True discipleship was largely not practiced in the mega-churches, which meant that myriad adults attended church for decades and learned little or nothing about either the gospel or the Law of God. Practically, and Americans love practical Christianity—or so they say—the bottom line was that dad and mom came out of church smiling and feeling good about themselves and the kids had a great time with the relevant youth pastor, but no one was being taught biblically. Dad and mom were still at “square one” after years, junior and juniorette were not being catechized either at home or at church.

A friend sent me a newspaper article from The State written by Sarah Ellis entitled “Losing Faith: Why South Carolina is abandoning its churches.” In other words, there is trouble in the Bible Belt. Ms. Ellis makes the point that these ecclesiastical problems are not of recent vintage. Since 2011, almost one hundred mainline congregations have closed their doors. Moreover, as Ms. Ellis opines, “South Carolina churches are shedding thousands of members a year, even as the state’s population grows by tens of thousands.”

Part of the exponential growth is due to northerners retiring and moving to the South. Of course, that makes sense. When was the last time you heard about a Redneck moving North for retirement? Ms. Ellis points out that the loss of congregants is unusual since the South is typically thought of, among other things, as “the Bible Belt.” There is a church on every corner.

I have no idea what, if any, Ms. Ellis’ church affiliation is, but she does not seem to be aware that the data she is using are derived from mainline liberal churches such as the United Methodists, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., and the liberal Lutherans. In a very real sense, people should be abandoning those denominations because they abandoned Scripture long, long ago. But there might very well be other reasons why SC churches are regressing spiritually.

The Mega-Church and Emergent Church Movements

I am often astounded that given the fact the contemporary Church has been “wonky” for decades, for almost one-half century, no one seems to have the presence of mind to cry out, “Enough is enough!”

Allow me a brief historical review. In approximately the mid-1970s, there was an ecclesiastical paradigm shift in many local congregations. The upshot of that shift was a new trend to build a “mega-church.” An all-out, concerted effort was made to reach out to “unchurched” Harry and Harriet and not to say anything in the church service that might offend them. To that end, hymnals were removed and words to the music were projected onto large screens that supplanted them. Bibles also were removed, because what is more offensive than having a Bible in a pew rack staring at unchurched Harry the whole service? It’s enough to make anyone nervous, especially a seeker. Bible verses were politely and non-threateningly projected on screens as well. Harry and Harriet did not have to be encumbered with a heavy Bible, nor did the other congregants. What a novel idea: Congregants in a Christian congregation no longer needed to bring a Bible to worship service.

Speaking of worship services, they went through a kind of metamorphosis as well. All the surveys at that time not only indicated that the attendees/devotees wanted hipper, zippier, “more relevant” music, but also that they wanted something “more” in the sermonic material than churchgoers had been receiving previously. How about a sermon that was funny? How about a sermon that shied away from the Trinity, justification by faith, or the hated four-letter word, “sin,” (that’s a joke. I am aware there are only three letters in the word!) and spoke to the congregation about how to fix their marriages, their rebellious children, or how to get their finances straightened out? We all know that knowledge of the Trinity will do little or nothing for a marriage, right?

Sermons avoided issues that might confront or “turn off” Harry and Harriet like the plague. It is more than a touch ironic, I think, that the moniker “unchurched” stuck for Harry and Harriet rather than “unconverted,” because that is precisely what Harry and Harriet were—unconverted.

In addition, churches became “seeker sensitive,” which meant that most mega-churches either literally or figuratively ripped Romans 3:10b-12 out of the Bible (“as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.’”) The label “seeker” stuck and is still being used today. I suppose that the need for spiritual rebirth would not keep seekers coming back for more.

True discipleship was largely not practiced in the mega-churches, which meant that myriad adults attended church for decades and learned little or nothing about either the gospel or the Law of God. Practically, and Americans love practical Christianity—or so they say—the bottom line was that dad and mom came out of church smiling and feeling good about themselves and the kids had a great time with the relevant youth pastor, but no one was being taught biblically. Dad and mom were still at “square one” after years, junior and juniorette were not being catechized either at home or at church, and neither parents nor children could explain the rudimentary, elementary, and fundamental truths of Christianity. Sadly, that is more often than not still the case.

Fast forward to the Emergent Church Movement. The children of the mega-church devotees got fed up with the big crowds, the anonymity, and the lack of real community and they exited the mega-church, opting for something more intimate, more user-friendly. The caveat was that the kids, too, were still at square one, so when they went looking for a new church, it was the blind leading the blind. They found swearing pastors, they found newer and better music, and they found like-minded kindred spirits who thought that one of the first steps was for Christians to apologize for being so rude, arrogant, and bigoted, such as Don Miller, Anne Lamott, and Rob Bell. Mr. Bell became one of Oprah’s spiritual advisors and his latest claim to dishonor is his book denying the existence of hell, Love Wins.

