Robin Courtney: Has the Great Commission Gone out of Fashion?

Posted by Kendall Harmon

I suspect the best course for our little institution within Christendom is to allow it to implode, which seems to be the course of the recent past and present. If we fall apart, then we can be reformed and changed. To put a theological spin on it, if we die, then we can be resurrected. Perhaps in such a setting our focus would be more upon the message of the gospel than the survival of an institution and power games among varying factions.

What would happen if we had to sell our church real estate and meet in our homes? What would happen if we spent all of our endowments? Suppose the average Sunday attendance continues to decline to one or two people? Can we imagine meeting on Sunday with others and talking about God’s presence and activity in our lives over the past week, rather than about sex? Is it possible to attend church on Sundays and not leave frustrated?

Perhaps The Episcopal Church is due for some time in Babylon. It will be good for us, just as it was for ancient Judaism. Then we can remember the gospel message over the institution. Sunday attendance will remain a problem, but perhaps as a matter of pews that overflow instead of being empty. Then visitors might just stay.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Conflicts • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth

5 Comments
Posted October 31, 2007 at 4:57 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Philip Snyder wrote:

As a deacon, it is my task to dismiss the congregation.  Before I dismiss them, I recite the Great Commission as a means of reminding them what “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord” means.

If the Church is not about the Great Commission, then it is not being the Church.  It is being a liturgically minded social club.

YBIC,
Phil Snyder

October 31, 5:18 pm | [comment link]
2. libraryjim wrote:

At the church where I ‘cast my vote’, there is a sign at the road that can only be seen as you are exiting the parking lot.  It reads:

You are now entering
the Mission Field.

Something we could all do well to remember.

October 31, 5:26 pm | [comment link]
3. BCP28 wrote:

This is a great article…Libraryjim-I have also seen that sign on the doors of K Street.

October 31, 5:30 pm | [comment link]
4. Milton wrote:

The whole (short) article is well worth the read.  Courtney’s+ read is quite accurate, even here in the relatively orthodox but divided and mostly muddled DioTN, which largely lacks in zeal or even rationale for the Great Commission.  There are some shining exceptions, of course, and the Lord still puts churched and non-churched in the path of each of us to bring to Jesus, if we ourselves truly know Him.

October 31, 6:14 pm | [comment link]
5. Ed McNeill wrote:

The Great Commission is only believable if you believe in the physical resurrection.  In the west coast of TEC this question is either open or you are a small minded fundamentalist. This results in the continuance of a lack of boldness proclaiming the Gospel that became vogue after WW2.  Without this there is no mission, no evangelism, and ASA in TEC 2006 declines 3% in one year.  Over 400 a week…every week.

Interesting, that as the speed of decline in TEC accelerated from 2005 to 2006 and no one addresses it?

November 1, 2:13 am | [comment link]
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