Note: I’ve written a book about this, which is available on Amazon.

Many people today recognize that the church is dying, and so they do everything they can to pump new life back into it. “We need nicer buildings,” they say. “Better trained pastors. Exciting children’s programs. Lively music. More money.” But no matter which measurement you use, none of it seems to be working.

Robert Farrar Capon said it best when he wrote this:

The church can’t rise because it refuses to drop dead. The fact that it’s dying is of no use whatsoever: dying is simply the world’s most uncomfortable way of remaining alive. If you are to be raised from the dead, the only thing that can make you a candidate is to go all the way into death. Death, not life, is God’s recipe for fixing up the world.

Many Christians, of course, look forward to dying. We love to quote what Paul wrote in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Yes, many Christians say they are ready to die, for that means they get to enter heaven and spend eternity with God and all their loved ones, free from pain, sin, suffering, and temptation.

When my youngest daughter was four, we were sitting at the dinner table one night when she said, “Daddy, I hope I die soon so I can go to heaven to be with Jesus.” Those are shocking words to hear from a four year old, but they reflect the theology of most Christians, and probably what we had inadvertently taught her ourselves. I tried to explain to her that being with Jesus is not about dying, but about living. It is not about the future by-and-by, but the present here and now. “I hope you live a very long time,” I told her, “so that you can show the love of Jesus to those who do not know that He loves them.”

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Followers of Jesus will be characterized by death and resurrection.

We all want to experience the resurrected life of Jesus, but before we can rise to new life in the future, we must die to ourselves and die to our past. The church that does not die chooses instead to live in a vegetative state on artificial life support.

We cling to the past, to the traditions and to the forms of church handed down to us from the eras of Constantine, the Reformation, and Industrialism. Churches that cling to these past forms are still living, but without any real life. This fight to keep from dying allows us to survive, but only as the living dead.

It is when we embrace death that we rise again to new life.

Death Before Life

This cycle of life is seen in the pattern of day and night, the cycle of seasons, and the following of one generation upon another. The importance of death and resurrection is the identifying characteristic of Jesus Himself, and is the central theme in all Scripture.

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There are several characteristics which define and identify those people and churches who are following Jesus into the world.

First, they will be known for their love.

Christians should be the most loving people on earth, not just by what we say, but by what we do. People should not have to be told that Christians are loving, but should tangibly see our love in what we do for others daily.

One of the best ways to reveal this is not just in loving one another, but also in loving those whom others hate.

In Luke 6:27-28, Jesus tells His disciples that they must be characterized by love for their enemies. They must love them, bless them, and pray for them. In a world that wants the death and destruction of our enemies, those who love, bless, and serve their enemies are viewed as traitors.

In 178 AD, a harsh critic of Christianity named Celsus said this about Christians: “What is this preference for sinners over others?” He found it incredulous that Christians seemed to prefer the sinful people in society over the upright and outstanding citizens. He found it shocking and absurd that Christians went out of their way to serve and love the rejects and outcasts in their cities. But this is the way of Jesus, is it not?

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In my book, Skeleton Church, I suggest that church is best defined as “The people of God who follow Jesus into the world.” Jesus wants to take the church out of our buildings and into the streets and parks of our towns to love and serve the people who are there.

What will this look like in your town and your community?

Yesterday I began to ask this question by challenging you to try to look like Jesus. I suggested a few ways to move in this direction, but let’s get down to brass tacks.

What can Your Church do to Look Like Jesus?

Here is my answer: I have no idea.

Nobody really knows what church will look like ten, twenty, or a hundred years from now. Even the path to get wherever we are going is full of questions and uncertainty.

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Of the following two pictures, which one would you say looks more like Jesus?

Yesterday I proposed that for the church to move forward in what God desires for the church, we must seek to look ever more like Jesus.

The problem with looking like Jesus is that nobody really knows what it means. Every church in existence thinks they are representing Jesus.

So while it is easy to say “The church should look like Jesus,” the real question before us is, “What does that mean?”

What does it mean to look like Jesus?

What will the church look like when it looks like Jesus? What will the church do? Where will it meet? Who will belong to it? Who, if anyone, will lead it? How will it learn? How does it serve? Whom will it serve? What will it teach?

And on and on the questions go.

The truth is that thankfully, Jesus gives great flexibility to His Body. The grace of God gives us vast freedom in our attempts to express and exhibit Christ to the world. Will this mean that sometimes a particular local church will own a building and have paid clergy who preach and perform religious rituals like baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Yes, probably so.

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Close Your Church for Good is a book about deconstructing the church. It has argued that to be and do all that Jesus desires, the church must transform itself from a property-holding, power-wielding, people-controlling institution, and become a relational-driven, service-oriented, self-sacrificial incarnation of Jesus Christ.

Yet at the end of this book, you may be left wondering what is left of the church as we know it? I have suggested we give up our clergy and our buildings, that we cancel the Sunday service, the prayer meetings, and all other church programs. I called on pastors to stop preaching, and church leadership to get rid of their doctrinal statement. I invited Christians to stop evangelizing. If a church actually did all this, what would be left?

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The Epilogue to my book, Close Your Church for Good, is subtitled “Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus.”

Though most of the book has been somewhat critical of church, and has deconstructed or torn away much of what people associate with church, I wanted to close with a section that provides some suggestions for how the church can move forward, and how the church can be transformed from a religious institution into a missional movement.

This closing section attempts to inspire you to accomplish the change that Jesus wants for His church.

Please note that due to some of the feedback I receive on these posts, this epilogue might be radically revised for the final edition of the book. These changes will only be available in the print or eBook version when it comes out.

Here are the blog posts that form the epilogue:

• Church Looks Like Jesus
  • How to Look Like Jesus
  • Following Jesus into the World
  • Following Jesus into Love
  • Following Jesus into Death
• How to Survive a Dying Church
  • Why the Church Cannot Rise
  • How the Church Glorifies Death
  • Living Fully Free
• Wanted: Missional Entrepreneurs
• No Place or Person is Too Sinful
• What’s Next for Your Church (Where to go from here)
  • The Bible we Want vs. The Bible God Gave
  • Why is the Bible a Story?
  • How to Properly Read the Story of Scripture
  • How Scripture Changes Lives
  • Listen to Your Own Prayers
  • How to hear the Voice of the Spirit
  • Stop Christian Cloning
• Christianity Cannot be Organized
• Follow Jesus by Following Culture
  • How the Holy Spirit Guides Culture
  • Learn from Culture to Become the Church
• Why the church should not stick with what works
• The Church that Risks