Title: The Decline in Church Attendance as Protestant Denominations Divide
Specific purpose: to tackle the schism in major Protestant denominations
Scriptures: Galatians 3:28, Romans 1:26-28, Acts 26:17-18, Matthew 5:18
Through the Twentieth Century, church membership in America stayed at roughly 70% of adults. In the last two-and-a-half decades, church membership has declined from 69% down to 48% today. This schism, this people leaving Protestant denominations, is because some churches members question the values deemed acceptable by their churches. Three of the most contentious questions causing the schism are: LGTQ - are these lifestyles right or wrong; parental control - parents should have a say in what schools teach versus educators making all of the decisions; and the right to life - pro-choice versus anti-abortion. Rather than settle these disagreements the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran denominations have chosen to divide their churches. Many are the laity and pastors that ask, “What to do?”
Five hundred years ago, one Reformation leader, Martin Luther, said of a comparable problem, “The sin underneath all our sins is to trust the lie of the serpent that we cannot trust the love and grace of Christ and must take matters into our own hands.” Luther was writing about the Roman Catholic Church losing its way. Do we Protestants have a similar problem today? Is the schism because some Protestants have trusted in “the lie of the serpent” and taken “matters into our own hands”? Is the schism about what the scriptures say versus what some want them to say? To answer these questions, I looked at the denomination with which I have spent my eight decades, the United Methodist Church.
In 1786, John Wesley, the foremost leader in the Methodist movement, said, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. However, I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both [to] the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” In my opinion, John Wesley’s fear is now real; we have abandoned “the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.” We are guilty of defection, apostasy.
John and Charles Wesley, both clergy in the Church of England, started a movement within that church based on the idea that being a real Christian rather than a nominal Christian required more than attending church on Sunday. Real Christianity required “simple living, ministering to the poor, the infirmed and the incarcerated.”
My family has been Methodist since the 1790’s; I expect I heard more Methodism around our dinner table than some pastors heard in seminar. After much thought, it pains me greatly to accept that my beloved United Methodist Church has moved far away from the Methodist movement started by the Wesley brothers and their Holy Club. John Wesley's Stance: Scripture is the primary source and standard for Christian doctrine. Wesley said, “If you need no book but the Bible, you are got above St. Paul.” We have gotten above St. Paul. I am now going to address briefly some of the questions leading to this schism.
There are several articles posted online by some in the United Methodist Church saying that Galatians 3:28 makes LGBTQ lifestyles okay. My findings: In that scripture Paul writes, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Scholars dispute to what extent the verse actually means to negate all differences between Jews and Greeks, women and men, and so forth. However, there is near unanimous agreement that this scripture certainly means that all people have the opportunity to become Christians. Does Galatians 3:28 also make LGBTQ okay?
Some pertinent illustrations counter this absurdity: A man engaged in adulterer confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, if you enjoy an occasional fling, keep on committing adultery? A gossiper confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, you do not have to give up your gossiping, after all, it is certainly entertaining. A person practices one of the LGBTQ lifestyles confesses Christ and joins a church. Is the church to say, continue in that lifestyle?
Many respond to this last illustration saying, “You do not understand, sex is a complicated issue.” God knows that it is complicated; He invented it. Many of us are born with some inherent lust. For a parallel example, my youngest brother was an alcoholic. He inherited that trait from my father’s side of our family. Does that inherited trait make alcoholism all right?
Look at what the scriptures say about LGBTQ for yourself. Here is one example: Drag queens, Deuteronomy 22:5, “A woman shall not wear a man’s apparel, nor shall a man put on a woman’s garment, for whoever does such things is abhorrent to the LORD your God.” Look the following up: Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:1, Romans 1:26-27, I Corinthians 6:18-19, I Corinthians 7:2, I Timothy 8:9-11 and Jude 1:7-8. Thomas a’ Kempis summed up our current dilemma 600 years ago, “Many people, although they often hear the Gospel, feel little desire to follow it, because they lack the spirit of Christ.”
I Corinthians 6:9-12 addresses the seriousness of not regarding these texts: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” The Bible is clear, Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’”
I am not citing LGBTQ activities because they are different from other sins, no worse no better, but because these are trendy in our time. Do not feel high and mighty because you do not committee these particular sins. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Paul makes this statement knowing that Jesus gave every sinner a goal, “Go and sin no more”. After we have accepted Christ, Baptized into the faith, one of our goals is to stop sinning. We, sinner all, are to do our best to grow in sanctification. Acts 26:17-18 records what Christ told Paul, “I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” God calls us to reach for sanctification and open the eyes of others that they may turn from darkness to light.
Another issue today is parental control. Parents, Deuteronomy 6:6-7, “Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.” A Christian’s duty and undivided allegiance belong to God. Teaching our children to have a clear knowledge of the teachings and the duties of faith are the highest calling of parents and family. Nevertheless, does that mean we should teach faith in schools? I must digress a bit for a little history is in order.
