Which church is dying?

“You understand that the church is dying, don’t you?” I’ve been asked this question often since I enrolled in seminary last year. The well-intentioned people who ask do so out of genuine concern. As far as they can tell, I’ve lost my capacity for sound vocational judgment. I’ve essentially boarded the Titanic, and I need urgent protection from my own naïveté.

I don’t blame them; I worry about the future, too. Will my classmates and I find sustainable jobs? Will we have to juggle multiple ministry settings to earn a living? Are bivocational pastors the only people who will survive this sea change?

The mainline Protestant church’s struggles are hardly news; the numbers have looked ominous for decades. But the level of fear, grief, and resignation I encounter these days does feel new and different. It’s one thing to grieve the closing of individual churches and quite another to pronounce the demise of the church. One thing to mourn empty pews and shuttered Sunday school classrooms and quite another to call time of death on the mystical body of Christ. Call me naive if you’d like, but I’m not quite ready to do the latter.