The Ken Johnson Group / June 27, 2006 Featured Article

When will the mainline church get out of their rut and begin winning people for Christ?

by Ken Johnson

Today is my 46th wedding anniversary and I was trying to think of what might have changed in the mainline church in those 46 years, and you know what, I can’t think of anything. There hasn’t been very much change except that they are dying. In 1960 the mainline church was an exciting place to be, (they weren’t perfect) but today it is either a museum or a mausoleum, and neither of those are good for the church.

About ten days ago I read an article in the Denver Post about a gentleman in Denver who had donated $150,000,000.00 to the UPC/USA to be used for church growth. In the next few days we began hearing about this persons financial problems and wondered whether he was capable of donating any money to the church let alone $150,000,000.00.

The interesting thing about this donation is not if he can donate the money, it’s what would the church do with it if they got it? In all honesty the United Presbyterian Church has no idea how to grow the church so regretfully if they do get the money it will go to waste.

I’m not just picking on the Presbyterians, I have also worked in the United Methodist Church and the American Baptist Church and they are in the same rut. There are a number of other mainline denominations that are also in that rut.

The denomination is still living in the early 20th century (I married into the UPC in 1960 and nothing has changed over the years) and as far as I can see most of their pastors and churches have no interest in moving into the 21st century and ministering to the people of this century. Before they will ever begin to grow they have to give up all of their ideas about how the church is organized. They will have to get rid of their hierarchical governance of the church. They will also have to rid themselves of the way they hire pastors and plant new churches.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s I had the privilege of being the Minister of Music at a large growing United Presbyterian Church which was at odds with the denomination because we didn’t do everything according to the United Presbyterian Church Book of Order. The reason we were growing was because we didn’t do everything according to the Book of Order. We did what we thought God wanted us to do. We allowed people to be immersed as well as sprinkled, we even dedicated babies instead of baptizing them which was a no-no. There were a number of other things that we did that created an excitement and energy for growth. In the denomination we were considered “the circus church” and we were actually proud to be called that. We didn’t care what they called us we were just concerned about bringing people to the Lord and sending them out to minister to the world. If I’m not mistaken that is what the “great commission” is all about.

What I always thought was sad was that those leaders in our Presbytery couldn’t see that what we were doing was what God wanted us to do and study us to find out what they should be doing. Instead we finally left the denomination and helped launch the Evangelical Presbyterian denomination. How sad for us to have to do that but they left us no choice.

Regretfully the UPC/USA, and other mainline denominations are dying and will continue to die until they learn what the church should be. They need to quit worrying about being politically correct and begin to be Biblically correct (let’s start a new purpose for the acronym BYOB –Bring Your Own Bible – to church—and use it at home) and that one thing will almost immediately turn the denomination around. Growth only happens to churches that are healthy and the denomination as a whole is not healthy right now. There are some individual churches in the denomination that are healthy, but I would guess that they are outcasts just like we were in the 70’s.

The first thing that the denomination needs to do is begin observing churches that are healthy and growing. Not through glasses that say “what they are doing is wrong,” but through glasses that say “what are they doing differently than we are that is working.” That may mean that you change your style of worship to meet the needs of the people who are on earth right now and not keep what was right for the people of the early 20th century. It may mean that you change your requirements for membership and begin requiring people to become involved in the ministry. It may mean that you change the hierarchy of the denomination, how you select pastors, how you start new churches, and many other things which have somehow been etched in stone. It’s interesting that for some reason the Ten Commandments can be changed but the way different denominations function can’t.

What is the mainline church going to do to get out of the rut they are in? If you look at the statistics they don’t have much time to make a change before they are dead. What is so difficult about looking inside oneself and honestly making some decision to change? Why do they keep up the false front that says they are doing what is right and we are not going to change? If they were a business they would have been out of business many years ago, but because they depend on people giving, they can hang on for a few more years until all of those givers die. Why are members of these congregations allowing (sometimes forcing) their leaders to continue in the same rut? Why are the leaders of those congregations closing their eyes and going on blindly in the same rut?

I wish I could answer these questions, but I can’t. I can’t find any reasonable answers, but I will keep trying and continue to talk to people about what I think needs to be done to first of all change the Christian community and secondly win the world for Christ.

In His Steps

Ken Johnson