Is church dying? There are predictions that in the next several years, churches in the United States will decline by around one quarter. Those who value church might ask the question “How can we reverse this trend?”

Consider a church in California that was on the brink of closing. They had a large building to maintain, and the membership had dwindled. But the four remaining members loved church and managed to keep going, as they felt it was important for a Church of Christ, Scientist, to have a presence in their community. The members continued with services and other church activities. But even more significantly, they committed to praying, because they realized that prayer was of primary importance in fulfilling their healing mission. 

The change wasn’t immediate. But about a year and a half later, the church got a call from someone who was looking for a Christian Science publication. The caller was delighted to hear that the church also offered Sunday and Wednesday services. She started attending and soon joined the church. Then, two others started coming. The increase in attendance and activity has given this church hope.

This isn’t a story simply about a few folks finding their way through the doors of a local church. It’s about what undergirds church—what Church is in its truest sense. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, offers this inspired concept of Church in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle” (p. 583). 

In Science and Health, the words Truth, Love, and Principle are used as synonyms for God. So in this context, Church is more than a human institution governed or maintained by people. Church is spiritual, and is structured and supported by God. It isn’t subject to demographics or cultural trends, which change and shift, or skepticism about organized religion. It is eternal.

When we’re looking at brick-and-mortar churches with dwindling memberships, it may be hard to see the spiritual idea of Church. Yet, it is possible to have our involvement with church, and our expectation for its prospects, flow out from this spiritual sense of things. How?

A key theme in the Bible, particularly in Christ Jesus’ ministry, is the power of divine Life, God, to overcome death. This offers some helpful guidance as to how we can think about concerns that church could be dying. One powerful account is the one in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the grave. Despite the report of his friend’s death, Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus hadn’t died; he was asleep. The disciples thought he was mistaken. After all, Lazarus was already in the tomb. But Jesus was clear in his conviction.

Church is a forever-established spiritual idea.

When Jesus arrived at Lazarus’ grave, he wasn’t dismayed that Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus prayed and thanked God for always hearing his prayer. “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth” (John 11:43, 44).

To Jesus, it didn’t matter that everyone believed Lazarus was dead. He was able to discern life right in the face of the opposite physical evidence. What gave him such faith? He knew that God is the creator of all—is unending, unstoppable Life itself. His understanding of God anchored his ministry in the spiritual reality of divine Life, filling all space. In this Life, death can’t exist. Jesus’ conviction of life was so clear that he knew death was impotent to hide the reality that Lazarus actually lived. 

Although we may not be at the point of approximating Jesus’ works, his experience with Lazarus can help us see the potential for revitalizing church. It reveals that there is profound power in the spiritual reality that Jesus saw and that the same understanding is here to inspire our own prayers. This will inevitably bring more life to light in our churches.

Those faithful church members in California who glimpsed the import and practicality of Jesus’ demonstration were able to see life in the church they loved. They caught a glimpse of the eternal nature of Church. The spiritual essence of “the structure of Truth and Love” was inextinguishable to those church members. And they proved it in some measure. 

This power, or Christ, that Jesus embodied and these church members witnessed is universal. It lifts and resurrects our individual views of church so we can see the true Church, eternal and always present, at work in our own churches. It destroys apathy, divisiveness, fear, and lack and brings out the unity and healing power inherent in the spiritual idea of Church.

The answer to the question “Is church dying?” is “No, Church is a forever-established spiritual idea.” As we love and cherish its purpose, we can see the solidity and permanence of Church and its ongoing capacity to fulfill its mission of healing.

Deborah Huebsch, Guest Editorial Writer