Sears and Penny’s stores carry good merchandise.  Their employees are friendly and helpful. The stores are clean and laid out well. These businesses have been successful for many years. Sears, Roebuck and Company began in 1893 and J.C. Penny opened his first store in 1902.  Across the nation, even relatively small towns had these stores for many years. They were innovative in the usage of mail-order catalogues. Those catalogues introduced the ability to shop from your home. In more recent times, they have often been the anchor stores in malls. But now both companies are closing stores and wondering if they will survive.

What has happened to these stalwarts of the retail business? I’m not an economist, but the answer to that question seems obvious. They are too dependent on big box stores in the internet age. They have not successfully made the transition to the new way of doing business. Why would I use up my time, fight traffic and go to the mall to shop when with a few keystrokes and clicks I can have comparable merchandise delivered to my house? They moved into online sales, but it appears they have the same problem as Kodak who was too slow to move from film to digital. (The tragedy about Kodak was that they had a large number of patents for digital photography which they were not using adequately and ultimately sold to competitors.) Other retailers had already cornered the internet market. Good products, good people, but a failed approach.

Some businesses have adapted so that they can have the best of both worlds. They have the physical store and also the internet store. Each avenue offers essentially the same merchandise, but the company provides two ways to access their goods. (Think Best Buy.) If you like to look at, handle and examine the product before you buy, you can go to the brick and mortar store.  If you prefer to search quickly through a variety of options on the internet, scan the customer reviews and then place an order for an item to be delivered to your house in two days or less, you can do that. Yes, there is an app for that. Each approach has its adherents. The important thing to realize is that you are getting the same merchandise, but it is marketed in two different ways.

Old line churches today are too frequently closing up. They are being replaced by newer churches that have a different approach. The fundamental teaching in each group is about the same. But, the packaging is different.

The newer churches have recognized that there has been a fundamental shift in the life style and preferences of today’s generation. The current generation is music driven. Ergo, the ever present ear buds worn in cars, stores, restaurants, airplanes and on bike trails. Their style of music is different, but it is meaningful to them.   Communication is concise but instant via a small device carried in the pocket or purse. (Excuse me, I’ll be right back.  I just got a text message from someone in Africa.) There is a greater global awareness than has ever existed. For example, it is not unusual for members of my immediate family to be on 3 different continents at the same time.  Life is becoming about more than going to work and coming home. For many, a life that is not making a difference in the world around them is a wasted life. The concept of truth for them is also different. Truth is not determined by logic and reasoning so much as it is by outcomes and results.

Old line churches have a hard time letting go of the music of the past.  It was beautiful and often carried a powerful message. But, the outdated linguistics and musical style don’t fit anymore. For a long time, churches made their strongest appeals based on logic and what they perceived to be correct doctrine. Now, once full sanctuaries are filled with empty pews and echoes of the past messages. The old approach struggles to reach a generation that wants to know how your faith changes your life and improves the world around you before they will listen to what you believe. Churches that empower people to make a difference in their world are growing. Churches that focus on Sunday morning are shrinking.

The message of the gospel has been the same since Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” in his last moments on the cross. But the apostle Paul recognized that each culture requires a different presentation of the gospel message. He did not preach the same way in the Jewish synagogues as he did when he was addressing the Athenian philosophers. As he said, he found it necessary to become all things to all people. We can blame church decline on people not being interested in the truth anymore, but it probably has a lot more to do with the way we present truth and the level of difference it makes in the way we live our lives.

Some old line churches are successfully making the transition and bridging the gap between cultures. They have not changed the message (other than getting rid of some of the trappings of tradition) but the packaging and emphasis is different. Others are making some changes, but probably not enough to survive. They will have a bigger and bigger percentage of  grey heads until the church has literally died.

How many church leaders will have the courage, insight and flexibility to enable their churches to survive? We will know the answer to that in about 20 years or less.