Previous | Next

Fall 2024 · Vol. 53 No. 2 · pp. 127–140 

Why Church?

Ken Esau

I have been a churchgoer and active participant all my life. My family of origin was a twice-a-Sunday church family, along with a Wednesday prayer meeting. I was baptized at sixteen and have been officially a member of a Mennonite Brethren (MB) church ever since. The pandemic did throw things off in terms of attending in-person services—but I was part of all sorts of small group Zoom meetings.

Significant dechurching in both the U.S. and Canada must lead us to ask, “Why church?” and find a deep and profound answer that can do justice to the theological and missional perspective of the New Testament.

I have a tenacious loyalty to all things “church” even as I observe some others running for the exits. I now even work full-time for the MB church, which is something I did not quite imagine as a teenager after watching some of the drama that was part of my congregation growing up. Over my decades as part of churches, I have seen what can only be described as “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Just like the old Western movie by that name, there have been some shootouts and unfortunately some bodies left in the streets. 1 While I was told in sermons that the church should be “the good, the beautiful, and the amazing,” it certainly has been a mixed bag in my experience. p. 128

J. B. Toews in his classic book, The Pilgrimage of Faith, cited Jean Jaurès’s famous words, “take from the past the fire—not the ashes.” 2 The point Toews was making is that our MB history as a church has both “fire” (spiritual renewal, beauty, and mission) and “ashes” (stories of failure, unfaithfulness, and hypocrisy). Our history as a church is not a “hero story” but a mixed bag of the good, the bad, and the ugly. This reality of both our past and our present leads us to ask the all-important question, “Why church?” What is the fire that is worth taking? Why is all the investment of time, energy, and resources—that could be invested elsewhere—worth it?

It is obvious that many do not believe church is worth it. A U.S. study describes how in the past twenty-five years, roughly forty million adult Americans (about sixteen percent of the total U.S. adult population today) who once were church attenders at least once per month now attend no more than once per year. 3 The authors refer to this “great dechurching” as an “epidemic” and a “new era in American history.” They “found that no theological tradition, age group, ethnicity, political affiliation, education level, geographic location, or income bracket escaped the dechurching in America.” 4 Another study found that a change in life situation (e.g., busyness, a new job, a geographical move) was the top reason given by people for dechurching—although disillusionment with the church or pastor, or moving away from their earlier beliefs altogether, also played key roles. 5

Dechurching is certainly happening in Canada as well. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s “2019 Church and Faith Trends Survey” discovered that “[a]ffiliation and attendance numbers have clearly and strongly fallen.” 6 This is demonstrated in part by seventy-one percent of all Canadian adults reporting some kind of Christian religious affiliation at the age of twelve, and only forty-three percent reporting religious affiliation to be the case for them at present. 7 In terms of Canadians in general (of whom only six percent identify as evangelical affiliates 8) the “new normal is not having attended a single religious service in the last 12 months.” 9 While dechurching is considered an “epidemic” by American researchers, the disease is at a far more advanced stage in Canada.

The core question “Why church?” requires some sort of compelling response, especially for all those who have maintained a tenacious commitment in the midst of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Five options emerge as common attempts at an answer.

WHY CHURCH? OPTION 1: PERSONAL HEALTH BENEFITS

It is common for some to answer the “Why church?” question based on important personal benefits that researchers have discovered about church participation. The most surprising of these benefits may be that at least monthly church attendance (or any other religious meeting attendance) p. 129 results in a fifty-five percent reduction in mortality risk for middle-aged men and women. 10 Stating this positively, some studies claim that regular church attendance could add two to three years to your life. 11

The 2022 U.S. Barna Report builds on these basic findings to ask how church involvement contributes to human flourishing. 12 In each of the measures of human flourishing studied (viz., faith flourishing, vocational flourishing, financial flourishing, physical/emotional well-being), church attendance was the factor correlated with significant improvement in each area. 13

Tyler Vanderweele, the director of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, has summarized similar recent research:

Religious participation is strongly associated with numerous health and well-being outcomes including greater longevity, less depression, less suicide, less smoking, less substance abuse, better cancer and cardiovascular disease survival, less divorce, greater social support, greater meaning and purpose in life, greater life satisfaction, more charitable giving, more volunteering and greater civic engagement. 14

While church attendance can provide community and comfort in the midst of our lonely world, these personal benefits for church involvement seem at best a partial answer to the question “Why church?” Many of these studies report similar health benefits for participation in any religious group, so these results are not unique to church itself.

