What a big difference a region makes.
Or use to make.
I served as pastor of four churches, and three of them were in the Bible Belt. One was not. It was my favorite.
The Bible Belt refers to that region of the southeastern and south-central United States where church attendance has been higher historically, and where biblical values are more closely aligned with cultural values.
But the buckle of the Bible Belt is coming off. That means the entire belt will soon fall off. And it is happening rapidly.
There are thousands of churches in the Bible Belt. Sadly, too many of them are not adjusting to the changing realities of the area. They still act like it’s 1975. Here’s why:
- They don’t recognize the decline in cultural Christianity. They refuse to admit the world has changed around them. And they are often angered when someone suggests they make methodological and stylistic changes.
- They have many “church rules.” The church rules could be related to attire worn on Sunday, or times of worship, or inconsequential polity issues. The point is they do things like they did 40 years ago, and wonder why those on the outside are not interested in their churches.
- They have leaders who have never led in a highly unchurched mission field. Of course, the problem is that the mission field around them is growing increasingly unchurched. Birmingham and Nashville, in that regard, are looking more like Spokane and Boston.
- They confuse traditions with truth. That is a dangerous reality. When our church members equate biblical teachings with some of the bylaws and processes of the church, the congregation is in big trouble.
- They do outreach the way they’ve always done it. So if Tuesday night visitation was effective in 1975, it should be effective in 2016.
- They have significant conflict due to frustration. A number of the leaders and members of these churches can’t understand why and how things have changed so much. They want their old church back, but it’s not coming back. Their frustration can lead to conflict that exacerbates their other problems.
- They are very slow to respond. Their internal culture moves at a much slower pace than the community around them. If they do respond to an opportunity, they might be five years late. Or ten. Or twenty.
- They have significant facility challenges. Many of these churches were built for one big crowd one day a week one hour a week. They might have old and dated education and recreation facilities as well. Some of them are in worship centers with a capacity multiple times their actual attendance. They can have significant unused space and deferred maintenance. A lot of their funds go to keep the lights on.
Many of you readers are in churches in the Bible Belt. I would love to hear your perspectives. Of course, I am always happy to hear from any of you who take time to read this blog.
Posted on October 31, 2016
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
More from Thom
199 Comments
Great article, Thom. I am a new pastor, of two years, in very rural South Carolina. Every point that you made are things that I have seen in my church and churches around me.
For my church and a few churches in my area who have active memberships in the 70-80 member range we have found that many of the traditions are no longer even working – Sunday School attendance is less that half the active members, church events are attended by only a small portion of the active members with no “outside” attendance, etc.
Instead of trying to boost failing programs, we are trying to work together as churches in our community. We are investigating opening a youth center/coffee house or revitalizing a local Christian school, and starting to host community events together away from our church buildings.
Our churches will always be sacred places where we invite and love people but to be honest until our churches become known once again as the nicest, most loving people in town we will continue to have little opportunity to share this amazing Gospel that we represent.
Thanks, Sid.
This is an excellent article and insight. However, I am also concerned about the future of the Southern Baptist Convention and Evangelical Christianity for many of the same reasons. We are becoming increasingly not relevant to modern day sensitivities. Secularists point out and have ethical problems with the genocide and other atrocities found in the Bible that we conveniently ignore or have a simplistic answer. We have leaders who are anti science and like to get quoted in the press, to our embarrassment. I am sincerely concerned about the future as our denominational leaders are simply rearranging chairs on the Titanic. It is my prayer that articles like yours start a conversation going that can become a basis for a promising future.
So what’s the solution? Are we suppose to embrace Darwinism and all its secular mythology? Are we suppose to apologize and say, “Sorry, it was wrong for the Israelites to take the promise land from the Canaanites”? Do you really think Jesus cared about the “modern day sensitivities” of His day?
If our goal as the church is to always be a welcomed part of society then we will cease to be the church. It always amazes me how people never seem to realize that the New Testament church was considered a pariah in most communities of the day.
Right on, right on, right on. I agree we need to be adept at making certain changes in practice that are not Biblical mandates, but accepting what Scripture does not is not the answer.
Many other denominations have gone down that path, and the result is inevitably disaster. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is a perfect case in point. Twenty years ago their leaders bristled at the implication that they were pro-homosexual. Now several CBF churches are openly affirming same-sex “marriage”, and CBF’s leaders have done nothing.
If you’ll recall, the SBC went through these struggles thirty years ago. Back then I frequently asked this question: once you start denying part of the Bible, where do you stop? To this day I’ve yet to get a satisfactory answer.
P.S. I realize Dr. Rainer and most of the other commenters on here are not talking about changing our theology, so my reply is not directed at any of you.
You are right! I served as an IMB missionary for several years and saw natural growth in new church starts. I now serve bi-vocationally in a small rural church that is declining rapidly. I want to help. I believe they are willing. Any suggestions?
Great Article Thom! Every aspect of the way we do “church” needs to be put on the table and taken off one by one with restructuring and redoing. The Christian church has failed to take advantage of cultural shifts and is no longer a herald of truth.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you, Bill.
