Churches Commit Suicide

Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything else will be added to you Mt 6:33

The old denominational churches in America are often called, "Mainline" groups by media and commentators who are not in the know. I have a better name: Flatliners

This is the term given to a body that has a flat line with no activity on the brain and heart monitors. Most of the former Main Line Denominations have committed suicide. The only thing that keeps some of them alive is the money put into the church coffers by men and women in former generations who believed in God and the church's historic mission.

The Episcopal Church in America is a good example of a group who is so pessimistic that they are fulfilling a death wish by ordaining active adulterers and homosexuals who have abandoned their wives and children.

Finke and Stark, two social researchers have much to say about churches who pursue such policies.

As a religious group grows in numbers and acceptance, its "tension" or degree of separateness from secular society diminishes, and the church becomes yet another mainstream denomination. For a time, it ministers to a conservative and moderate niche, then, as it moves away from these larger niches to the smaller liberal niche, it stops growing, says the Penn State researcher.

"This happens for two reasons," Finke says. "First, large congregational size reduces a church's ability to monitor the loyalty of its members and swells the number of free-riders, members with little or no commitment.

Second, the professionalism of clergy, while it results in better-trained and educated ministers, often produces clergy with tepid religious commitment. Both of these factors pull down the initial level of religious ardor. "As churches move from higher- to lower-tension niches, they will tend to accumulate at the liberal end of the spectrum.

This growing number of organizations will attempt to serve a relatively static number of potential members who are notably lukewarm in their commitment. Consequently, low-tension churches will typically have declining memberships and will tend to disappear via mergers," Finke notes.

Finke proposes that when people at the extreme ends of the curve move toward the middle they will expand their opportunities for growth.


The mainline Protestant churches, at the time of their founding, served a conservative and sometimes even an ultra strict constituency. A classic example would be the Methodist Church, which began as a sect during the 18th century "Great Awakening" in England and was imported by the Wesleys to the American colonies. Famed for its camp meetings, American Methodism flourished in the 19th century, founded dozens of colleges and universities and in 1850 made up one-third of all churchgoers in the United States -- in that year, it had 117 members out of every 1,000 Americans.

"Throughout most of the 20th century, the Methodist clergy have pressed for increased `relevance' and liberalism while downplaying the core Christian doctrines of sin and salvation,Â’ says Finke. "Their success in doing so has been mirrored by a corresponding decline in membership, with the result that by 1990 only 36 out of 1,000 Americans were Methodists." (In 140 years Methodists went from 117 mpt to 36 mpt or a loss of 87 mpt.)

A measure of the malaise affecting the "lower-tension" or more liberal denominations is their sluggishness in creating new congregations and thus retaining their market share of believers. "The tiny Vineyard Christian Fellowship, with only 305 existing congregations in 1994, managed to plant as many new churches as did the huge United Methodist Church, which had more than 36,000 congregations," says the Penn State sociologist.

So, when relevance replaces religious fervor and spiritual blandness replaces Holy Spirit Power, the group begins to die.

Because you are neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth. REV 3:16

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