Carl Trueman On the Future of Local Church

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Another well-written article by Carl Trueman

An Important and Positive Lesson from the Liberals (which you might not hear elsewhere) - Reformation21

Here is a snippet:

What is clear is that the rise and acceptance of the big box megachurch within such influential and media-savvy neo-denominational movements is changing the playing field for all Christians. In all likelihood, the church in the USA faces a future where more and more Christians will go to fewer and bigger churches. Apparent success will be bought at a very high price: vast tracts of the country may end up with no local witness or simply a church presence mediated by smartphones and tablet computers; there will emerge a normative model of pastoral care that assumes the anonymity of the congregation and the inaccessibility (maybe even absence) of the pastor; many churches will have huge budgets, the servicing of which will impose a level of financial, media and managerial know-how on the leadership that will squeeze biblical qualifications for the eldership and the diaconate; and the typical Christian life will be marked by the consumption of a product rather than by committed participation in the life of the local congregation.

Still, if the economy is making life very difficult for smaller churches, where fixed costs can be disproportionately high and rising and average household incomes have been stagnant or shrinking, what is to be done? Should we throw in the towel, abandon the suburbs and the countryside for the big box churches in the cities? Should the Trueman household simply download the sermons and worship experience from the website of Pastor Meganame, Inc.? I would suggest not. We can surely do better, and more biblically, than that.

 

[Pilgrim]

I share his concerns WRT people resorting to the media offerings from their favorites as a substitute for the local church. In some cases this is done even when there are a number of sound churches in the area. I was saddened to hear a brother excuse poor preaching from a guest speaker at his church because in his mind nobody can measure up to the likes of Piper, they can only "try." Well, at least he now goes to church. For a time he had largely abandoned it in favor of podcasts.

But it will take a good while before it gets as bad as Dr. Trueman describes. Babdists like their pot lucks too much, and there is a healthy renewed emphasis in some quarters on the importance of the local church. Also, people still have to get married and buried. Also, not everyone even among young people is as tech oriented as one might think.

 

[timmopussycat]

His cri de cour that small church pastors need a model is accurate and timely.