WHY CHURCH? OPTION 2: FEELING CLOSER TO GOD

A common rationale for participation in a local church is that it helps believers feel closer to God. For example, a Pew Research study found that ninety percent of self-identified “evangelical” church attendees claimed that “to become close to God” was their top reason for church attendance, while eighty-six percent reported experiencing a “sense of God’s presence” while attending a church service. 15 According to this rationale, church meetings are largely about the dispensing of subjective experiences so that church attendees can enjoy feeling that God is near.

An awareness of God’s closeness is a welcome by-product of gathering with God’s people. Yet to envision the primary role of the church as a dispenser of spiritual experiences is notably individualistic, subjective, and self-centered. A number of biblical stories and other texts warn that God is not at our beck and call and cannot be swayed through empty ritual (cf. Lev 10; Ps 115:3; Amos 5:21-24; Matt 6:7-8). Arguably, an experiential rationale for church has led to various forms of emotional manipulation on the part of worship leaders and preachers. p. 130

In addition, accepting this as the rationale for church puts the church in a competitive market of spiritual experiences that is constantly moving and changing. 16 Bono expressed this impulse well:

I just go where the life is, you know? Where I feel the Holy Spirit. If it's in the back of a Roman Catholic cathedral, in the quietness and the incense, which suggest the mystery of God, of God's presence, or in the bright lights of the revival tent, I just go where I find life. I don't see denomination. I generally think religion gets in the way of God. 17

Feeling closer to God as the reason for church attendance and participation is not only inadequate but is also a profoundly difficult mission for the church, one destined for failure.

WHY CHURCH? OPTION 3: THE CHURCH BENEFITS THE COMMUNITY

The third option for answering the “Why church?” question is that local churches do important social and economic good works that benefit the communities of which they are part. This means that local congregations exist primarily to relieve suffering, support positive local initiatives (e.g., housing programs, addiction recovery, food insecurity), and ultimately make their local communities better places for all residents. This option is a move from the subjective and individualistic purposes for the church (viz., personal benefits of well-being, feeling closer to God) to measurable efforts serving those outside of the church.

The charitable activities that presently qualify churches for Canadian tax exemptions include the “relief of poverty, advancement of education, advancement of religion, [and] certain other purposes that benefit the community in a way that courts have said is charitable.” 18 Since the existing charitable status of churches faces significant public opposition, 19 it is becoming increasingly popular for churches to highlight the public good they are doing. With that concern, the Cardus think tank reported that in 2020 the “economic value of religion [religious groups and religious non-profit organizations] to Canadian society” was “more than $67 billion annually.” 20 In reference to religious congregations specifically, a $45.24 billion annual value was tallied for Canadian society. 21

While one should certainly support and celebrate all the social good that churches do directly or indirectly through para-church groups, it is not clear that these social benefits provide an adequate reason to justify the church’s existence. If the church exists primarily for the social good of their local communities, maintaining buildings and current church staff would not be the most efficient means to accomplish these ends. Other p. 131 institutions are probably better equipped to accomplish such tasks. While such actions are found in the New Testament church, they are in the context of a much larger and more significant mission and thus are not at the heart of the church’s purpose.

WHY CHURCH? OPTION 4: THE CHURCH EVANGELIZES NON-CHRISTIANS

The purpose of church as evangelist was stated most starkly by Pope Paul VI in 1975:

We wish to confirm once more that the task of evangelizing all people constitutes the essential mission of the Church. . . . Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize. 22

While the pope may have had more in mind than simply personal evangelism and conversions, evangelism is commonly understood as what the Great Commission is essentially about (Matt 28:18-20; cf. Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21; Acts 1:4-8).

The Great Commission does indeed say “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19 NIV, passim), and other texts confirm this instruction: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). There is no doubt that evangelism has a goal of making new disciples, and this is an essential component of the ministry and purpose of the church—but is this an adequate answer to our question “Why church?”

