In the 1990’s and as we proceeds into the twenty-first century, in the face of declining attendance in many so-called Orthodox churches many churches have changed their style both in worship and teachings. Due to the sudden changes in the style of worship, churches started offering entertainments, excitements and other secular attractions rather than instruction from God’s words. Adversely, many Churchgoers nowadays see the changes as needed adaptation to the challenges of our fast changing modern world. If we are to be sincere with ourselves we need to ask ourselves this sincere question and also answer it with utmost honesty; are the Churches in our modern world straying far away from the mission and teachings of Jesus Christ? The answer is obvious – Yes!
The 90’s recorded the birth of a lot of new Churches that spring up from the orthodox churches and the Protestants. The reasons are basically because of the declining attendance and the wrong believe that church services in Orthodox churches are getting boring and uninspiring. Another rather controversial reason is because of the many controversial problems that occur in the old churches before the 20th century, which led to the formation of new denominations and churches. Also, many moved away from their former churches because according to them the pastor or leaders are not telling them what they want to hear. They are just fed up with singing over four solitary hymns in just one service. If a preacher loses his popularity or charisma, he can soon lose his congregation and often a substantial income as well. All simply because he did not preach about what they want to hear. They want a very active church services full of secular activities.
In spite of the effort of sincere clergymen, millions of Christians have turned away from the Orthodoxical faith that brought Christianity to them in the first place. They have turned to modern day Churches that hold services that are complete with serious hand clapping, vigorous and aggressive prayer to God as if they are talking to their mate, and Church services with the atmosphere of a rock concert which have grow and multiplied tremendously. According to Duncan Green in his book “Faces of Latin America” “ The evangelical movement in Latin America is divided up into innumerable separate churches… often these are the personal vehicle of a single pastor. When a congregation grows, it will often splinter into new churches” Is that not what we are experiencing in other part of the world now?
Let us take a look at the European experience in this ugly trend. For over one and half centuries Europe was ruled by Christians but in this era and as we advance into the 21st century is Christianity prospering in this continent that brought the message and light of Jesus Christ to most part of the world? The Answer is NO!
In the book “God is Dead – Secularisation in the West” Sociologist Steve Bruce said of Britain “ In the nineteenth century almost all wedding were religious… However, by 1971, only 60 percent of English weddings were religious. In 2000, it was only 31 percent. The popular London’s Daily Telegraph once wrote that “ All the main denominations from the Church of England and the roman Catholics to the Methodist and united reformed churches are suffering from long – term decline” It continues about one report “Britain’s Churches will be well on the way to extinction by 2040 with just two percent of the population attending Sunday services.” Britain according to a survey conducted in 2004 have only 40% of it population believe in the supremacy of God and only 35% believe the devil exist.
The Dutch are also not spared of this ugly trend. A report by the Dutch Social and Cultural planning office stated, “ In recent decades, our country appears to have become decidedly more secularised, it is expected that by 2020, 72% of the population will not have any religious affiliation at all”. In Germany a news source reported that increasing numbers of Germans are turning to witchcrafts and the occult to provide the solace they once found in Churches, joins and family… Churches across the land are forced to close for lack of congregations.” In Italy a report says, “Italians tailor their religion to fit their lifestyles” the same thing is happening in Spain and other part of Europe. The most ironical part of these trends in Europe is that these are the people that brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to Africa, Latin America Asia and other part of the world. They gave us light but they are now returning to darkness.
In North America, religion is like marketing. Many churchgoers switch religious easily. 40% claim they go to Church every week, over 60% say they believe the Bible to be God’s word. Some of the Churches are now using business methods to learn how to better “Market” their religious services in order to keep their congregation and to increase the size. Congregation pay thousands of dollars to get Church-consulting firms. A pastor was quoted as saying “ It was a great investment.” Many of them that are doing so well financially attract the attention of great business publications like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal. They called these Churches as offering “ One – Stop shopping for body and soul.”
These trends of Churches business have been imported into African with Nigerians in the driving seat. We now have Church complexes that are among the largest, most beautiful and most magnificent in the world. The complex may even contain cafes, restaurants, beauty salons, saunas, and sports facilities. Side attractions may include society movers, theatre, visiting celebrities and contemporary music. In Africa, the people no longer want to attend churches where everything they will be hearing from the preachers are heaven, hell, Jesus, God, devil, angels and boring hymns that will send you to dosing. What are the preachers of these modern day churches preaching? Your guess is as good as mine – Prosperity.
It is not surprising that the gospel of prosperity is a popular theme among these churches. “You just have to be rich” is the basics. They were taught they will be rich and healthy if they accept Jesus and contribute generously to their church (and not to the course of the gospel) instead of Jesus message that the Christian way of life was one of personal sacrifice and effort (Luke 9: 23 – 26). Doctrines that are important, that is soul piercing are hardly mentioned. These trends are what are now being called “Religious revival” in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America.
We all as Christians know deep in our heart that there are many exceptions to these general trends and we know that the general picture is that Christianity is struggling to retain popularity. These trends as we known are absolutely in sharp contrast to the message of Christ and his followers. This is definitely not how they taught and practised Christianity in their time. I believe what is happening now is an enemy’s action – Satan’s action. It shouldn’t surprised true and genuine Christians that these are happening because Jesus foretold that towards the end of the end of the world his teachings will be distorted by some who will claim they came from him. Look up Matthew 13:24 – 30 and considered it with what we have now. Jesus is the sower, the seed are his true followers, and the enemy who sowed weeds among the wheat is the devil and his agents. Explicitly, the weeds are the lawless, apostate, liars and all those who claim to be servants of God but are agents of the devil. The apostle Paul also foretold that when he left that wolves in human clothing will be among them (The Believers) and even among themselves some will rise and say untrue things about the gospel to draw people away from God. (Acts 20:29-30).
The churches that for many centuries have been true reflection of Christianity are now merely a façade of Christianity. This is why we are having a continuing trend of churches fragmenting into sects, getting involved in politics and disregarding God’s laws. These are clearly the product of the devil except we do not want to face it. The whole world is lying in the hand of the devil. We know it is difficult in today’s world to know who is a true Christian but one thing is sure and which all true and genuine Christians should have solace in is that at the end of this world the “weeds” will be gathered from among the “wheat” and destroyed forever while the “wheats” will be gathered into the barn of God. For now there is little we can do to change this trend but as Jesus said let us keep watching and praying.