Part of what prompted last week's little preachy outburst was the announcement by my seminary alma mater of a guest speaker who manages to be "popular" by publishing books pointing out the obvious. Another part of it was the meta-critique of a dear friend of mine that the mainstream church is quite literally dying - aging itself out of existence, really - and the kind of stuff on display at WTS is a shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic as professor of mine in college used to say.
That the mainline denominations are, and have been for some time, in trouble is beyond dispute. The example of my home church is typical. A quarter-century ago, it was a thriving, lively congregation, with a busy schedule, youth programs, choirs of all sorts, Bible studies, and worship attendance was edging upward.
It doesn't exist anymore.
I usually console myself thinking of the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer, part of which reads, "Let me be put aside for thee." When I received word that the congregation had folded and the property had been sold, I told Lisa, with far more conviction than I felt, that perhaps it was just that a Wesleyan witness in Sayre, PA had run its course, and God might be doing a new thing there.
Actually, I'm still sad.
Yet, I also believe that even if the entire Christian Church, in all its various forms and disguises died out, God would still be God, and the stones might just cry out. In general, while the old mainline churches struggle for a way to define themselves - which is odd - overseas, such as in Africa, the church is thriving. South America is also a lively ground for the Christian Church, in many flavors from liberationist communities to fundamentalist enclaves to the Seventh Day Adventists.
While I think it a bit tiresome for US Mainline denominations to continue to struggle with issues of identity, and to promote the kind of mindlessness that Wesley Seminary is promulgating by featuring this boob at a conference (an institution of higher learning should host serious people with something interesting to say), it is nevertheless true, I think, that even should mainline churches go the way of First UMC, Sayre, PA, the church will continue. It may not be recognizable, to be sure. But it will be, because God isn't finished with us yet.
