It is no secret that the church in USAmerica has its challenges.

A colleague of mine in my church body’s headquarters who attends to congregational vitality and development suggests that at least one third of our congregations need to be in “redevelopment,” that is, a process of renewal and transformation driven by exploration of the missional call on the congregation. 

Late last month I sat with one of our church’s most effective directors of evangelical mission and he suggested that maybe only five to seven percent of the pastoral leaders on our roster today have the capacity to redevelop and lead congregations toward missional vitality.  I have heard more times than I can count the assessment, “The church is in a slow downward death spiral.”

I have a different view. 

I would like to suggest that we are living in a paradox.  For sure there is the troubling view.  There are the negative and necrotic outlooks.  Not to pooh-pooh these outlooks, there are countless extraordinarily faithful people who love Jesus and who seem to be unable to reverse the decline in their settings.  They read the reports.  The Pew Research Center has been front and center in reporting the rapid rise of the “NONES,” those who no longer claim any affiliation with a faith community. 

And then there are those clergy meetings that seem to excel in griping and complaining.  As a seminary president I often heard, “I was prepared for a world and a church that does not exist anymore.”  Sadly, I have also heard too often, “I can’t wait until retirement.”  Again, I am not pooh-poohing the extent to which people feel powerless and the pain of leaders who have experienced the very fragmentation of the congregation they love and serve.  It is a hard time to lead. 

But paradoxically, there is another view, a view to which I subscribe. 

It is real in that it is acutely aware of the decline and struggles of the church and its congregations, sees the same reports, and hears the same laments.  Yet it is hopeful.  I subscribe to this hopeful posture as an adventurist, meaning that I don’t have some magic potion of sure-fire strategy to transform the current situation.  But as an adventurist I am along for the ride and experience, doing what I can where I can, and trusting in the essential DNA of the church’s witness.

We have a God whose history and presence suggests that God is making all things new.  Our biblical narrative consistently lifts up the abiding faithfulness of God, even under the most desperate situations.  After all our story is grounded in a rejected, humiliated, and capitally executed Jesus whom God raised from the dead.

I am hopeful because the tomb discovered on the first Easter morning is empty.  I am hopeful because the primal cry of the church and still the essential proclamation of our witness is not, “Jesus was risen,” but rather, “Jesus IS risen,” right here, right now.  

Whether we are telling the story of God creating from chaos and nothingness to a world of intricate and complex wonder and beauty, life and purpose, whether we are telling the story of God delivering the children of Israel out of slavery and into a Promised Land, or whether we are talking about a dead Jew whose name is Jesus whom God raised from the dead, God does God’s best work when we would think that we are out of options.  And the future is already secure.

In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God has already overcome everything that would cheapen us, fragment us, or crush us.  As author and pastor Rob Bell likes to repeat, “Love and life always win in the end.” 

This is a great time to be the church.

I am not going to resort to hyperbole and suggest that this is the most trying time ever for the church’s witness to be heard and experienced.  Today does not compare to the persecution of the infant church under Emperor Domitian, or to the 100 Years War, or to World War I or World War II.  But it is a time of angst and a time when the church’s hopeful message grounded in a real story of a suffering and yet risen God needs to be heard.

The issues that would cause us to be afraid are plentiful – threats of nuclear conflict, divisiveness over immigration, hate and racism becoming more overt, being in bondage to a gun culture and being unable to free ourselves and to make our children’s schools safe, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the ecological future of our planet.  As the church, we name the realities for what they are and point to an alternative way in the risen Christ.   

My hopefulness is not just grounded in our essential gospel claim as the church, “This Jesus whom you crucified, God has raised from the dead, and we are witnesses.” 

It is also based on experience. 

Despite all the negativity and necrotic reports, there are congregations who are thriving.  They come in all sizes and in all locations.  The view that only those congregations with great locations and attractive facilities with lots of enticing programs can thrive is a myth.  There are congregations in lousy facilities, on back streets and who have decided that programmatic focus is a bad idea and yet are thriving and profoundly impacting peoples’ lives, their communities, and the world.

What distinguishes these thriving congregations from the others?  That is a bigger question that this one blog can answer, but it starts by asking the right questions.  Too many congregations in decline are asking the wrong questions, questions motivated by a desire to survive:  How can we get more members?  How can we get our youth involved?  How can we get people to give more?  How can we stop from dying?    

The right questions start with God questions.

What is God’s call on this congregation?

What has God called us to be and to do?

What is the ache in God’s heart to which God is calling us to share and align?

The questions are plentiful, and those who prayerfully discern them discover that this indeed is a great time to be the church.

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,