Expired Prescriptions of the 21st Century Church

Most households have expired prescriptions in a bathroom medicine cabinet or the kitchen. These medications are prescribed by a doctor or specialist to heal or aid the body in one form or another. All medications have a shelf life with a date printed on the container indicating its expiration. In the cycle of ones sickness and health, prescriptions are made, used, and stored for another day. Many times one might draw from that same medication for recurring symptoms, but after a period of time that prescription expires. The problem arises when prescriptions are used for something long after the expiration date. When it comes to health there are some who do not read labels, follow instructions, or care all that much. Some expired prescriptions have the potential to turn toxic while most just lose their potency and are ineffective. Strangely enough, when a church goes through a cycle of sickness and health, many will draw upon prescriptions that have lost their shelf-life and have long since expired. Often times a church leader will go back and rummage through useless remedies that served their purpose in days long gone, rendering the effort useless (and sometimes toxic!).

Problems that arise in the church is nothing new. Churches have faced numerous difficulties through out the ages, (footnote the first centuries church problems Acts, Corinth… et al.) and have worked through active remedies to address these issues. However with the rise of the church-growth movement in the 70’s-80’s new measurements of church health required new prescriptions to be filled. (footnote from Hartford) Robert Logan’s book Beyond Church Growth typifies the church-growth mentality. He writes, “Beyond Church Growth will help your church become more effective in ministry. Effective churches are healthy churches; healthy churches are growing churches – they make more and better disciples. This is precisely the focus of the church-growth movement.” (Logan p. 17)

One of the main prescriptions that was essential for this church-growth movement was something called “needs based” ministry. Needs based ministry is the assessment of the essential needs of your demographic target audience and the development of ministry based around those identified needs. In his classic work entitled Life-Style Evangelism, Joseph Aldrich touches on this essential prescription for the church leader to address; “The responsible church leader must examine the programming of his church in light of his people’s need for vital fellowship.” (Aldrich p. 120) While this movement gave a fresh perspective to churches identifying with the needs of their cultural context, it also offered church-growth prescriptions that have expired for the emerging church. In hindsight, church leaders were enamored with what Hirsch calls “gather and amuse” church growth theory. He argues that “we grew in numbers – but something primal and indispensable was lost in the bargain. We got more transfers from other churches, but the flow of conversion slowed down to a trickle and then ran completely dry.” (Hirsch p. 220)


Pastor Brian Kay of Trinity Presbyterian Church in San Luis Obispo comments on some of these prescriptions. “Since the 1970’s, many American pastors began to turn to the experts of the church-growth movement who told them the best way to reach people who thought the Church was irrelevant was to appeal to something that is undeniably relevant to the mass culture: being entertained.” He goes on to comment on how these remedies have expired, he writes, “In a way the church-growth movement worked, because a lot more people started coming on Sunday. But, as its music and preaching became more trivial, many other sensible people stopped taking the Church seriously… The church life they had witnessed, even in cases where the doctrine was solid, was pure mayonnaise.” (Relevant p.5-6)

In the 21st century some churches are drawing on old prescriptions, remedies, and potions to face the challenge of desired ministry impact in an emerging culture, while many other churches are making desperate attempts to address the health issues of declining membership and possible extinction.