Southern California seminars tackle ‘The Challenge of the Empty Church.’
By Bobby Ross Jr. | The Christian Chronicle
MISSION VIEJO, CALIF. — Spiritual earthquake, meet holy imagination.
That’s one way to characterize the cultural and societal forces that brought together about 140 leaders representing 40-plus Churches of Christ on a recent weekend.
From Orange County to the Inland Empire, ministers, elders and other concerned Christians flocked to back-to-back seminars focused on “The Challenge of the Empty Church.”
“We had to put out more tables,” Scott Lambert, one of the organizers, said on a 63-degree Saturday morning as he welcomed about 60 leaders to the Mission Viejo Church of Christ’s fellowship hall.
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Then on Sunday afternoon, an even larger crowd — about 80 — showed up at the Magnolia Center Church of Christ in Riverside, nearly 50 miles from Mission Viejo.
Attendees came to hear church growth expert Stan Granberg expound on research contained in his 2022 book “Empty Church: Why People Don’t Come and What To Do About It.”
“If we don’t talk about the future, then what are we doing?” asked Carolyn Power, a Magnolia Center worship team member and deacon’s wife.
The history educator and mother of three did her doctoral dissertation on how Churches of Christ connect with Gen Z.
“We have to have a holy imagination to turn it around,” said Power, taking a break from working the registration desk at the Riverside meeting.
This story appears in the February print edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Photo provided by Grey Powell
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