{"id":1185,"date":"2002-07-10T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-07-10T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/10\/the-church-going-going-gone\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T15:53:46","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:53:46","slug":"the-church-going-going-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church — going, going, gone?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

For two millennia, if you knew a church\u2019s name then you knew something about the people inside its doors.<\/p>\n\n

Church names stood for timeless saints and traditions \u2014 from the Church of the Nativity to the Church of the Resurrection. A potluck supper at St. Patrick\u2019s would be different than one at Santi Giovanni e Paolo or Our Lady of Guadalupe.<\/p>\n\n

In some flocks, a name might tell a church\u2019s location or hint at its origins. The Southern Baptist Convention\u2019s directory includes almost every name under the sun \u2014 from Enigma Baptist to Black Jack Baptist, from Hanging Dog Baptist to First Baptist of Disney (Okla.).<\/p>\n\n

But out with the old and in with the focus groups. Who needs an old church?<\/p>\n\n

\u201cFirst the vogue was for local churches to drop their denominational affiliation from their name,\u201d noted scholar Gene Edward Veith, in the evangelical magazine World. \u201cThen came the fad of dropping the word church. The Community Assembly of God Church became first \u2018Community Church\u2019 and then \u2018The Community Family Worship Center.\u2019<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNow, words that so much as connote religious activities are considered too negative for the unchurched, so we have congregations that go by names such as \u2018The Center for Family Love.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n

But the sign outside is just the beginning. Inside these doors, many church leaders are morphing into chatty spiritual guides. Hymns are out and so are sermons, litanies and scripture readings. Thousands of churches are rigging up video screens and adding drama and humor.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSome churches are doing everything they can to eliminate anything that might make them seem like churches,\u201d said Veith.<\/p>\n\n

This trend has been growing in recent decades, affecting flocks on left and right. Some people defend the church of the ages. Others yearn for the church of the future.<\/p>\n\n

Now broadcaster Harold Camping has turned up the heat by saying it\u2019s time for Christians to realize that all modern churches \u2014 liberal, conservative and everything in between \u2014 have gone apostate. Key Bible prophecies say so. The radio preacher once drew media attention by preaching that the world would end in 1994.<\/p>\n\n

Camping is using his global network to tell believers that the era of the \u201ccorporate external church\u201d is over. It\u2019s time to form \u201cfellowships\u201d \u2014 with no pastors \u2014 that exist to support mass-media evangelism.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cNo longer are you to be under the spiritual rulership of the church,\u201d he said, in a manifesto posted at www.FamilyRadio.com<\/a>. \u201cThis message should be clear. We must remove ourself from the church. \u2026 The church has ceased to be an institution or divine organism to serve God as His appointed representative on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This concept might appeal to millions of consumers. Sunday morning? Sleep in. No more boring rituals and sermons. No frustrating committee meetings. No guilt-inducing programs to help the poor.<\/p>\n\n

The big problem is that Camping doesn\u2019t sound all that radical these days.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cAmerican churches,\u201d said Veith, \u201chave been complicit in this new and heretical anti-church movement. Many have become so indifferent to theology that their version of Christianity consists of little more than, to use the words of country singer Tom T. Hall, \u2018me and Jesus.\u2019 If Christianity is about the private, inner, undefined relationship between an individual and Jesus, there is little need for God\u2019s word, the sacraments, doctrine, pastors or the church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Veith is a very traditional Lutheran, but his critique also rang true with the most influential voice in mainline Lutheranism.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe leading actors in the Fade Away Church Movement certainly must have read marketing guides,\u201d noted historian Martin Marty, in The Christian Century. \u201cThose guides must have told them that the Fade Away Church is what many want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Yet there is a sad reason that many people yearn for a perfect church, a non-offensive church or a mass-media church, he added. Many do not want to sit in real pews with real people, \u201cthose tangible, offensive, smelly things called human beings, those \u2018really real\u2019 children of God who refuse to act like \u2018virtually real\u2019 people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

But if someone does create a non-church church, Marty concluded, \u201cthere will be just one thing wrong with it: It will have nothing to do with the Christian faith. And, therefore, it is likely to sell well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For two millennia, if you knew a church\u2019s name then you knew something about the people inside its doors. Church names stood for timeless saints and traditions \u2014 from the Church of the Nativity to the Church of the Resurrection. A potluck supper at St. Patrick\u2019s would be different than one at Santi Giovanni e […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[200,341,543],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian-radio","tag-evangelicalism","tag-megachurches"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Church -- going, going, gone?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For two millennia, if you knew a church's name then you knew something about the people inside its doors.Church names stood for timeless saints and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Church -- going, going, gone?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For two millennia, if you knew a church's name then you knew something about the people inside its doors.Church names stood for timeless saints and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2002-07-10T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T20:53:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/\",\"name\":\"The Church -- going, going, gone?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2002-07-10T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T20:53:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"For two millennia, if you knew a church's name then you knew something about the people inside its doors.Church names stood for timeless saints and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/07\/the-church-going-going-gone\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Church — going, going, gone?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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