Bring Everyone Along: Why We Do What We Do

by Rev. Sharon Carter, Stated Clerk

Here we are at the beginning of another year—2025. It seems amazing to me that we’re a quarter of the way through this century that I still think of as “new”! Much has changed since I was born in 1963, and since the turn of the century change seems to be happening more rapidly than ever before. A big change for church-goers, of course, is decline in membership and worship attendance—change that we’ve been watching happen for at least 40 years, even if we didn’t realize it at the time.

There are a lot of reasons and theories about why things have changed so dramatically over that time, most of them proposed in order to stop the decline from happening. We are after all supposed to be bringing people to faith in Christ, rather than giving them reason to turn away.

But I don’t want to get into an analysis of why Christianity and church attendance is in decline. Much ink has already been spilled about that topic and I don’t really have anything new to add—except to say that there is no magic bullet that is going to make people suddenly start coming to your church. No formula, no program, no growth strategy.

The only thing we can do is love one another as Jesus love the disciples, and love the communities of people around us as well. And do it without expectation of people joining our church—though we can make that invitation.

You’ve probably heard this a thousand times. Love people. Take care of people. Feed people. Seek justice for people. Many of you have done this, are doing this, and will keep doing this as long as possible. And many of you are making it known that you are doing these things because Jesus Christ teaches us to do them.

We also need to let go of much of what we’ve come to expect over the time that we’ve been church members. The “if we build it they will come” mentality. The thought that people who go to church are better than everyone else. The belief that there are people who belong in church and those who don’t. Instead, we need to bring everyone along as we go on our journey as the body of Christ.

Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to go out and make churches—we are to love God and the people around us. We are to share the good news of the love of God for all people. We gather to support each other and help our own faith to grow, but at the end of the day our churches and our traditions aren’t the point. Love is the point and always will be.