video switching kit we could use that would cost about $25,000. Today, you can pull that kind of stuff off the Internet for free.

There is an aversion to church debt.

Five years ago the idea of doing a campaign in the church to pay off debt was a non-starter. Today people will give to debt-reduction campaigns. I believe this is, in large part, due to so many churches using Financial Peace University (FPU) in their programming and the popularity of Dave Ramsey’s influence, not only through FPU, but through his radio program and books.

Churches are giving their buildings away.

The advent of the multisite phenomenon a little over a decade ago has created a new phenomenon that is taking place with increased regularity now. Rather than closing down a church, selling it, and distributing assets, churches that close down are regularly giving their building and assets to a larger multisite church, who then uses it as one of their campuses.

There is a demise of “credentialed” clergy.

OK, this one has been taking place for more than the last two to four years, but it’s picking up speed. Churches that range in size from about 750 and up are hiring more staff from within the church. There are three things that come to mind for me in this area:

1. The person coming on board knows and loves that church and they can jump right into the role where they have been called to serve because they have already been doing it.
2.  In most cases that person has no formal theological or ministry training. What they know about the Bible has come from listening to sermons, small group discussions, and personal study. There are some schools, like Hope International University, who are offering credentialing programs to people within church staff who have not been trained in theology and ministry to help bring them up to speed.
3. If there are performance review problems with that staff member, it can get very ugly, very quickly, especially if that person has to be disciplined or dismissed. It’s very hard to accept a painful event like that from your home church, and the repercussions can cause a rift in the church and great personal pain to the staff member.

I want to make note that these are not complaints, just observations. It reminds me of the monk who was limited to two words every ten years. After ten years he said to the abbot, “Bed hard.” Ten years later, “Food bad.” Ten years later, “I quit.” The abbot responded, I’m not surprised, all you’ve done since you got here is complain!

The fact of the matter is some of these things are good, some not so good. That’s the way it has been in the church for two thousand years. We keep striving to get the methods right to fit the times. The good news is that the Good News never changes: Jesus is Lord of all!