The Church vs. The Grocery Store

My wife and I have been in Durham, NC now for about a month and a half. We are very excited that we’ve found a church home – River Oaks Community Church. What a wonderful group of people – they have welcomed us warmly into their congregation.

Today, Pastor Bill Denning challenged the church. He spoke primarily about church planting, and about the church’s (the church as a whole in America) relevance in our culture. Pastor Bill argued (convincingly) that the church simply is not relevant today – especially to the non-church goer. This explains why, as he said, that in the last 30-40 years there has been a significant rise in interest in spirituality, yet a siginificant decline in both attendance and membership of mainline denomination churches.

The story was illustrated by a video. In the video, the narrator is talking about growing up in a community.  In the 50′s, the narrator was a child and saw the establishment of both a church and a grocery store.  Through the decades, the community changes tremendously, and the grocery store always remained relevant to the changing community.  When multi-cultural families moved in the neighborhood, the store sold ethnic foods.  When people became very health-conscience, the store sold healthy foods.  All the while, the church remained the same.  After 50 years, the narrator noticed that the grocery store was completely different than it was 50 years ago, yet it still sold food.  It’s essence was the same, but the way the store delivered food changed to remain relevant to the community.  After 50 years, the only difference to the church was a for sale sign.

Churches are closing their doors at an alarming rate, and one reason is that many churches either cannot or will not change and become relevant with culture.  In the same way the essence of the grocery store remained, the essence of the church – the Gospel – should never, ever change, but the way the church communicates the Gospel must be applicable to the culture in which it exists.

If we are to follow the Great Commission – if we are to make new disciples – we must reach those that are “unchurched”.  To do that, we have to communicate the Gospel in a way that is relevant.  That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what we should do also.