— by Elias Janetis

Someone once told me that when you go broke, it happens slowly, then all of a sudden. The Church is at that “all of a sudden” inflection point. On a recent trip to the small town in Pennsylvania I grew up in, I noticed something deeply concerning. Church after church in the town was being converted to apartments and yoga studios, and several were seemingly abandoned. Covid hasn’t done any favors for us either. It doesn’t take much to observe the steep cultural decline that our world has been in. We’ve been witnessing the erosion of our cultural influence over time. The counter cultural revolution of the 1960’s, the drug fueled 70’s, the excess of the 80’s, the rise of secular humanism in the 90’s… the beatings have gone on. I remember as a young man how the Church became political in the 1990’s as we battled seemingly everything. We lost the PR battle, and we became the people who hated everyone not like us. Of course, this isn’t true for most of us, but nonetheless, our perception from the world was negatively impacted, and it hasn’t recovered to date. We no longer have a seat at the table of culture and power. 

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The recent Gallup poll on church attendance is at a historic low, with no signs of slowing in the downward trend. Take a look at any mainline church, and you’ll notice that the vast majority of the membership is in the 71+ age bracket. Look at those same rosters, and you’ll see very little people 30 and under. 

I have heard more than once that this next revival is going to be birthed out of the business community…that’s us ladies and gentlemen. God has given us giftings for organization, capital formation, leadership, vision, and strong execution. I know many of you are doing amazing things in your communities, but I believe that God wants to unlock more of our talents and creativity for Him. Below are some ideas (not suggesting any are original); they are just some I believe can make an impact on others, as well as our reputation. 

The Church as Platform.

I have been thinking about this notion lately. Some of the most successful companies are platforms that have aggregated supply and demand in a more efficient and effective manner. How can the Church reinvent itself as an effective community platform? 

Connect the needs of the community with those that want to serve.

Want to win back the youth? Harness their heart and idealism for service to others. The Church needs to do a better job of aggregating the needs of the poor, the widows, the homeless, and those 

suffering, with those in their communities that want to help. We need to look beyond our walls for volunteers and bring the lost alongside us as we serve others. We need to be that trusted intermediary in the community. Service to others is at the core of our Christian tenets; we are to be “others orientated.” This to me is one of the bullseyes that we should be targeting. 

Communicating and learning in the digital age.

The days of people showing up for an hour, singing a few songs, and listening to three points and a poem in mass are probably behind us. We are experiencing a tectonic shift in how people work, communicate, and learn. We need to catch up to the vanguard and deploy technology to bring us and keep us together. How we learn has been changing, and in a world where the average person has an attention span of a fruit fly, we need better engagement and teaching through video, SMS, etc.…I am not talking about entertaining people, but there’s a science on engagement, and we should be utilizing best-in-class methodologies to reach people for Christ and to nurture their faith. An algorithm will never replace the Holy Spirit, but it can help organize us and keep people connected in this digital age. The Banana that leaves the bunch gets peeled! Let’s find better ways to stick together. 

Our brand should be LOVE.

No disrespect to The Beatles, but the New Testament 

established long before Paul, George, John, and Ringo that, “All we need is love.” This foundational element of our faith has been lost in the culture wars. Christians are not known for their love; yet Christians are some of the most, if not the most, generous people on the planet. Why doesn’t the average person on the street know this? That’s a problem for our brand. We need to start playing the long game and not sabotage ourselves with controversial talking points. I once heard a preacher say that we can’t save a turkey from Thanksgiving dinner—that it’s not our job to save anyone but to point people to Christ. We need to lift Him up, and wherever in the Bible Jesus was mentioned with sinners, you only saw grace and love flow from Him. Does God have standards? Yes. Should we live by those standards? The best we can. Should we beat sinners over the head with those standards? No. We should love them, share God’s love with them, and let the Holy Spirit and the power of His Word change them. 

In closing, I also believe we should launch a major PR initiative—where’s the Church’s “Greta”? We should utilize the best techniques of crisis management and storytelling to change the narratives in the media and, most importantly, in our communities. This will ultimately be accomplished through service, empathy, and love, on our part, and through the Holy Spirit and His Word—His Word, in action, through us.

Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was from a collection of White Papers compiled for attendees of the CEF’s Global Event.

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