I go back to the Cincinnati “Bible Wars” of 1869-73. Cincinnati was a boomtown drawing immigrants comprised of Irish Catholics, German Lutherans, and Freethinkers, as well as large Jewish congregations. The problem was whose Bible to use in schools? The Ohio Supreme Court settled the issue: remove Bible readings from school. A verbal war broke out. Some politicians proposed amending the U.S. Constitution recognizing the sovereignty of God. Others said, No! The opposition wanted an amendment guaranteeing religious freedom. Neither of these proposals got far.
In 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided prayer in schools violated the First Amendment; it constituted the establishment of religion. An immediate and intense argument arose. Billy Graham, Cardinal Francis Spellman and liberal Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike decried the decision. The National Association of Evangelicals applauded the Court for separating the state from the church. Citing the secularization of religion, Christianity Today supported the Court’s decision.
That issue is now settled law; yet there currently remains at least a threefold problem: If a book has any reference to faith or the Bible, must the school system remove it from its libraries? That would exclude works of William Shakespeare, of C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra and of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Those kinds of books and our Bible have had enormous effects on American history and culture. Virginia’s laws permit the teaching of these kinds of books as an important part of history as long as there is no proselytizing, but few schools chose to do so.
There is the issue of age appropriateness of this or that book for this or that grade level. D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, at what age is that appropriate. The third issue has to do contemporary issues. Some schools have pulled Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because it mentions slavery. Others realize that Mark Twain’s intention was to expose the horrors of slavery. These kinds of issues have come to the surface in our post-Covid era and have caused some parent to put their children in private school or home school. Further, other parents, now questioning the worth of an education, have ignored their children’s truancy.
The answers to these last issues are cultural and local so I certainly do not have a solution. Bible teaching is the responsibility of parents and pastors. The reward, Hebrews 12:11, “Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
The final question for today is the most divisive; it is an ancient issue, the right to life. The City State of Sparta practiced infanticide of newborns deemed unfit for Spartan life. There is considerable evidence that other Greek regions also killed unwanted children. A study published in Archaeology, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, reports that archaeologist found the remains of more than 400 infants in an abandoned ancient well in Athens in 2018. Further, when Rome ruled the world, its laws permitted killing unwanted children. The Roman historian Tacitus deemed it a contemptible prejudice of the Jews, that “it is a crime among them to kill a child!” On the other hand, the Jews viewed babies as “the Messiahs of humankind.”
Indeed, the scriptures give unborn children and their mothers’ legal protection against any violence. Exodus 21:22-24, “When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, [damage for damage].” This passage says that if someone causes a woman to miscarry, but the baby is born without damage, then the family has the right to compensation: do not harm expectant women. However, if anyone causes a woman to miscarry and that action hurts or kills the baby, the punishment’s severity is equal to the damage done but not in excess. The punishment, imposed by a judge, was usually a financial consideration but it could be death. People that perform abortions are causing the unborn child not only harm but also death. Is that the way to treat “the Messiahs of humankind”? The Bible permits abortion only when the child inside the mother puts her life in danger. Even then, a mother has a difficult decision: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down their life for another.”
We must live in the world but not be a part of the world. How do we handle our differences between worldly values and Christian ideals? It somewhat reminds me of Matthew 22:17-21, “’Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’ But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, ‘Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this and whose title?’ They answered, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.’” The world flaunts its values influencing many particularly the young, weak and vulnerable. Yet, we Christians must respect man’s laws while witnessing with Christian love in both word and deed to all who will listen.
Paul writes in Ephesians 4:14-15, “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” For the sake of conforming to what is in vogue in America, some Christians are abandoning God’s authority and replacing it with popularity. We must not trust this “the lie of the serpent,” this defection, for it is apostasy. The Bible is clear, God is love but He sets the terms, not us. My mother’s faith was an example of God’s love on His terms.
My youngest brother started hanging out with the wrong crowd as a teenager. His habits got more and more sinful. He hid his lifestyle until one Saturday night. Mother was heartbroken. In her very loving way, she confronted him. Not once did she think that her love of him forgave his lifestyle. She never stopped loving him and working on until the day of her passing. Years later, he confessed his sins and accepted Christ. However, his children were then living in his old lifestyle. Though saved, he lived with the same kind of pain mother had experienced for him. Yet, his pain carried with it the knowledge that he had led his children into sin. My brother remembered Mother’s love and began ministering to his children. Yet, they were still living in sin when he passed. The Bible is true: The Lord ”visits the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” Many are we that violate the laws of God only to think that it will not happen to us, but it does.
I started this sermon asking why church attendance has declined. In answering that question, I have listed some of the many scriptures whose violations have caused the schism. In my opinion, the reason for our decline is that my beloved United Methodist Church and several other Protestant denominations have folded to secular pressure rather than stand on the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” People know that secular exceptions to the Word are dishonest and want no part of “a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.” They want a religion that stands on the Word. John Wesley, "O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: here is knowledge enough for me." We must get back to boldly teaching the Word, its redemption and salvation. If you want to grow your church, get back to teaching the Word.
