WHEN CHURCHES DIVIDE
The large institutional churches are losing members by the millions.  The Roman Catholic church has so many buildings, so many priests and nuns but few Catholics come to mass.  France has 48 million people who say they are Catholic and 6 million say they practice their faith.  The Episcopal Church is losing membership rapidly, too.  In the US, the Episcopal Church enrollment numbers make it resemble a small denomination.  Membership in the Presbyterian churches is down 50% from decades past, and they are only typical.

  Can we say something about what is happening, which might lead out of this situation?

  Let's see if we can.  The large institutional churches always taught their own foundational theology.  If we can think of it as a house in a storm, with doors and windows locked so the storm cannot get in, we might understand the issue.  Members can feel secure within the walls.  The basic idea of a system of thought is that it promises, if you adhere to its' tenets--if you stay within its' walls--you will be secure. An example is, if you are good you will prosper; if you are not good you will not.  This is much of the advise Job's counselors gave him.  The foundational system promised security as they always were about the history of that denomination.

  However, if the storm outside--the culture and society--were to ever invade the house, the system then fails.  As long as the denomination taught their own religious system the people were protected, they got some relief on Sunday.  But when the denomination begins to teach what the world is saying, being inside is no different than being outside in the storm.  People don't feel any relief.  They come into the church to get away from society and culture, but if the culture invades them on Sunday, they have no refuge.

  So they no longer believe in the religious system they have been taught.  The walls come down, as they did at Jericho.  Once the people have been abandoned by the church, they scatter.

  Now if a church cannot enable members to find Jesus, the author and finisher of faith, the people are caught between a system to which they no longer cling and a savior whom they cannot find.  Nowadays so many clergy don't really believe in what their church has traditionally taught, so their ministry is the boomerang that simply flies back in their face.  They end up teaching about themselves and their own opinions.  Attendance falls, people are lost and scattered.  So the situation is like struggling on a rope bridge between two mountains--it's as shaky to go back as it is to go on.

  The system no longer protects, but they cannot find Jesus.

  Now the larger churches have become like small ones in attendance and budgets and influence.  Small groups break away,they gain members, they spread Christianity out across the country like blown leaves in autumn.

  If these smaller churches enable people to find Jesus, they will thrive without becoming large.  They won't grow because they don't do the work of evangelism.  Spreading the gospel requires being in contact and fellowship with those who differ from you, those who do not believe what you believe.  Remember when Jesus ate with sinners and immoral women and Pharisees and tax collectors?  In small churches this mingling with the world rarely happens.  The dynamic so often is, if you are not like us, you won't like us.  When the gospel says, Go out into the world, we withdraw.
 
  So it's a yo-yo dilemma.  The larger churches rise up to become meaningless, the people fall away for small and private places.

  This is painfully ironic because a few decades ago, large organizations like the Southern Presbyterian Church joined the northern Presbyterian affiliations through difficult compromise.  If they gained anything, they lost it when faithful members went off to the PCA or the OPC or the ARP.  Whatever had been gained is now lost.  If budgets and programs were combined, the presence of God was lost.  We tried to combine to be bigger only now to separate to be smaller. 

  Something like this is happening to the Episcopal Church.  The EC in America once was large and thriving; now that it is liberal and no longer Christian, Episcopalians have gone to affiliations in Africa and Asia.  The small Reformed Episcopal Church is gaining those members and priests; the Anglican Church in America is gaining members and buildings; churches that specialize in Anglo-Catholic tenets are growing.

  In the Reformation, the Church of England had Calvinism on one side and Romanism on the other.  Anglicans found their identity in the pressure from both sides resulting in a uniquely English church with an English spirituality.  But in America that situation does not exist.  The Episcopal church is now confronted by the same unbelieving generation, secular society and antagonistic government that every church in the US faces.  The pressure is not from the sides, but from the front.  The issue no longer is,Can we get along, but it is, What do we believe?  The Episcopal Church in the US will have to face unbelief, the failure of liberalism, the economy and a hostile government.  What this means is the EC will divide along the lines of doctrine rather than personality  Some churches are returning to the creeds, the Reformation confessions, the 1662 Prayer Book, the 39 Articles  and the ancient counsels.

  The issue now is, how will a church perform evangelism in the society without compromising to the views of that society?

  The way we've always done it in the past is through young families.  Bring young couples into the church so their children will be raised where the parents attend.  This doesn't always guarantee the children will follow in the parents' footsteps, but it is what most churches did.

  The way God addressed this was to raise up men and women outside the denomination who reminded us all of who Jesus is.  After World War II this was Peter Marshall, Billy Graham, Oral Roberts and Bishop Sheen. They reminded us of who Jesus is and therefore who we are.  That put the church in opposition to the world, the flesh and the devil, it purified the church.

  The bridge has to be crossed.