The “status quo” will be the “status dead”

(Quitting Church? Part 2).
Most Canadians are very aware of their spiritual needs today. If you doubt this statement just go to any Chapters, Coles, Indigo or other secular bookstore and take a look at the religious section. As I like to say in my leadership seminars “Twenty years ago in a Canadian secular bookstore the religion section had four bibles and two dead flies! But today they have row upon row of books on spirituality”. Why? Because they know that spiritual books sell! Bookstores understand, what many churches need to wake up to, that Canadians are searching for spiritual experiences and spiritual answers for their lives. Sadly, while the spiritual quest of the ordinary Canadian is way up Christian church attendance is way down and falling fast. Depending on which Canadian statistics you read, people that regularly go to a place of worship is at best 17% (down from some 60% fifty years ago) and some say as low as 4% of us are actually born again believers who faithfully go to an evangelical church today. This reality should be sobering enough for us evangelicals to realize that much of what we are doing is no longer working and that it is time for some massive, prayerful and courageous changes. If we do nothing different then the “status quo” will be the “status dead”.
For the last many years, on any given weekend, I find myself speaking in a wide variety of churches of different sizes, denominational backgrounds and many geographic locations from which I have developed a fresh perspective of the reality of “church” in Canada today. Most who invite me to speak are wonderful congregations that already have a strong interest in growing, being relevant and reaching their communities for Christ. But, having said that, as a teacher/evangelist, I find myself often in settings that are well meaning “Christian ghettos”, that are totally oblivious to the fact that in dress, music, topics, language, customs etc. they are almost totally unintelligible, irrelevant and confusing to someone on a spiritual quest in Canada today.
In light of this new “quitting church” reality it seems redundant to ask: Should we be looking at new ways of engaging our neighbourhoods with the gospel? Should we be focusing on different discipleship plans that will develop authentic and winsome believers? Should we intentionally be making our churches embracing to people different than us? How could we improve our overall communication so as to be found as relevant to the needs of seekers today? What recovery programs for “broken people” can we offer for those who live around us? Should we not care that people are “quitting church” or would Jesus have us do all we can to run after them?
In my next blog on “Quitting Church?” we will look at practical steps that some Canadian churches are taking to reverse the trend.
Ministry update
This summer some 26000 youth attended the three Rock the Rivers out west with hundreds coming to Christ! Last month saw me across the west speaking at mission’s conferences on reaching Canada for Christ, in churches, doing my REconneXIons leadership training seminars and an evangelistic event in an arena where many responded to the gospel. Praise the Lord!
Please pray as in October I also speak at the Cross the Street National Conference in Burlington plus minister multiple times in BC, Manitoba and Ontario.

David Arrol Macfarlane
e-mail: arrol.mac@hotmail.com
Cell: 519 503 8380
Webpage: davidamacfarlane.com
Videos of messages: http://www.youtube.com/user/davidarrolmacfarlane