Flash back to Ms. Ellis’ article in The State. She writes, “At Whaley Street United Methodist Church near downtown Columbia, the small crowd of remaining members are quick and cheerful to say they’re a ‘small but friendly’ church. A couple dozen people sat spaced out among the wooden pews on a Sunday morning earlier this summer, when Pastor Joe Cal Watson delivered an efficient sermon titled, ‘What is church?’ ‘I miss the days when church and Sunday were so important … the world stopped so we could focus on our faith,’ Watson said from the pulpit. ‘Sunday mornings still matter, he told the flock, but how the church treats people and helps people in need are more important.’”

Well, Pastor Joe Watson is part of the problem, isn’t he? As a theologian striving to tell the congregation what Scripture teaches about Christ’s Church he told them just the opposite. Therein lies a major problem. Pastor Joe is confused and cannot explain the difference between being a member of Christ’s Church and being a Social Justice Warrior or a devotee to the so-called Social Gospel that was neither biblically social nor biblically gospel.

The United Methodist Church is as bad if not worse than the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Sentient Christians ought to leave those denominations. Staying in such a denomination is tantamount to polishing the brass or arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. But this warning extends beyond one or two liberal mainstream denominations. It also reaches to those who have been attending a congregation—any congregation—that is not feeding them scripturally and where worship has no semblance to what God prescribes in the Bible.

When Will We Ever Learn?

Why haven’t we got it yet that all that “stuff” that was practiced in the early days by the mega-churches and later by the so-called emergent or emerging church did not, has not, and will not work? The Social Gospel in the ecclesiastical realm was as much of an abject failure as Socialism or Communism in the political realm. Yet, the Social Justice Warriors are still out trying to convince us that what the church needs to do is help people in need. That statement is about as vague and nebulous as a statement can be! What does it mean to “help”? Who are those who are in “need”? I do realize that some people genuinely need help and that some people are in need.

Typically, when we think of “need,” food and money come to mind. What does a person on welfare, who owns a car, a flat-screen HD TV, and a cell phone need? They need a Christian mentor. They need—desperately—for someone to present the gospel and then actually and truly disciple them, probably over a longer period of time.

We have endured the desecration of worship since the mid-1970s. Modern churches, striving to reach the culture, have taken a theological jackhammer to worship and have exchanged it for a tawdry sideshow.

We have tried ever gimmick in the book, and yet to the extent that Ms. Ellis is partially correct in her article it never seems to occur to us to go back to what the Church has done for millennia: Be the Church, the household of the true and living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). It is as if our motto was, “If two wrongs don’t make a right, why not try a third?”

For decades we have been trying every gimmick in the book to keep the people in the pews. It did not work then and it will not work now. Now those that we entertained to death and basically taught nothing of God’s truth are leaving. We did not feed them on the Word, but we entertained them. If loud music does not entertain them enough, crank up the decibel level. When the “worship team leaders” steps off the stage after a series of mind-blowing riffs and gives and receives high-fives on the way out from some of the, we are staring in the grim face of what we have done to God’s people. When the guitarist stands on the stage barefooted to demonstrate how cool he is and people accept his actions because no one wants to be perceived as judgmental, our gaze is fixed on the mesmerizing eyes of idolatry.

In her article, Ms. Ellis quotes, “‘The reality is that 80-plus percent of (S.C. Southern Baptist) churches are plateaued or declining, meaning they haven’t grown by any measurable percentage in 10 years, or they’ve actually lost membership,’ said Jay Hardwick, who leads the church-planting team for the S.C. Baptist Convention. ‘And a large percentage of those are in a window where if something drastic doesn’t happen within five to 10 years, they’ll close their doors. They won’t have anything.’”

Are we to understand that with every program conceivable and with the kind of music that shatters crystal that churches aren’t growing? Who knew? Are we to understand that departure from Scripture and scriptural preaching has caused people to lose interest in attending worship? Are we to understand that simply because the pastor is now unapproachable, does not offer catechetical instruction, and does not visit members in their homes and care for their spiritual needs that people are looking elsewhere?

The article proceeds and describes “pier church” at Myrtle Beach, SC and “bar church” at West Vista, SC. Since the fall of Adam into sin, sin has remained sin. The gross aberrations of sexuality listed in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament) run the gamut of perversions. A large part of the Church’s problems stems from the fact that she has spent too much time and energy looking, thinking, speaking, and acting like the world. She dresses like the world and flaunts the juvenile things the world flaunts. She admires and desires the things the world wants, and yet we wonder why the churches are emptying.

What is most needed in the “Bible Belt”? I am convinced that it is what is most needed everywhere: the pure milk of the Word of God. In other words, what will be of most spiritual benefit in the Bible Belt is for her to jettison all the accoutrements of the world and to tighten her biblical belt so that she returns to the Word of truth, so that she embraces that Word of truth with all of her heart, soul, mind, and strength, and that she prays to the Holy Spirit to help her live for Christ and to apply the undoubted doctrines of her faith in her daily life.

Oh, yeah. One more thing: If she has guitar players that revel in high-fives and wear no shoes in worship, that she tells them to behave as if they are in the presence of the Triune God, and if those guitar players refuse, they be given their final paychecks, thanked for their service, and be shown the door.

Dr. Ron Gleason is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America; he lives in South Carolina.