There are at least three significant concerns about making the evangelizing of non-Christians the central mission of the church and the primary reason for its existence. The first is that making this the central mission fails to take into account what the New Testament letters themselves demonstrate about priorities in the early church. The New Testament writers spent the vast majority of their time showing deep concern for the relationships that those in the local church should have with each other (e.g., Eph 4:2-3; Phil 1:9-11; Heb 10:24-25; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:7), for the growth in character of each person in the church (Rom 5:3-4; 12:2; Eph 4:13), for the church’s theological convictions (1 Cor 15; Col 1:9-12), and for the ethical behaviors that are part of walking in the way of Jesus (1 Cor 7; 1 Tim 3:14-15). The New Testament letters to the churches show quite limited emphasis and instruction about evangelism, which one would expect if the writers considered evangelism to be the primary purpose for these churches’ existence.

Second, it is simplistic to conclude that the Great Commission (Matt 28:18-20) is only concerned with the evangelizing of non-Christians. p. 132 Consider all the important elements listed there: making disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to obey Jesus’ words, and remembering that Jesus is always present. Evangelism is thus only the beginning of the discipleship process. In fact, Christopher J. H. Wright concludes that the “whole Bible is implied in the Great Commission,” which he proposes means that the church needs to be about three things: (1) building the church through evangelism and teaching; (2) serving society through compassion and justice; and (3) caring for God’s good creation. 23

Third, if the evangelizing of non-Christians is the central mission of the church, then according to present research the church is neither well-prepared nor showing much success in this mission. Recent studies show that seventy-two percent of evangelical-identified Christians in the U.S. made a decision to become a Christian before age eighteen and eighty-eight percent before the age of thirty. 24 Church conversion growth for adults over the age of thirty is far from the norm. While we could respond to this information by exerting greater effort or implementing a new program, it might be that the evangelism of non-Christians should be seen more as the hoped-for by-product of a much larger church mission rather than its primary and solitary focus. 25

Based on what we know of the early church, a closer examination of the Great Commission, and the current growth rate of the church, we have good reasons to reconsider whether evangelism can be the church’s primary reason to exist.

WHY CHURCH? OPTION 5: THE CHURCH IS CENTRAL IN GOD’S GREAT KINGDOM STORY

While the church does and can do many useful things (see Options 1 to 4), none of those considered above seem central to how the biblical writers understood the mission and purpose of the church. The only adequate response to the question “Why church?” is that the church, as the very “body of Christ” on earth, is central to God’s great kingdom story of both cosmic (cf. Col 1:20; 2:15; Eph 1:10) and personal salvation (2 Cor 5:11-19). It is this story that provides the church with its mission and meaning. It is this story that provides us with the best and most complete answer to the question “Why church?”

God’s kingdom story begins in Genesis 1 and finds its eternal fulfillment in the events described in Revelation 22. 26 Genesis 1 and 2 provide a microcosm of God’s kingdom, showing reasons for God creating the world. Human image bearers of God’s character and purpose were designed to live together

  • in a relationship of worship, fellowship, and service with God;

  • in a harmonious community with each other; p. 133

  • in a relationship of stewardship and blessing with the creation; and

  • in positive relationships with their own selves.

This vision of God’s kingdom purpose was to expand over all creation as God’s first subregents began the process of filling the earth and ruling in ways that reflected the character and purposes of God (cf. Gen 1:28). However, the human refusal to live into this calling detoured humans from their divine kingdom vocation and elevated an alternative kingdom of death, disunity, sin, and violence.

But after God intervened repeatedly to preserve and protect the world from its very worst, and God preserved his people by walking through all the ups and downs of Israel’s story, God sent Jesus who announced the gospel of the kingdom (Matt 4:23; 24:14). God was and is restoring all his intentions for creation by means of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and in an ongoing way through the body of Christ today. God’s kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10) involves both the disarming of the unworthy rival kingdom and the healing of all the death, disunity, sin, and violence characteristic of that kingdom. With Jesus’ defeat of the rival kingdom, there is healing available both for creation and for people’s relationships with God, with each other, with creation, and with their own selves.

