CHRISTIANS NEED SMARTER STRATEGIES TO DEFEAT ADVERSARIES WITH NATIONAL
BUDGETS AND BOLD PLANS
Smarter strategies learn from the past, use present technology, and prepare for the future. They look at problems from multiple perspectives, propose multiple answers, measure results, and adapt. The top three internal problems Western Christianity faces are poor youth training, passive Christian educational institutions, and weak congregational relationships that result in high turnover.
Restoring our youth through smarter youth strategies
Christianity has experienced an eighty percent failure ration among our youth in recent decades. This threatens a demographic crisis. Leaders first reacted to this crisis with assurance that the youth would return after they had children. This did not happen for several reasons. Pastors did not adequately train youth about the importance marriage. We failed to internally counter the efforts of homosexual and transgender movements which recruited many of our own youth. Additionally, the church did not assist young people financially to make marriage a viable option. Finally, the church failed to earn significant tust for our youth to return. Many youth graduated from youths groups to find that no churches in their area even offered young adults groups. Therefore, they left church to find new communities that would accept them.
Simultaneously, our colleges and seminaries failed to fulfill their roles as places to find Christian community or leadership development. Secular Christian Colleges like Texas Christian University collapsed ideologically. Orthodox Christian colleges - like Liberty University - lost the global vision to impact society that was charged to them in 1975 by leaders like Bill Bright, Francis Schaeffer, and Loren Cuningham. Therfore we lost ground
to competitive faiths such as Islam and Mormonism. We have also neglected to innovate in seminary. Seminaries teach theology well, but lack the options to offer MBA level skills needed by pastors.
These factors have combined to create the current youth crisis. Youth are our greatest asset. What is the point of training youth at great expense for eighteen years only to abandon them? The graduate success rate among Orthodox Jewish and Mormon communities is much higher which exposes that our problems are at least partially self induced. In addition some Christian youth groups have also experienced high rates of success.
This website will produce resources for youth development based upon the strategies of successful youth groups with high retention ratios of sevnty percent or higher. Efficient youth groups provide apologetics, polemics, teach Christian heritage, offer Christian history, and discuss current events. These topics can't be ignored as teens develop. If we delegate these topics to other ideologies, the results will continue to be catastrophic. In addition to teaching the right information, the social dynamics of youth groups has to reform as discussed in the section on relationships.
If Christianity can produce strong marriages and retain our youth, it will surpass any other evangelistic strategy. Natural reproduction is exponential if we maintain the loyalty of consecutive generations. The church should remain a haven for those who continue to choose family life. Parents can return to a place where they expect their children to continue in the faith as opposed to being surprised.
Strengthening our relationships to reduce turnover and restore multi-generational churches
Many growing contemporary churches expereince up 20% to 30% annual loss of members. A chuch of 1,000 members can create 3,000 disgruntled former members over a decade. Multiply this problem across the nation and we can see why the Contemporary church is ranked 2 /10 in caring and relationship in national polling. This is one reason why the contemporary church currently has a declining reputation. Although the church depends upon relationships for survival, group dynamics (the skills needed to operate social groups) are not even taught in seminary. Christianity needs to examine and experiment with group structures to find a new congregational structures that provide both relationships and scale. Some groups are already succeeding and they provide vital insight.
One core relational problem is that large and small groups alone lack the ability to form friendships. We need solutions such as large churches that organize relational sub-communities which function soley to promote long term friendships and support. People need communities that can help during times of crisis, provide activities during weekends, and celebrate together on holidays. In Exodus 18:21, Moses was instructed to provide leaders over groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. I believe this was not just to delegate more effectively, but involved the importance of different size groups for people. Different needs are met in each group size. At a large scale leaders cast vision, allocate resources, plan strategy, delgate tasks, and coordinate motivational gatherings. Group leaders over one hundred people can care for a community, organize events, celebrate birthday, plan holiday gatherings, and coordinate responsibilities for tasks. Group leaders on a smaller scale provide direct care, accountability, and oversee work.
During the early church and other eras of revival, relationships fueled growth. The New Testament commanded Believers to love each other. Most of their time was spent interacting. They cared for their own church widows, orphans, prisoners, and disabled people. Today, churches focus on helping people outside the church but largely neglect their own members. A Mormon once told me that he wanted to become a Christian, but he couldn't afford to lose all of the financial and relational benefits of Mormonism. The Mormon congregational structure effectively provides access to close relationships on scale. I met a shocked Christian from Korea who recently visited an American church. His Korean church also met in ways that produced strong communities. He belonged to a large church where neighborhood congregations met more regularly than the city megachurch. He said, " Modern Americans don't realize that they attend only attend half of a church service. Half of the traditional meeting has been cut away. Americans have largely cut out group interaction, praying for each other, eating meals together, and sharing testimonies."
The relationship problem in the church has to change during this time when people are desperate for friends, acceptance, and support. There is not just one solution. However, all leaders need to know we are experiencing a relationship crisis. They should all learn what social groups require to thrive relationally. The Christian church should again enjoy the highest relationship reputation of any institution. Church should be the one place people can trust they will find friends. Thankfully there are many resources available to help pastors excel at friend building, member care, and community creation. I have written a book, "The Friend Buidling Church," which explains how group science can help any church turbo-charge friendships. We will be discussing this topic often on the Smarter church VLOG.