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.
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199 Comments
I used to be part of this “community” in a leadership role. (Worship Pastor) I made mistakes and I paid the price. It ended my career. The “church” kicked me to the curb. At least that is the way I feel. It has been 4 years and it has been tough. I am working every day to forgive myself and those who have hurt me.
What does the above have to do Thom’s blog entry? It is my opinion that one of the biggest issues with the “church” is the inability to forgive as Jesus forgave. My experience is the “church” seems to be more concerned in their reputation or status than loving and if needed “truly” forgiving those that are entrusted in their care. Often it is the “church” that drive people away from God. It is not God who pushes them away.
The churches in Europe are empty and must rely on guided tours to keep them repaired and open to the few who attend. Were the members lost to “what used to be?” I find the narrow views of many in the bible belt to be so discouraging that I end up praying for my neighbors that they have an epiphany and find God in a new and wonderful way.
Thanks, Thom, for your insights. My husband is part of the pastoral staff at a small-ish size church in rural California, and we’re seeing the same things. Very discouraging. This issue is a serious malady in the Bible Belt, but also in any church where the traditional/legalistic/”hold-the-fort-cuz-Jesus-is-coming” mentality rules — rather than viewing America’s changing culture as a new and needy mission field. We don’t know how to communicate this to the sr. pastor and other church members, and we’ve been praying for wisdom and direction. It’s helpful to know our thinking isn’t off target. Thanks, again!
A lot of “what’s wrong with the church” articles are identifying symptoms. As a result the symptoms become the focus with solutions developed to deal with the symptoms and never the root causes. One of the main root causes if not the main root cause is a departure from the word of God. Despite what most churches claim, the fact is they really don’t believe you can hold a book in your hand and say it is the perfect word of God with absolutely no error!
Regardless of the way we do Church ministry–it should and must be led by God. God can work it a lot ways way beyond we can imagine. The problem is complacency and the reluctance to get out of our own comfort zone which churches are ignoring and often times not heeding the prompting of Holy Spirit in their midst– we’ve become “inward” focus and instead of “outward” or evangelistic and all inclusive in the way we do ministry.
The bottom line in all this is that Satan is winning. If we can stay so distracted and frustrated with these issues then we will not have energy or desire to make any efforts to do whats most important, teach Christ to the lost and dying world around us. Jesus’s last command should be our first priority to “Go and make disciples”. I am 55 and have 2 children in their 20’s and I see this all the time, they truly have a genuine desire for authentic worship, as do I. My age and beyond need to wake up out of their slumber for doing things the same way we’ve always done it. Repetition for repetition sake is archaic and dead. Leaders need to genuinely listen to their flock and pray for a spiritual awakening in themselves and the church as a whole. Many souls depend on it.
I grew up (3rd generation) in a small TN town Church of Christ…..you already see where this is going. After college, wedding & finally deciding to find a church home, we ended up at a bigger suburb of Nashville Chrch of Christ (where we were comfortable).
Add 17 years marriage, 15 years membership & 2 kids to that………now I see the stagnate ways of modern churches (especially CoC) & they slap me in the face every time we attend service or an event. No local works, no local outreach, “this is how we’ve always done it” mentality, ZERO college/young singles impact, no active place for young women to mentor in the faith (big deal for me as a dad of 2 daughters)………I am watching my church home slowly die from atrophy.
This is the case in many small churches, exactly as you have outlined. Great article.
I lived in the Bible Belt for over 14 yrs. attending Fundamental, Legalistic Church’s. I believed like I was told, dressed as I was told, any music with a “beat” was forbidden. I raised my children according to how it was expected for us to do. I thought that if I did everything according to the “Church’s” expectations, that I would find favor with God, I couldn’t understand why I was so unhappy, and felt so unfulfilled in my walk with Christ. Then I moved, and started attending a Non-Denominational Bible teaching Church, who accepted “anyone” hungry for the word of God, not on the basis of the length of their skirts, or the amount of church groups they were a part of . I had to re-learn, and mostly learn to re-think, and de-program my thoughts. What I have learned is how much God loves us, he sent his Son Jesus to die for us, to set us free from The Law. He wants us to be happy, and love and serve him according to his word, not the interpretations of a group of people.
