The Answer Is That We Are Out of Answers

Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash

As long as I have been alive the church has been largely in decline in North America. There may be individual examples of congregations thriving, but statistically Christianity is waning in the West. This ongoing state of decline has created multiple generations of church leaders looking for answers. We ask many questions, some of which are helpful and some which are not. How can we turn the tide? How can we reach more people? How do we stay relevant in the culture? How do we grow the church?

For far too long we have acted as though we can fix the church and ourselves. We just need to try a little harder. Mix up our routines a little bit. Hire a better staff member. Plan a better program. Improve our music. Provide better live streaming. On and on we go with our schemes. We are convinced there is a perfect strategy out there somewhere that will flip the script. We just have to find it. The reality is, no silver bullet exists.

What if the answer we are looking for is precisely to admit that we are completely out of answers. It’s often noted for people dealing with substance abuse that many times you have to hit rock bottom and be willing to admit how desperately you need help before you can start to find healing. I think the church may be in a similar place. We are addicted to the self satifistication of manufactured “success.” Until we admit we cannot fix ourselves or the church, we have no hope of real healing.

It’s time to stop all our striving and admit that we don’t know how to fix the church. In fact, it’s more than that. It’s time to admit that we fundamentally cannot fix the church. It’s not within our power. In all our failed attempts to fix the church, the common denominator is us. The heart of the problem is that we think we can fix it in the first place.

Lately I have been preaching through the book of Acts along with a couple other pastors in my local church. I have been struck again by how this ragtag group of followers were transformed from a small frightened group of people into a world-shaking movement. That transformation did not happen by their own ingenuity. It is no accident that the New Testament church finds its start with a small assembly gathered constantly in prayer. (see Acts 1:14)

I love this quote from Jason Vickers about those early Christians:

When the earliest followers of Jesus literally lost sight of their Lord, they did not rush to attend a seminar on what to do next. Nor did they cling for all their worth to the time-tested structures of Judaism. To be sure, the disciples later organized themselves and set out to spread the gospel throughout the known world, but they did not do this initially, they did one thing. They tarried together in prayer…Indeed, to tarry together in prayer is to admit that we are out of answers, that we have lost confidence in the ability of marketing schemes, new technology, and fund-raising campaigns to save us. It is to turn our attention heavenward and to ask God the Father once again to pour out the Spirit promised by the Son. (Jason Vickers, Minding the Good Ground)

Holy desperation is a place of grace. When we find ourselves abandoning our own attempts to fix ourselves, it’s in that place where we finally turn our attention to the One who does have all the power to transform. It’s in the place of desperation where we can admit our failure and sin, and call out to the Lord for deliverance. Finding the place of desperate prayer is the place where we will find hope in our churches again.

This principle does not apply only to corporate church life, it’s actually a principle that starts with us personally. If you live for more than a few minutes on this earth you come to realize you can’t fix yourself either. Salvation begins when, by the grace of God, we admit we actually need saving. We must find this place of holy desperation in our own lives, not just for the church. And in fact, renewal in the church must start with renewal in individual hearts. As long as we spend all our time trying to fix a depersonalized church we will miss true awakening. Fire cannot burn in a vacuum. It needs oxygen and fuel of some kind. Holy fire will never burn in our churches without individual hearts being set ablaze by the Holy Spirit. Do you want to see your church on fire for the Lord? Then first offer yourself as a living sacrifice and crawl up on the altar.

Church…Christian…the answer you’ve been looking for is to honestly admit we are out of answers, because it’s in that place of holy desperation where we will stop all our striving and get on our face in prayer before a holy God. What we need more than ever is humility and hunger. Humility in our inability to fix ourselves, let alone the church. And hunger for God himself to do what we cannot. Now is the time to abandon scheming and start praying. Now is the time to stop pursuing church fixes and start pursuing more of the Lord’s presence. Now is the time to surrender any attempts to manufacture results that make us feel good about ourselves and ask the Lord to do something only he can do. Admit you are out of answers. It’s the perfect place to start.