"In every city of America there is at least one church with a building worth hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. This church meets every Sunday morning with only eight or ten silver haired women and one or two balding gentleman for a 'service'. They sing a humn or two, one of the stately gentleman shares a few opinions of things in the world today, they say a prayer, repeat amen, and then go home.
Empty parking spaces, silent pulpits, and dusty pews cry out for days of glory gone by. The church has been dead for years, perhaps decades, but has been kept alive unnaturally by an artificial life-support system. The soul is gone, brain waves of ceased, but mechanization keeps the lungs breathing, the heart beating, and the door opening every Sunday morning at precisely 10 AM
Why does this happen? We are so desperately afraid to admit failure that we will keep a church alive as long as we can. It is as if the continuity of Christianity depends on this one church staying open. If the church dies, God has failed, and we cannot allow back. Why are we so desperate to keep churches going?......
I don't know how it happened, but sometime in history we bought into a theology of safe. We think we should do what is safe, for ourselves, for our families, and for our churches. We are convinced that anything that is on safe must be inside of gods will and it's still early on American and Christian.
(Neil Cole. Organic Leadership. 2009, Baker books, pg 270)
AJR The Roaming Nomad
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