I’ve read almost all the comments. There are many great responses, and lots of really good ideas, and good reasons for why we’re where we are. I would add a few thoughts from a woman in ministry, and a pastor’s wife. I am currently sitting in a vendor’s booth at one of our state Baptist conventions (I prefer not to say which one). It’s pastor’s conference day. And I’ve watched 350+ pastors and others who came to the conference walk by my booth with shoulders slumped and scowls on their faces, some giving an off-handed wave as they walked by. This is a group of people claiming to be proclaimers of the most wonderful thing that ever happened to the human race, and they look more like they just drank the proverbial jar of pickle juice—the whole jar! Where is the joy? What has happened to our pastors, and their wives? Being one of those, I can tell you that they’ve been so beat up on that they have no joy left. They just don’t know what else to do (and secular society says they aren’t qualified to do anything), so they keep on keeping on, trying to get their churches to do something, anything, to pretend that they are still the church. The only problem is that those they attempt to lead have no interest in following. In most cases, they love their pastor, but they don’t want to follow because that might require effort and work and change and losing their pew on Sunday mornings….And I’ve listened to most of the sermons preached at the conference (as much as possible over the speaker system in the room I’m in), and I hear lots of doctrine, lots of defense of the faith, some trying to impress the rest of the preachers in the room with their pulpit skills, lots of stuff dealing with things that, in the grand scheme of eternity, really don’t matter…
We have forgotten that we need to meet our people where they are—not the ones at the other church down the street, or in another city/state/country, but ours. Just ours. We need to figure out why our little (or big) group is there, because our reason isn’t the same as that church across town. God has not called us to do the same thing the same way as everyone else. He’s given each of our local bodies a specific set of gifts and skills to reach people. Our overall goal is the same—to tell the world that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and to get them to the Throne—but there’s a reason that there’s more than one local body. Not everyone fits in every place. It’s time to take a long, hard look at the “us” God has put us in the middle of and do our unique thing in that place. Only one church that we’ve gone to has had a mission statement or purpose statement of any kind. Some of the others didn’t think it was important, and some didn’t even know what we were talking about. It’s just church as usual and “can you help us make it like it used to be?”
Especially in the Bible belt, where almost everyone above the age of 40 always went to church, we have no idea how to stand up for what we believe because we don’t know what we believe, or why. We know how to do church. We know the songs and the Bible stories, and even know Jesus, but that’s where most of it stops. I think we thought that things would just stay the same and we’d never have to deal with people who don’t want to come to church… I really think the main reason that the church, in the Bible belt or out, is floundering is that we’ve lost our first love. Yes, we need to love the lost enough to actually do something to show them the real Jesus, and stick with them long enough to make sure they meet Him. Yes we desperately need to renew our discipleship efforts. Yes, we need to get out and vote, because what happens in this election does matter to the overall state of the church in our country. Yes, we need to care more about others than ourselves. Yes, we have to figure out how to change the methods to reach the culture. But if we truly love Jesus…if we honestly, openly, unabashedly fall in love with Jesus and act like He’s not just one of the most important things in our lives, but our entire reason for life itself, that will change everything. All the important things I just listed will, in part, take care of themselves. It’s not about us!!!!! It’s not about me!!! It’s not about you!!! It’s about HIM!!!! When those of us in leadership really, truly fall in desperate love with Jesus, it will spill over into everything we do, every word we say, every song we sing (all the way from Gregorian Chant to Hillsong), every breath we take…and it will be contagious. He said “if I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” Our excitement will spill over into our congregations, and with time and patience, those we lead will catch the excitement and want to get it on it. It can’t just be talked about in the pulpit and classroom. It must be lived.
WOW! Thank you for hitting the nail on the head! I’ve been reading through the comments and I agree with you! The change starts with every single one of us in the struggling churches. I feel like I live the faith, but I gotta live it louder, with excitement! Thank you!
Thank you as well.
Culture dictating how church should be done seems appropriate , but the gospel message cannot be changed only the delivery. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon I attended two churches of the same denomination. Eventually I became a part of a church that developed outside of the denomination that used methodology of the Robert Schuller Crystal Cathedral model. The theology remained intact and the doctrinal issues remained true to Scripture and the growth of the church was phenomenal from a start of seven families to over six thousand attenders in twenty three years. I credit that growth not to a desire to become big, but a response to the human predicament of broken lives that were treated with love , compassion and inclusiveness that provided Christian care that provided specific life maladies i.e. Separation Survival, Grief Recovery, Divorce Recovery, Addictions Groups, Veterans groups, Adult Singles Ministry etc. The church remains strong in the community and has constantly adapted to the change of population in Portland. The key has always been remaining true to the message of Jesus Christ while being sensitive to the person.
I can see from many of the comments that this ‘trend’ is not particular to the bible belt as your article suggests. My own experience tells me that MANY churches all over the US fall into this category. I attended a church for many years in Pennsylvania that looked to the youth group to do all the grunt work around the church and not as the future leaders of the church. Yet – many leaders of that church mocked the churches of the south as country club churches and were totally clueless as to their own country club mentality. 400 members on the role and 200 attendees. But they all paid their per capita in order to retain the right to baptize, confirm, wed and bury at their ‘church’ even though they never darkened the doors unless it was a special event. No matter where a church is – if we take our eyes off of God – we will replace him with another god – be it traditions or following the culture.
#4 is viral in my region. Traditions that are rooted in man’s preference or desire for power and control inhibit Spiritual growth and are congregation killers. I pray fervently for revival in our churches and a return to the model church example found in Acts 2. #Unity
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