God’s kingdom is here because of Jesus: Jesus is now fully King Jesus, who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt 28:18). The powers of Satan, sin, and death have been ultimately defeated (cf. Luke 10:18; John 12:31; Rom 16:20; Heb 2:14-15; Rev 12:10), and the new age has broken into the present age. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever” (Rev 11:15). In the new age, God “bring[s] unity to all things in heaven and earth under Christ” (Eph 1:9-10). The kingdom brings together what sin divides.

God’s kingdom story moves forward on multiple levels—both cosmic and personal, both eternal and temporal. This is the true story of the whole universe and therefore the story itself is fundamentally the gospel. As Christopher Wright has put it,

[The gospel] is nothing less than the cosmic story of God’s redemptive purpose for his whole creation, promised in the Old Testament, accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, embodied in the good news of the kingdom of God in the lordship of Christ, and to be consummated at his return in glory. In evangelism we tell this story. And from this story, and this story alone, all our mission flows. 27 p. 134

The gospel is a redemption story, but not one limited only to human redemption, as important as that is. Instead, it tells the redemption of all creation—the restoration of all things at the final return of Jesus—the fulfillment of God’s purposes for the creation for all eternity. It is only by looking up to see God’s great cosmic mission that we can understand the church’s mission. It is only by seeing how God’s great mission to save and redeem humans fits into God’s cosmic mission that the church can embrace both dimensions of God’s kingdom mission.

Ever since the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the church—because of its official status as the “body of Christ” (Rom 7:4; 1 Cor 10:16; 12:27)—has been elevated to center stage in God’s kingdom story, pushing back against everything that is contrary to God’s kingdom purposes in the world. The opposition can be symbolized by the “gates of Hades” (Matt 16:18), where the alternative kingdom of Satan, sin, and death is headquartered.

The church is at the center because of Jesus’ presence through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 6:16-18; Eph 2:22). The Spirit brings transforming kingdom fruit (Gal 5:22-26) and transforming kingdom gifts (Rom 12:3-8; 1 Cor 12:8-10; Eph 4:7-13). The church gathered is the only community of people on earth called to worship the King, declare the praises of Jesus, embody the life-giving character and purposes of the kingdom, and proclaim a universal invitation to all human beings. The good news is that they can be part of the kingdom because of what Jesus has done in his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

THE CHURCH TESTIFIES TO AND EMBODIES GOD’S KINGDOM STORY

So why, we may wonder, is the church so important as to take center stage in God’s kingdom story? First of all, the church is called to be the “pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15) that testifies to God’s kingdom story. The church testifies that King Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth—and has overcome all other kings and kingdoms. King Jesus has defeated and gained final victory over sin, death, and Satan, and this full defeat is portrayed all through the book of Revelation. While these spiritual forces continue to show themselves in our world, we testify that we will not bow down to them, but only to the earth’s true King who reigns over all. The church testifies to the kingdom as it sings the story, preaches and teaches the story, prays, shares communion, and baptizes new believers, and in so doing “implant[s] that story in our bones.” 28 This kingdom story is our story and the true story of the whole world. This gospel story challenges all other stories that propagate false narratives p. 135 about God, the world, and the future. The church is the verbal proclaimer of God’s great kingdom story.

The church also embodies (or instantiates) God’s kingdom and gives off the clearest evidence of God’s kingdom being present on earth. The church is the embodied proclaimer of God’s great kingdom story, living out the ethics and values of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). Peter reminds the church of its role at center stage: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Pet 2:9).

In its corporate life, the individuals in the church, “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5). These “spiritual sacrifices” involve the “sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name” (Heb 13:15), and what could be called the sacrifice of good works: “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb 13:16). The church also witnesses to what could be called the sacrifice of living out an alternative moral universe: “I urge you . . . to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world” (Rom 12:1-2a). One could also add the sacrifice of suffering (cf. Rev 11:1-14), what N. T. Wright has called the “martyr witness of the church,” 29 where the church stands firm and uncompromising against persecution and attack.

