Too many churches?

It seems like every month, sometimes twice a month, I hear about a new church starting up in town. In fact, I read about a new one this last week in the paper and drove past a new one last week that I didn't realize had started up in a familiar location.

One thing that's always gotten my goat is when a new church starts up I tend to hear the same complaint: "There's too many churches!"

First of all, how could there ever be too many churches? Especially if we truly believe that 'where two or more are gathered' thing that Jesus said. I mean that sort of opens the door pretty wide in my estimation. Probably several dozen 'churches' happening in Walmart and Panera bread right now. Even if your interpretation of scripture doesn't let you get that lax, then still, how could their ever be too many churches ... or church buildings?

I've been researching the topic of church buildings lately. There have been several close their doors in Oak Ridge over the last four or five years. The word I get from many around town is that another half dozen churches are a handful of funerals away from shutting their doors too. The next 25 years will be interesting to say the least. We could end up with a metric ton of what I call, "Religious Brown Fields," or churches that for lack of a better term have "closed up shop."

There's not too much 'natural' about this progression. Natural progression would be our older churches growing and planting new churches, but this isn't happening so much -- at least not here. Maybe this happens in other places, I don't know... but in Oak Ridge we've developed a new populations of religious connoisseurs. Like a fine wine taster, the connoisseur of Christianity moves from bottle to bottle in search of the 'perfect' balance of flavor and smoothness.

We have so many connoisseurs of faith that there's a new market built up around the simple concept of providing the connoisseur a 'package' that he/she can't easily walk away from. There's nothing at all wrong with 'shopping' a church for a fit. The problem stems from the 'fashion' of the fit. Yesterday's 'fashion' was a fight over 'contemporary' worship styles verses 'traditional' ones. I'm not going to get into that in this particular blog, it's been done too many times.

The main thing to say is that can't ever be too many churches... the issue is whether or not they are the home of authentic ministry. As a home to authentic ministry, they will be centered on the person of Jesus and that centering can't be packaged or peddled to a connoisseur. You either have Him at the center in a traditional church, or you do not. You have Him at the center in a contemporary church or you do not.

Unfortunately, we know something else about a Christ-centered church. They're going to be pretty rare. They'll be taking their cues from the community they serve, not from a 'what's happening now' spirituality rooted hundreds of miles away. They'll probably go easy on the billboards because their budgets are tight -- and their budgets are going to be tight because they're probably pretty busy meeting needs. They aren't likely to contain a community's "Who's Who" of important people, and their authenticity will be a bit terrifying for connoisseurs who can't bare the thought of shedding a layer of pretension while out shopping packages. They won't pour every second into getting a Sunday service "just right," because the majority of their ministry will be happening Monday through Saturday. They'll seem small and they'll seem poor, if for no other reason than having the courage to look the 99 in the eye while relentlessly pursuing the one.

Too many churches? No, never.

Too many churches decorating the sheep pen? Maybe.

I'm happy to be in a place where I can set out to pasture and search for the missing... serving a people who don't require me to stay in the sheep pen, or see my primary duty as being a shepherd who spends his days changing absorbent newspaper from beneath the woolly loins of those who have never left the trough.