Apathy…it’s a word we all hate to hear because it generally means a lack of passion or excitement. When that word has been used to describe a current state of being at a place of worship, it’s definitely not good.
The church I attend has had a serious battle with apathy attacking some or all people in the congregation. There’s reason for it too — attendance is dwindling, we’re running out of money, and the building is falling apart around us. Literally and figuratively, our church could collapse at any moment.
But as much as there is room for apathy, there’s room for hope. The bus ministry has helped us reach an audience of up to thirty young people each Wednesday night. People are coming to know Christ, and there is a set vision for the church in place.
So why is the apathy there?
Well, it was documented that in the last prayer meeting, the Holy Spirit spoke through a message in tongues and interpretation, saying plainly that the apathy was a spirit and we needed to rebuke it.
I can buy that for a dollar, even with my misgivings about tongues and interpretations in my church.
But I don’t know if the line has been clearly drawn between someone being apathetic and simply being a realist.
Let me put it this way:
A good real-life scenario is that the church is losing money each month and does not have the funds nor personnel to fix a building that is crumbling around us.
The spiritualist in this instance says God is going to provide, not knowing how but he’s going to do it…and they wait for the Lord to provide a solution.
The realist in this instance says there is no way given our current situation that we can stay here in this building…let’s sell it to the highest bidder and go rent a place to worship. They want a solution now before the situation becomes insurmountable.
The spiritualist and realist in this instance butt heads. But see, this is where a healthy dose is needed of both spiritualism and realism. Me being more of the realist, I’m sure there is a happy medium so I’ll let the more spiritually attuned people chime in.
I also think apathy could be linked in with introversion. Our church has a large number of introverts as opposed to extroverts when it comes to regular attendees, and that poses a simple problem. When people don’t get out and don’t make efforts to communicate with everyone, you’ve got the breeding ground for an apathetic spirit among the introvert (never tries to reach out), the extrovert (reaching out and fruitlessly trying to get the introverts to reach out as well) and the new people (“why are only a few people talking to me?”) right there.
The best way to beat apathy here is to get involved — get in the Word and stay in it, and get out of the comfort zones so easily built. That’s it.
But if someone is a realist, on the other hand…you’re not going to easily shake their points of view.
Because I’m a realist, I tend to think we are over-spiritualizing our problems at times. If we all looked at practical solutions to the situations facing our church, put our heads together and started thinking instead of waiting for God to say something that has a good chance of getting lost in translation, the apathy will go away and good things will start happening.
Personally I’d like to see the apathy disposed of, and ultimately my church move onto a place physically and spiritually conducive to everyone being benefited in equal fashion.
Now since I’m a realist, does that make me apathetic in your view? And how can we better distinguish between apathy and realism in the church?
Your thoughts are most certainly entertained and welcome.
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Okay, I agree with this. I tend to think that people look at problems that come at us in life and want to blame them all on the devil. We give him way too much credit for stuff he doesn’t even do.
Life is hard. Period. The Bible says it rains on the just and the unjust. So get used to it.
The only way it gets better is to cast all our cares onto God. We no longer have to worry about our problems. Notice I said worry.
Just because we give our problems over to God, doesn’t excuse us from doing our part. “Faith without works is meaningless.” You still have to get off of your behind and do your part as led by God.
For instance, just because I take supplements and drink my protein shakes and all that healthy stuff doesn’t mean I am going to get huge. I still need to go lift at the gym for them to take effect.
We can read God’s word, pray and fast all we want, but that doesn’t mean our problems will go away. These are means of finding God’s will that we may ACT UPON IT. Knowing and doing are two different things.
Sorry to end it so abruptly, but that is it. Plain and simple.
-Jas
May I also clarify that when I said over-spiritualizing problems in our church, that I also mean the church in general. You’re right Jason in that the body of Christ is good at blaming a lot of problems on the devil…it gives them a reason to not look inwardly.
It reminds me of an instance of a church I attended before during my time in the military…there was a guy there who was supposedly demon-possessed. Many of us knew he wasn’t but a few church leaders carried on like he was and proceeded to “pray the demon out”…of course no demon came out, but the situation gave the guy a good excuse to blame the reason for his repetitive sin on something spiritual rather than nip it at the bud where it actually started with him, and him alone.
