State of the Union - State of the Church

by Pastor Ronald Boelte

If you are like me you probably did not watch all of the State of the Union message given this week by President Bush. However, I am sure that all of you have heard or read some commentary on what our president did or did not say about the state of our union. Let's face it: no matter how hard he tried to address most of the issues at hand there are those that will say he did not say enough about this subject or that subject, or that he just has an unrealistic view on this or that. While I do have my own opinions about many different things that the government should or needs to fix, I know I would not like to be the one that makes those decisions. No matter how hard you try you can not please everyone in this nation.

Let us now look at the state of the church. While the church is growing world wide, the church in our nation is not growing. Yes, there are areas that it is, but on the whole, in the USA the church is in decline. Most of the mainline churches continue to decline in membership year after year and our own church, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, has lost almost 100,000 members in the last four years. Some losses are due to death, but most have just disappeared from our churches. According to many respected polls, fewer and fewer people see the need to be in church. They see the church as not being important in their relationship with God.

Lets face it, America is becoming more and more like Europe when it comes to church. Most of the people there have some kind connection to the church, but the church is not seen as an important part of their life. So most of the churches are now empty on most Sundays. What can be done, you may ask? I will be honest with you. I don't know. With God all things are possible, but as I look at the people of the Bible, I see these same things happening throughout history with the people of God. There were great periods of following God, and then there were times when only a few remained faithful. Will you remain one of the faithful and help to keep God's Word important to our church, our nation, and our world? Or will you become one of the people to which church and God is just not that important? Do you think that church and fellowship are important? If you do, let us all stand together and make a difference for our church in this community– in our state– in our nation and in our world.