The Christian church has less and less meaning to people in America today. Sadly, recent studies report that two out of every ten churchgoers will exit their current expression of church in the next year.

And though this diminishing relevance of the modern church is disheartening, it’s also understandable.

I grew up Presbyterian, became a Baptist youth pastor, lived overseas on an evangelical mission, was the assistant to a travelling prophet, served the poor as a non-denominational, did justice work with the emergent’s and have enjoyed starting several house churches. I guess at worst, I’m a christian schizophrenic and at best, I’m well cultured. Regardless, through all my exposure to modern christianity, I -like many- have experienced both her flawed humanity and stunning virtue.

Even in the church’s Divine purpose, we are people that don’t always personify God well. And whether you find yourself in the ranks of those disillusioned with us or not, the following thoughts may help when attempting to navigate through the often precarious waters of modern Christianity.

1. Christianity is not an institution.

Thanks partly to the Industrial Revolution with it’s attempt to systematize everything, we are wired to love institutions. When the goal is to produce as much as possible, then why not build systems, plug people in and watch them produce exponentially more as a whole then they would as individual parts? Whether it’s a corporation or a routine in our homes, every one of these systems serve tremendous value in maintaining order and building tracks for us to accomplish more in life.

Sadly, we fail to approach our christianity differently than we do our systems. We bring our industrial mentalities of heartless performance and three step formulas into our attempts to walk with God and often find that a faith designed for relationship is not, in fact, institutional.

As our systems, built on formulas, are designed to be understood and mastered, relationship with the Divine is not. Life in God possesses a mystery that is designed to persistently and unashamedly invite us back to relationship.

Contrary to popular opinion, this connection between God and man doesn’t have a roadmap and cannot be approached like it does. It’s enigmatic nature simply requires that we leave our formulas at work, learn to hear his voice, and walk with God one day at a time.

2. Friendship is the Point.

I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly challenging to make sense of Christianity sometimes. I’ve heard the same passage of scripture preached a dozen different ways, each way contradicting the last. Even when I sit down to read the Bible, somewhere between attempting to transpose the new covenant on the old testament and the apostle Paul’s random ramblings to three thousand different churches, I often have the tendency to entirely miss the point of faith altogether.

Nonetheless, I am also very aware that if the Christian invitation is open to a child, than it can’t be nearly as complicated as I try to make it.

Our modern approaches to Christianity can be entirely cognitive and borderline heartless. We have this interesting habit of taking a book that was given with the intention to invite us into a relationship with the Divine and using it to contain Him. We limit our Christian experiences to only knowing more about Him.

Jesus often implied to this ambiguous concept that the reason he did everything he did was so that those that believed his message could have eternal life. And in a unique moment with his closest friends, he put parables aside and made some sense of the mysterious idea.

Jesus prays to the Father,

“This is eternal life, that they may intimately & experientially know You.”

The unique brilliance of Christianity is caught in this prayer. It’s personal. It’s relational. And it’s simple. God created humankind for friendship. And from this friendship, everything else that embodies Christianity flows.

For years, I left church every week with another 3 step plan to accomplishing more in my Christian life. And yet in the midst of all my Biblical pursuits, I never knew God. Sadly, I fear this to be the case for many attempting to navigate the modern complexities of the Christian faith.

The Christian invitation is far different than I understood it to be for so many years. It’s not primarily to understand more about God or to know more of what’s in the Bible or how to use my spiritual gifts to benefit the world – though these things have tremendous value. The Christian invitation is to cut through the noise, even the institutional christian noise, and learn to walk with a God who is intent on intimately doing life with us today.

Re-Engineering Our Approach.

Unfortunately, we – as the modern church – are often to blame for the disappointment many find in their Christian pursuits. Among other things, we often allow our leadership structures, programs and buildings to take priority over the very thing they were built to facilitate.

However, the most relevant challenge of modern Christianity is not so much to get rid of these systems. It’s to re-engineer them in a way that best supports and protects this non-institutional and relational approach to Christianity.

And when we do recover the heartbeat of this alluring faith, we may just become that city on a hill once again and watch as this current exodus away from the church changes directions.