A Theoloy for Decline

Today there are churches all over the urban areas of the United Kingdom, Ireland and the rest of Europe that are experiencing decline. How are we supposed to work and minister in that situation? Do we cut our losses and go to the middle class places? Do we regard this decline as a challenge too great for us to respond to: have we waited too long to respond? Should we have taken affirmative action ten years ago? Or do we view it as a positive because God is telling us something? Is it possible that the model so beloved for so long is no longer working? Is it possible that the"in your face", aggressive model no longer works?

What does Jeremiah mean when God tells his people that working for the welfare of the city will result in the benefit of his people also? In he eyes of the whole world God promises a better future but this fro the mouth of a man who is a patent failure-for over twenty years he has preached with no result. This is very difficult for a Christian community which has bought into the success model: we have all been brought up to believe that the gospel will also bring about positive results. We forget that God has imbibed us with the freedom to make up our own minds. Love means the possibility that those we love will not do or say what we want them to. When God made Adam he did so with the possibility that he would reject God's way and that is exactly what happened. We also neglect to consider the struggle with the powers and principalities of evil in the heavenly realms. How are we to respond to them? Will our efforts in prayer be enough? Is prayer guaranteed to make a difference?

Will the prayer of millions of believers make the difference as they pray 24/7? Answers welcome. Many of our churches are in numerical decline but we are not going to runaway with our tails between our legs but do you think we have the bottle to change with the times? The message of the gospel has not changed but the world has changed and we are still working with an outdated model which assumes that people will come to church because that is what everyone really wants. In our area that is certainly not true and we have not helped in the way we have refused to incarnate the word in the local community. We need to know that while the Institution of the church is in decline the followers of Jesus Christ are on the increase.