Right on Thom. We can’t leave the churches to die out of despair and frustration. Men of character and competence are needed for the long haul. Nothing changes overnight. I pastor an Evangelical Free Church and our ship is turning. We are becoming outward focused, driven by the Gospel and it is changing our church culture. Understanding our vision allows for changes to be made easier (not pain free). There are so many resources available today for church renewal and revitalization–Thom Rainer, Ed Stetzer, Aubrey Malphurs, and Gary McIntosh are some of the BEST. Pastoring today is difficult work but the mission has not changed. I strongly recommend Southern’s “Church Revitalization” program for any pastor who feels stuck–highly valuable!
And thanks for the shout out!
What about women of character and competence?
Here in the Detroit area, the churches that have remained successful at “actually growing” in attendance (which includes vacuuming others from stagnant churches), and seemingly staying strong — have typically done 3 things (in my opinion).
1. The main campus moved out to the growth ring; or transplanted to the outer edge.
2. They changed/updated the church name. examples: “Baptist” “Presbyterian” “AG” all of sudden became “Bible,” “Community” “Fellowship” etc…
3. They Completely Revamped their style of ministry & programming — blowing up the old boxes.
I think one could apply this to other metro areas. The ones that are “in trouble” in the Bible Belt, or anywhere else, probably have never attempted ANY of these. Yes, there are many exceptions to my stated opinion, but you would have to agree these three could easily be an “averaged” conclusion for growth or the lack there of.
Everything we have read in this post is true and real. I live and pastor in the “Bible Belt” up north. The same is true here as described. Since we don’t know any better, the question is, what specific outreach strategies, ministry methods and updated approaches can you recommend. We’re on Facebook, we have a website, we feed the community free hot meals weekly; we welcome, meet and greet visitors warmly. What else can we do more?
Struggling church and pastor, in an aged building, aged ushers, aged choir, aged Sunday school teachers.
Nathaniel, while I don’t profess to have it all figured out, I learned in Central Asia with the imb that the most effective way to impact a community is to find where people already gather and seek for ways to insert the gospel (which typically means a follower of Christ). Find up to 3 other people in your church and begin to disciple them so they can become the people who enter those groups. In some cases it is local fast food restaurants where people gather for coffee in the morning, other places may be family sporting events, etc. Every community is different. The key is to look for places the same, or mostly the same, people gather on some regular cycle. Find a point of connection with them to develop a relationship and continually look and pray for ways to bridge over to spiritual conversations. Most people like to talk about their self. Share part of your life story and ask them questions about their own (have to be careful not to get too personal in today’s culture until a foundation of trust is developed). None of this requires any changes at the church building or services; it just takes an intentional commitment to do it which includes time.
We are in the mountains of SW VA, so the belt is made of rope here. We are experiencing sporadic but continual growth; much like a wave where there is incoming and outgoing. We have seen mostly young families joining our Church that are tired of Church as usual. We do a lot of outreach but the outreach is with events mostly and a little visitation. We teach that a Church can be modern without being worldly; visuals, PowerPoints, etc. Where this may be a blessing there is a downside; the young haven’t learn to tithe consistently. I am looking for advise on how to encourage them to trust God with their finances as well as their salvation. Any help?
I encourage you to subscribe to ArtRainer.com. He has a lot of great advice and wisdom on the topic on his blog.
We have built an entire religion on and around our idols of the building and our 1-2 hour/week meetings. How do I know? Imagine with me, what would happen if the government (for instance) were to seize the building and prohibit entry. Imagine that anyone who was associated as a leader with that building was rounded up and jailed.
What would actually continue? How would it look? How would we, the Church, then make disciples? In far too many cases, what we know as the local church would be totally undone. If we believe that we need buildings, weekly public meetings and paid leaders, then we have some ‘splaining to do, Lucy’ because it seems to me that the early church managed quite well without such things.
Time to get real! We don’t yet have that scenario but we cannot continue to sleep…
You are right on target! Time to study the book of Acts and see the way God wants it done. The church “traditions” are killing the church. why can no one see it?
Right on Thom! As some of the commenters have said, I too believe that the issue is disciplemaking (a church’s lack of it). Like me, many who pastor established churches find that over the years, a church loses the disciplemaking focus it had in it’s earlier years. This focus has been replaced by other concerns. Disciplemaking is messy, time-consuming, and requires loads of patience and grace — most Christians in established churches are just simply not willing to make the basic life-sacrifices. However, instead of working with these hard-to-change people, a pastor would do better to work with the new people, those who have yet to be infected by the church’s culture of apathy. From my perspective, this has been the better way to use my time.
Thanks, Jeff.
Country club mentality. Old timers feel it’s their church. Used to be when the community went downhill you just leave and find a church closer to what you look and feel. Now people hang on grit their teeth and get upset at change because it’s their church and their not gonna budge.
Yep.
You are correct on every level. I serve as an Intentional Interim in the Bible Belt and see this same pattern everywhere I have served (that has been 12 churches so far). Everyday we search for answers to the revitalization of God’s Church.
I am grateful there are a few good stories out there, Ken. I need to share more of them.