As stated we need a good dose of spiritualism and realism. We need to listen to God and listen to the same common sense God gives us!
Reading your blog made me think about a book I read by Max Lucado. When we say that we are a Christian it means that we are like Christ. Was Christ an introvert, no I don’t see that played out in the scripture. He reached out to people all the time, sometimes He did it with His disciples in tow and other times not. So we do need to get out of our comfort zone and speak to people both in and out of church.
I just wonder if the word introvert could at times be used interchangeably with the word unfriendly. I do believe there are people who are uncomfortable having attention on them, but this does not excuse unfriendliness. I know of shy people who at least smile and acknowledge you.
I feel that if we can take the first step and smile and say hi it will touch others. I know I appreciate it when others act like I am in the room instead of ignoring me. I’m sorry but that just doesn’t cut it for me.
Unfriendliness is also another BIG breeder of apathy in a church.
I have to agree with you Mom, there is a major difference between being introverted and just plain ignoring people whether it’s intentional or not.
In a small church, everyone’s gotta be on the same page and those who may find it hard to interact with people they’re uncomfortable with need to work that much harder at connecting with the newcomers.
I honestly wonder that if we asked some of the newcomers their honest opinion of how the church as a whole welcomed them, we’d cringe at the response.
It’s an area we gotta work on — every church does, for that matter.
Please allow me to add that I do not see issues with discussing church matters on a public forum such as this — if one were to visit the church they would see what I am talking about. If anything, this helps provide some insight and it shows us that we’re not all super-spiritual…we’re all trying in varying degrees to serve God and each other. Even though we may be floundering a bit we still have the same goal and we need a little help getting there.
Some wait for a miracle when the real miracle is that God has given them a brain… use it.
Well to be truthful I see it all over in Missouri. A lot of people are what I consider snobbish. And yes it happens at JRA too. Not everyone in every church is going to have a huge conversation with you, but a friendly nod, smile, to say hello shows me you are making an effort to reach out. And basically to me it is black and white, don’t ignore people, it hurts. Now I am not talking about being an extrovert like your dad, but come on people.
I remember that IYC that Susie and I attended together years ago, there were so many unfriendly people there that it was a shame. But as soon as we left the campground we came in contact with tons of strangers who were very friendly. Christians need to be different, we are to be salt and light.
Don’t even get me started on IYC.
Most of the unfriendliness came straight outta the Cleveland folks.
(On a side note, they’ve abolished IYC in favor of more generalized youth ministry training in the wintertime…I had been wishing for them to cut IYC ever since I went.)
Wow. That bad. You know, there are good people out there too. I just want to bring some positive to this conversation now.
Rich and Anita are from Missouri, and they are some of the best friends I have in Missouri. To this day I get phone calls from Rich or a message from Anita seeing how I am doing.
Once in a while Evin will text me and ask how I am doing. But sadly, for the most part, my “friends” in Missouri don’t keep in contact.
Oh! Not to forget Misty and Omar, they check up on me all the time. And they are family!
-Jas
Jason, all but one person you mentioned are from out of state. Rich and Anita came here from California around the time we did. But my point was that we will be positive if we shine our light and be approachable. The Word says to have friends you must show yourself to be friendly. Please don’t mistake my post, I am saying we ALL need to smile and reach out. Christ gives us the strength to reach out of our comfort zones. We may be just what that one person needs when we reach out and try to be a friend.
WEST COASTERS UNITE! We are the people’s people! lol
I also just now noticed, Jason, that of all the people you mentioned, only one still attends CH anymore.
Most of the outgoing, extroverted folks are now gone and we are dealing with having a much smaller core group in the church as a result.
The ripple effect has been enormous:
1. We now meet downstairs because heating the whole building is not cost-effective.
2. People have to wear more than one hat ministry-wise.
3. The number of people who are willing to do outreach is fine, but the people who will actually do it are few and far between.
In such a numerically-small church as CH, you can ill afford to lose anyone. When Omar & Misty, Rich & Anita, then Mom and Dad in rapid succession left, you can’t tell me the effect of even one of those couples leaving was enormous. All three of them has hit the church hard and from my view it has not recovered yet, in many respects.