Maybe "Post-Church" Issues Aren't Our Problem

It occurred to me when a Lutheran pastor attending the pastors' conference of his LCMS district approvingly cited a quote from the conference's keynote speaker that the challenges facing our church body aren't what we think they are. The speaker was David Kinnaman of the Barna Group. The problem according to Kinnamen is that the church has already lost a generation of Americans (his latest book is entitled "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church ... and Rethinking Faith"). But I suspect that the problem is actually very different. Kinnaman is an excellent researcher who uses reliable methods for his research. But his analysis is skewed.

Kinnaman's analysis isn't skewed because of his methods or his topics. It's skewed because of his own experience with the church. Kinnaman and most other authors who have identified and addressed the problems of our "post-church" culture are Evangelicals (i.e., American churches of Arminian heritage) and they are speaking about the church from an Evangelical worldview. What they are saying may very well be true of Evangelicals, but it's not our problem -- at least, it shouldn't be our problem.

Our problem is that we've been seduced into being like the Evangelicals. We've paid lip service to Word and Sacrament ministry while chasing after the latest trends and "successes" of the Evangelical community. We've done the 40 Days of Purpose, joined the Willow Creek Association, and devoured Barna Group findings as though they were inspired. We've touted transparency, authenticity, and accountable as keys to a more relevant church. We talk like, act like, and worship like Evangelicals and then we're amazed that we have the same fundamental shortcomings that the Evangelicals have. We've made the Evangelicals' problem our problem. Now we're looking to Kinnaman and the other Evangelical wise men to guide us out of the abyss. Really?

If we had only had the wisdom, insight, and courage to be Lutheran during the heyday of Evangelicalism we would have avoided their problems. That doesn't mean that we'd be any more loved by our "post-church" culture or that we'd be considered any more relevant by the pagans of our society. But it would mean that, being focused on the Cross instead of the sanctuary/auditorium-filling techniques, we'd better positioned to meet the needs of the spiritually bankrupt culture in which we live.

Being Lutheran isn't without its problems, but we've taken on problems that we didn't have to. Finding our bearings in being faithful to the confession and practice of our church body and rejecting the seductions of American Evangelicalism will guide us beyond the "post-church" issues that are stopping the Evangelicals in their tracks because, as Lutherans, they aren't really our problem.

@RevMAWood