Frozen in Time: Why Churches Get Stuck in the Past
Exploring the Causes and Consequences of the Church at a Standstill
Every now and then, I revisit the website of my former church to check out their latest bulletin. I don’t know why, but I feel compelled to look. Maybe it’s because I gave ten of the best years of my life serving those people. Maybe it’s because I belonged there once, or perhaps I lived with the illusion of belonging. Maybe it's because many of the people there are good, decent people who simply have no idea that they are living inside a church bubble so detached from the world outside, content in their routines, unaware of the stagnation that had taken hold.
Each visit to the website is a bittersweet reminder of my past, a glimpse into a community that hasn’t changed while I have moved on — mostly without any tangible proof that anyone at the church cares.
Whenever I read the latest church bulletin, I find that the same people are running the same programs as a decade ago, and the same sermon topics are being rotated through again. Everyone and everything looks older than the last time I checked. Innovation, if there is any, is kept well hidden in the pages of the church bulletin, which also hasn’t changed.
