Why is the Church irrelevant as far as so many people are concerned, and what should we do about it?
A sermon preached by the Revd Dr Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shields, August 11th 2024
Genesis 28:10-17; Psalm 122; Colossians 1:15-20
Watch the service on YouTube
Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ (28:17)
I grew up within the life of the church. I was baptised as a baby, attended Sunday School, Boys’ Brigade and the church youth club, and I was in church more Sundays than not. As an adult I continued in my church involvement, attending a United Reformed Church congregation from my mid-twenties, and have not managed to escape the URC yet. I resonate with language about the church as ‘the house of God’ and ‘the gate of heaven.’
Most people do not. They do not give church much thought at all. If they did, more of them would be here today. Instead, as this week’s ‘big question’ suggests, for most people most of the time church is irrelevant. Even those for whom the church was relevant at important moments in life now increasingly look elsewhere. In more than six years as minister at this church I have not conducted a single wedding here. Since COVID the trickle of baptisms has dried up. Fewer people are wanting a religious element in their funerals, and a civil celebrant rather than a church minister is the default choice these days.
As a denomination the United Reformed Church has been affected by such trends. Compared to when we came into being in the 1970s we are now one fifth the size. Our membership numbers in North Shields are consistent with the picture for the URC at large. That said, we are not alone. Things are similar for the Methodist Church, and a substantial proportion of worshippers in Church of England congregations did not return after Covid lockdown.
Some look to churches to churches with a more Evangelical theology, or which offer what’s described as contemporary worship. They look to them with hope (or perhaps with envy), but I’m not convinced that the answers all lie here. The Baptist Union, for example, whose member congregations tend to be Evangelical, may not be a fifth the size it was in the 1970s; it is half the size it was then, which is hardly cause for celebration. Things may look better for some Pentecostal congregations in the UK, but many of these rely upon migration from overseas to make up the numbers. Other “successful” churches often rely heavily upon transfers from other churches, rather than being successful in making headway among those called “the unchurched.”
Increasing numbers of people just don’t see church as relevant. This is a long established trend. So why is that that, and what can be done about it?
Why is the church irrelevant as far as so many people are concerned? Well, because they don’t see God as relevant. Now this is just a guess, but I’m pretty confident that most people today do not dream about God. Jacob dreamed of God. He put his head down on his stone pillow, drifted off to the land of nod (an expression that comes from the Book of Genesis by the way), and soon he was dreaming of a ladder connecting earth and heaven, with angels going up and down upon it.
Then there was God beside him, promising him a place, a future, and continued support: ‘the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.’ (28:13, 14)
It’s no wonder that Jacob was awestruck: ‘Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ (28:16-17)
Jacob was not a particularly virtuous man – quite the opposite on occasions, but he was part of a society where people in general had a lively awareness of the divine. Our society, for a variety of reasons, including possession of technology that makes us complacent in the face of life’s dangers, is different. People sometimes say to me that fewer people come to church these days because they have a wider choice of alternative activities then used to be the case. True enough, but that doesn’t address the questions as to why when given such choice, so few people choose church.
So, lots of people see church as irrelevant because they feel God is irrelevant to their lives, but’s there’s another twist to that tale – many also think that the Church thinks God is irrelevant. Although many people may not know, or only be vaguely aware of the Christian story, this does not mean that spiritual, yearnings, desires and questions have gone away. There is still a significant proportion of people who are interested in spiritual matters, but they would not dream of going to a church in order to explore that. They think Church is about other, less interesting things; like just keeping the show on the road for the benefit of current members. I leave it to you to decide to what extent that’s accurate picture of churches, or not.
So since we do live in times where it’s become the norm to see the Church – and God! – as irrelevant, and if churches are perceived as unhelpful to those who are interested in spiritual matters, what can we do about it? I would like to suggest two things we can do.
The first is that rather than worrying about those who find any God-related things irrelevant we should concentrate on seeking out those who are interested in spiritual matters. When I read Genesis 28:10-17 in preparation for writing this sermon I noticed something that had never struck me before. When Jacob responds to his divine dream he does so by saying, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ (28:17)
That’s a much used verse in a Bible verse. It appears frequently at church anniversary services, or in services celebrating the opening or refurbishment of church buildings: this is none other than the house of God. In Genesis, though, there is no building in view. The ‘house of God’ is located in a then unnamed place in the middle of somewhere in the great outdoors. God’s house is as much out there as it is in here in this church building in a Sunday morning service.
That’s not to say that this building, our worship services, and other activities are worthless. Far from it! It’s suggesting that if church is to be more relevant, then we need to take more seriously the reality that God is as much present in other settings, situations, and individual lives as God is in ours. It further suggests that those of our current church activities that most effectively engage with people who are on the edge of our circle need to be affirmed, encouraged and strengthened.
Then – and here’s my second thought about what we can do – as well as seeking out those who might be interested in spiritual things, when as a church we do meet up with them we have to have something spiritual to share with or offer to them. Now that’s a scary thought … though it needn’t be that scary.
It’s a reminder concerning the identity of the Church; a reminder about what Church is about. Many years ago, writing to Christians in the town of Colossae, located in modern day Türkiye, Saint Paul focused on the importance of Jesus Christ. Christ, he said, is ‘the image of the invisible God.’ (1:15) ‘In him all things in heaven and earth … are held together.’ (1:16, 17) I suppose Jacob (if he had still been alive when Paul wrote his letter) might have said that Christ is present in all of heaven and earth, and together they comprise “God’s house”, not only designated places of worship.
And Paul then goes on to make a vital point: ‘he [Christ] is the head of the body, the church.’ (1:18) Jesus Christ is the head of the church, not simply in the sense of being the leader, its boss, but in the way that a head relates to a body. If you lose your head from your body you’re dead. When you lose your head you lose your identity as a living being. So an entity trying to be a church without having Jesus as its head – as its driving, directing force, and that which provides its visible identity – is not a church. It may give the impression of being a church, undertaking any number of activities, but it’s not a living church, it’s a headless, zombie version of one.
That’s not to say that every activity a congregation undertakes is supposed to be some sort of crude evangelistic crusade. I wouldn’t want to be part of a church like that. There is a challenge to us, though, to identify why we do the things we do, and ensure that what we offer is grounded in or inspired by our experience of God, revealed to us through the love of Jesus Christ.
So, for this church to be relevant we need to recognise that “out there” is as much God’s house as is this church building and its fellowship. In our society most people are unlikely to be interested in church for they have little interest in God. Yet a substantial, significant number of people are interested in spiritual matters. For people such as these a place and people of spirituality (of faith) could be a relevant resource for good in their lives.
So let’s make an effort to offer something relevant to them because we ourselves do have a spiritual identity, a living identity; we are a living body with Jesus Christ as our head; and we need to demonstrate through the things we say and do; to be both a house of God and a gate of heaven.