It might seem that the church as it exists in its local manifestations, and with its mixture of goodness, badness, and ugliness, cannot be worthy of this high calling. But Carmen Imes reminds us that we should not judge the church by outward appearance:

On the outside, the church may not seem like much. It may seem weak. But the church is a visible witness to the unseen reality of God’s kingdom. Being present each week testifies to this. It acknowledges that God’s invisible kingdom is more substantial and more lasting than the other concrete institutions in my community. It will outlast the postal service, local businesses, schools, and politicians and their offices. It will outlast the pandemic and the hurricanes and the wildfires and the ugly inequalities in our world. My participation ensures this. It testifies to that greater and lasting kingdom. 30

The church’s role as a “visible witness to the unseen reality of God’s kingdom,” both in its verbal and embodied proclamation, is the first component of the church’s mission and reason for existence. p. 136

THE CHURCH ACTIVELY PARTICIPATES IN GOD’S MISSION OF COSMIC AND PERSONAL SALVATION

The church also participates directly in God’s kingdom mission. All that the church is and does involves the church participating in the cosmic clash of kingdoms, putting on the “full armor of God” and standing firm “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:11-12). The church is called to “demolish strongholds” and help “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:4-5). The church participates in God’s mission of cosmic and personal salvation simply through its verbal and embodied testimony noted above. Corporate times of Scripture reading, prayer, singing, confession, teaching, communion, baptism, and so on, are part of God’s cosmic work of the demolition of strongholds and the dethroning of false gods and false narratives.

Another dimension of this participation is through the church’s embrace of both the Great Commission (Matt 28:16-20) and the Great Commandment (Matt 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). These two large biblical texts should never be separated, nor one allowed to drown out the other. 31 The church is called to love God and neighbor (Great Commandment), and to live into the fullness of the Great Commission by participating in God’s reconciliation work. This work of loving God, loving neighbor, and the making and teaching of disciples is what the blessed work of peacemaking (or better yet shalom-making; Matt 5:9; cf. James 3:18) is all about. God’s eternal kingdom life in the new heaven and new earth, which through Jesus begins now, is characterized most fully by a restored relationship to God, others, creation, and one’s own self.

There should be no mistaking that the church in its corporate life proclaims and lives out reconciliation with God in Jesus as it worships and lifts up the name of Jesus, declares its affection and allegiance to Jesus, and orders its life in accordance with the kingdom character, priorities, and mission of Jesus. All peacemaking begins with the ministry of reconciliation to God (2 Cor 5:18-20), inviting people from every tribe, tongue, and nation to forgiveness and reconciliation with God. This is loving God work. This is loving one’s neighbor work. This is making disciples work. This is kingdom work.

Peacemaking continues with the ministry of reconciliation directed toward people and each other. Living into interpersonal reconciliation is all about embracing the character of Jesus that we see listed in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). The New Testament does not assume that humans without Jesus and the Holy Spirit can or ever will live in shalom and reconciliation simply because they are told to be nice to each other—or given an instruction manual about conflict resolution practices. Paul says that p. 137 human reconciliation between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female—and by extension rich and poor, educated and less educated—is only possible when people have been “baptized into one body” “in the one Spirit” (1 Cor 12:12-13) and are “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:27-28), bowing in front of Jesus in worship, participating in the church community, and praying for the same Spirit to fill them. The church community is to live out this radical interpersonal restoration inside the community, and as much as possible, outside the community: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom 12:18).

There is no ultimate reconciliation with others unless both groups bow together in front of King Jesus. Therefore, human interpersonal reconciliation is ultimately best achieved by inviting people to forgiveness and healing through King Jesus. This is how dividing lines are fully and finally broken down. The new people of God—the church—is where these dividing lines are to be most evidently broken down. All interpersonal peacemaking efforts should be connected also with spiritual peacemaking efforts. As Scot McKnight has argued,

Anyone who calls what they are doing “kingdom work” but who does not present Jesus to others to surrender themselves to King Jesus as Lord and Savior is simply not doing kingdom mission or kingdom work. They are probably doing good work and doing social justice, but until Jesus is made known, it is not kingdom mission. 32

The New Testament does not envision interpersonal peacemaking and the presence of robust shalom without a universal invitation to God through Jesus.

