I don’t know whether you have noticed, but there seems to be a poll each month showing the decline in Church attendance, less people having any religious belief, and more Churches closing yearly. It becomes a most depressing picture, which seems to me makes us retreat into our separate denominations. We spend more time on discussing Church finances, personal giving, property, institutional rules and regulations on how to deal with problems we never thought possible, but less and less on the idea of what Church is really about.
Of course we need to discuss all those things mentioned, but not to the detriment of Mission and what Church truly is. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus talks about the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. This means I believe that the Church must be on the advance not in retreat. It must assert itself in the name of Jesus Christ, not retreating in the name of Methodism, Anglicanism, Catholicism etc.
Perhaps every Church should be named the Church of Jesus Christ, to keep on reminding us why we go there in the first place. There is no time for gentle words, or platitudes. The Church itself is in crisis, and it is time for us, as children of God, to stand against the forces which seem to want to engulf us.
So let us remind ourselves of the how the Church of the New Testament worked. How Jesus was in the forefront of their lives and everything else became secondary to spreading of the word, and a life of mission.
I truly believe in the words Jesus said about being with us, and never leaving us, that the gates of hell will not prevail. But it cannot be done in retreat. So in the end:-
“How can we be silent
When we know the One who saves
We won′t keep it quiet
‘Cause Your spirit makes us brave” (World Changers by Audio Adrenalin)