Probably many of you saw the study released by the Gallup Organization in the last couple of weeks that shows that for the first time in over a century, membership in religious institutions is now under 50% of the population. This is a drop of about 25% of the population since the turn of the century – a decrease of over 1% per capita of the population per year. And it seems to be accelerating.

At the same time, there is more than anecdotal evidence that there are still a lot of people who are spiritually curious or even attuned and this number seems to be much higher than those who are connected to institutional religion. Why are spiritually alert or curious people not connecting with the church?

The answer is not complicated. The church has relied on culture to send it people. It has found ways to build programs and be part of the reaping of cultural religion’s harvest. But as baby boomers grew up being brought to Sunday School by parents who didn’t participate in discipleship and growth, the commitments began to fray. Each generation had parents less committed to participating and growing as disciples and children who were less and less rooted. The culture that had given for a few generations was now taking away. The church has been steadily losing ground for decades. This newest study crosses a line that makes us extra nervous, but there is nothing new here.

But the writing is on the wall for those in the church who don’t decide that it is time to make significant changes to how they do ministry. In the future there will be primarily two kinds of churches – those who focus on telling the story of Jesus and connecting peoples’ lives to it – and those that close. Going back means choosing to continue to age and decline with new vision in site - just wishes for something different.

People are tired of church programs that offer little depth or transformation and a Gospel that seems like platitudes. They are tired of churches that are filled with judgment and self-interest while pretending to represent the concerns of Jesus. And they no longer feel obliged to attend religious rituals as a part of being a respectable member of society. So, church activities no longer gain the attention of any but those already committed to them from the previous era.

But people are truly hungry to encounter the Jesus whose death and resurrection we just commemorated and continue to celebrate during this Easter season. People want to meet the God who forgives sins, heals the broken, and gives purpose and meaning to life.

So, if the next chapter of your ministry is going to have real impact, consider spending less time rebuilding church programs after the pandemic, because church programs are less and less the essential to congregational life, and connecting people to the crucified and risen Christ in their lives is (and actually always has been) the core of what it means to be the church. And with the pandemic shifting how we do church, now is the time to refocus and re-root like never before. Churches that look for a new way of being church in the future will be in a much better place than those who put the old one back – the last twenty-five years have already told us that way of being church wasn’t working anyway.