However, because of our love and compassion for all our neighbors around the world, we still desire to minimize interpersonal conflict and violence by praying for God’s active intervention, standing against injustice, promoting resource sharing and hospitality between people groups, and encouraging all positive movements toward healthy living and physical and economic well-being. While all of this work is a bit like harm-reduction—since it does not involve the fullness of people being reconciled with God and freed from the grasp of powers of death and darkness—we still celebrate each positive step. However, robust and long-lasting interpersonal shalom is based on this personal transformation.

Peacemaking also involves reconciliation with creation. While the physical creation is not a personal power or something to be worshiped, it is a created entity declared “good” in Genesis 1 (and even “very good” in verse 31) and entrusted to humans to steward well as image-bearers representing God in the world. We care about the physical creation in p. 138 part because God created it, declared it good, and gave us responsibility to serve and protect it (Gen 2:15). We care about the physical creation because it is our home and, until Jesus returns, the home of our children and their children—our local and global neighbors and their children. If we love our families and our neighbors, we will do what we can to guard and protect creation because it deeply impacts these others as well.

We also care about the physical creation because it appears also to be the future location of God’s eternal kingdom. 33 The kingdom is a physical place, presently covering the whole earth even though there still exists human rebellion and an unwillingness to bow down. At the return of Jesus, God’s kingdom will have no opposition and will be fully evident to all in the restored, imperishable, yet physical new heavens and new earth.

Finally our last peacemaking priority involves reconciliation with our own selves, our own physical bodies, our own hearts, minds, and souls. Ultimately God’s cosmic and personal mission is to heal us (our bodies, minds, hearts, and souls) from all the pain, dysfunction, addiction, depression, self-harm, and so on that comes from brokenness within our own selves. The church in its life and witness to God’s kingdom of healing and reconciliation participates in this healing as well. This is also part of the battle between God’s kingdom and the kingdom of Satan, sin, and death.

CONCLUSION

I am convinced that the question “Why church?” is not answered adequately by the personal benefits of belonging to a loving community, or even by helping people feel closer to Jesus. It is not answered adequately by the social benefits the church provides in society or even by its important role in evangelism. I believe the “Why church?” question can only be answered adequately when we turn our eyes to the biblical story of God’s great kingdom coming to earth as it is in heaven and God’s great mission of cosmic and personal salvation.

The church is the very body of Christ left on earth to provide verbal and embodied testimony to the veracity of God’s great kingdom story in Jesus, and to live out God’s kingdom priorities in ways that further the cosmic and personal salvation dimensions of God’s mission. This big God story is the only worthy answer to our meaning crisis—and the story that provides hope, wisdom, and direction to all our personal micro-stories. I would hope that by grasping the church’s role in God’s big story, and by God’s Holy Spirit transforming hearts, we might see a “great rechurching” where young and old, from every tribe and nation, would come and be part of this family, joining together in God’s work of pushing back the gates of Hades. p. 139

