Failure in the Church

“The church has failed the country. Where it once provided a voice for morality and influenced generations with God’s Word, the church’s voice is not well heard. The church no longer speaks with authority. The church is no longer relevant in the everyday lives of citizens. The church struggles to address modern life. The church has no answer for modern atheists.”
It is not unusual for people to think this way, even long ago. Consider the time of Abraham, 2,000 years before Jesus, when the people around Sodom and Gomorrah did not listen to God’s admonitions, nor did they repent. The prophet Elijah thought that he had failed at Mt. Carmel, and he wanted to die. God told him that 7,000 people in Israel had not bowed down to idols (1 Kings 19:4–21). About 600 years before Jesus came, the territory around Jerusalem failed to listen to God’s prophet Jeremiah and repent. Read Ezekiel, chapters 4 through 21, to see how a majority of people turned away from what God said to listen to false prophets. Because they worshiped idols, the Babylonian army took some into captivity and killed most of the rest.
When Jesus began His ministry, most of the Jews were either indifferent to Him or hostile. Did the church of believers fail? Was it their fault that the message of God’s Law and promise was so forgotten? Or had the worldly Sadducees and the puritanical Pharisees so twisted God’s law and promises that the people no longer heard the truth?
History continues to repeat itself in modern times. One hundred years ago, the Christian message was changed into doing good for the poor and you will find favor with God. Fifty years ago after World War II, materialism became the dominant “god” to fulfill life’s objectives. Since then, churches and theologians have jumped on one bandwagon after another. They abandoned Bible teachings for science “truths,” changed biblical morality for situation ethics, and abandoned Bible truths for relativism.
So did the church fail, or did the people fail to listen to God’s Word about repentance, faith in Jesus’ work of salvation, and living a holy life under God’s will? The prophet Ezekiel describes the reality of church history: So [my sheep] were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered (Ezekiel 34:5). Those who were supposed to be shepherds no longer considered the Bible as God’s inerrant Word, did not preach that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and did not tell the people about their sins or their need for Jesus as their Savior. The sheep have wandered into many new religious ideas and leaders looking to find their own paths to spirituality.
St. Paul prophesied that this would happen: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Timothy 4:3–4).
So, has the Christian Church failed? In reality—no. Jesus continues to send out faithful pastors and teachers, who teach the truths of God’s Word. God lets His Word shower upon many people in our nation and in the world. His Word does not return empty-handed, but accomplishes His will. God continues to call people to repentance, to create faith in sinful hearts through Baptism, and to sustain that faith with the Lord’s Supper. God hears our prayers and watches over His sheep, to feed them and protect them from evil. He has promised to bless those couples that remain in their marriages, nurture their children in the Word, and lead them by example to worship God each Sunday.
Certainly, we could do more to speak to others about Jesus, to shine the light of God’s love on our neighbors and friends, to send out more missionaries through the prosperity God gives us. However, God has not promised us how successful our efforts will prove. He has promised that His Word will accomplish whatever He wills (Isaiah 55:11).
This year’s convention essay emphasized the importance of the Christian family engaging children with Jesus. A greater emphasis on Christian education at home, at church, and in Christian schools will hold the next generation to God’s Word where they can influence others with the Gospel message.
Those who continue to hear, believe, teach, and confess the truths of God’s Word cannot fail. Jesus says, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). May we never fail to hear the comforting Word about Christ’s salvation and live in our baptismal grace.
Theodore Gullixson is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Madison, Wisconsin.