Darrin Patrick asks a really good question in his book with Matt Carter and Joel Lindsey, For the City:
“If our churches shut their doors tomorrow, would our cities even know we were gone?”
The truth is, though, that churches don’t tend to shut their doors “tomorrow.” Apart from some uncommon catastrophic collapse, churches don’t go from growing/thriving to dead in a day. This doesn’t nullify the question, of course. It helps apply it.
For instance, in New England, churches have been closing down “every day” for a few decades. New England evangelicalism once thrived. But that was a long time ago. The churches shutting down left and right didn’t die in a day. They gave up ground over time. They died an inch at a time, a day at a time.
So. We can’t let up on mission. We can’t lose focus on the gospel. Not for a second. Because one second leads to a minute to an hour to a day to a month to a year to a decade to “tomorrow” you’re shutting the doors. And if we do let up, we’ve got to repent and circle back.
The best way to become miss-able to our cities is be churches that keep repenting and keep returning to the gospel. Every day counts.
When the preferences of the church members are greater than their passion for the gospel, the church is dying. — Thom Rainer