NOTES

  1. For a more recent picture of some of the good, bad, and ugly in churches, see Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer, A Church Called Tov (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2020).
  2. J. B. Toews, A Pilgrimage of Faith: The Mennonite Brethren Church in Russia and North America, 1860–1990 (Winnipeg, MB: Kindred, 1993), 1.
  3. Jim Davis and Michael Graham, The Great Dechurching (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023), 3.
  4. Davis and Graham, xxiii.
  5. Thom Rainer, “Why People Leave and How to Help them Return to the Church,” ChurchLeaders, 23 February 2023, https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/138855-coming-home-why-people-leave-the-church-and-how-to-bring-them-back.html.
  6. Rick Hiemstra, “Not Christian Anymore,” Faith Today, January–February 2020, 30.
  7. Hiemstra, 29.
  8. Hiemstra, 29.
  9. Hiemstra, 30.
  10. Marino A. Bruce, et al., “Church Attendance, Allostatic Load and Mortality in Middle Aged Adults,” Plos One, 16 May 2017, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0177618.
  11. T. M. Luhrmann, “The Benefits of Church,” The New York Times, 20 April 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/luhrmann-why-going-to-church-is-good-for-you.html.
  12. The State of Your Church: Measuring What Matters in Ministry (Ventura, CA: Barna, 2022).
  13. In terms of being high on the faith flourishing scale, Self-Identified Christians (SIC) were at 35% with Church Attending Christians (CAC) at 59%. The relational flourishing scale (28% SIC; 52% CAC), vocational flourishing scale (29% SIC; 41% CAC) and the financial flourishing scale (23% SIC; 29% CAC) all show similar benefits for church attendance (State of Your Church, 41, 45, 49, 52).
  14. Tyler Vanderweele, “The Ultimate Aim: Eternal Flourishing,” State of Your Church, 57.
  15. “Why Americans Go (and Don’t Go) to Religious Services,” Pew Research Center, 1 August 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/08/01/why-americans-go-to-religious-services/.
  16. Spiritual experiences of either “a ‘divine encounter’ with God” or a “transcendent feeling of union with the universe” are not specific to Christians. See Lynda Flower, “Spiritual Experiences: Understanding Their Subjective Nature in Peak Performance,” The Sport Journal 19, 4 May 2017, https://thesportjournal.org/article/spiritual-experiences-understanding-their-subjective-nature-in-peak-performance/.
  17. “Bono’s American Prayer,” Christianity Today, 1 March 2003, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/marchweb-only/2.38.html. p. 140
  18. The Government of Canada Revenue Agency, https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/charities-giving/charities/registering-charitable-qualified-donee-status/apply-become-registered-charity/establishing/what-charitable.html.
  19. An example of this is Petition e-443 presented in 2019, https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-443.
  20. Brian Grim and Melissa Grim, “The Hidden Economy: How Faith Helps Fuel Canada’s GDP,” Cardus Research Report, 21 September 2020, https://www.cardus.ca/research/spirited-citizenship/reports/the-hidden-economy-how-faith-helps-fuel-canadas-gdp/.
  21. Grim and Grim.
  22. Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi: On Evangelization in the Modern World (Catholic Truth Society, 1996), 36.
  23. Christopher J. H. Wright, The Great Story and the Great Commission: Participating in the Biblical Drama of Mission (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023), 61, 72–73.
  24. “The Spiritual Journey: How Evangelicals Come to Faith” (Greymatter Research Consulting, 2024), 6, https://www.infinityconcepts.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/The-Spiritual-Journey-Downloadable.pdf.
  25. This is similar to how businesses are most commonly told not to elevate the making of money to their primary purpose: “What drives the most successful start-ups isn’t the money, it’s the mission. The founders who go on to create the greatest value for themselves and their investors are those with a vision of changing the world in some way” (Kevin Laws, “Successful Startups Don’t Make Money Their Primary Mission” [Harvard Business Review, 10 July 2015]), https://hbr.org/2015/07/successful-startups-dont-make-money-their-primary-mission.
  26. For more on this, see Ken Esau, “The Gospel and the Kingdom,” Direction 48 (Spring 2019): 4–12; and Ken Esau, “Hearing and Living the Shalom Kingdom Melody: A Mennonite Brethren Discipleship Hermeneutic,” Direction 50 (Spring 2021): 71–84.
  27. C. J. H. Wright, 80–81.
  28. See James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2016), 85.
  29. N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2011), 100 (emph. original).
  30. Carmen Imes, “Church after COVID—Why Bother Going Back?” Jesus Creed, 28 Sept 28 2020, https://www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight/2020/september/church-after-covid-why-bother-going-back.html.
  31. The MB Confession of Faith in Article 7: Mission of the Church begins with the heading “The Great Commission and the Great Commandment” signaling the interconnectedness of these two foundational texts.
  32. Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos, 2014), 142.
  33. While it may be that the “new heaven” and “new earth” (Rev 21:1) will be entirely new and disconnected from the present creation, it is more likely that the fire mentioned in 2 Peter 3:7-12 will be a purifying fire rather than a destroying fire. If the present creation were destined for total destruction, it seems unlikely that it would be “groaning” for redemption (cf. Rom 8:22).
Ken Esau (MDiv, ThM) is a faculty emeritus from Columbia Bible College and is presently the National Faith and Life Director for the Canadian Conference of MB Churches. This essay is based on the presentation of the same name at Equip 2023 in Abbotsford, BC.

Previous | Next