1. Have a Careful Public Discussion of an/the Entire Bible in Church

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:17 (ESV)

Through having a careful discussion of an/the entire Bible in the context of its church services, a Protestant church can, at least under certain circumstances, increase, among other things, the knowledge of God, the understanding of how to live rightly, the breadth of thought, the biblical literacy, the ability to deal with (tough) questions and the credibility of its members.[1]

Now, such discussion need not generally be completed under the leadership of one single pastor or in the period of one year, five years or ten years. Both churches and church members generally last longer than that. Furthermore, such discussion can take another form than a sermon. When it comes to biblical passages which are very controversial within the community, a public dialogue may sometimes be preferable.

Arguably, at least in many cases, the careful discussion of an/the entire Bible should not either wholly or partly relegated to other church activities, since these are generally less central and less well attended than church services. This is, of course, not at all to claim that additional discussion in other contexts (such as family devotions or church Bible studies) is impermissible.

2. Add Additional Readings

The idea here is to have readings in addition to the reading(s) of Scripture in Protestant church services, at least from Christian texts that have stood the test of time. I am thinking here particularly of texts of Church Fathers, but part of the readings could be drawn from texts of medieval Christians, Protestant Reformers and others. This is one of the best ways available to us to quickly steep a lot of Protestants in Christian tradition and it is not even that different from things already happening in some Protestant churches (think here of the reading of creeds or the quoting of Augustine or C.S. Lewis).

3. Refer to Resources

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if during church services people were made aware of helpful Christian resources? That could happen during the sermon, but a church might also have a special moment during the service in which a good book, video or conference is (quickly) recommended or at least brought to the attention of those present.

Referring to resources in church services could help Protestants to more quickly find helpful answers to their questions and strong arguments for their beliefs, while getting them of the back of their overworked pastors.

4. Diversify Your Speakers

A pastor typically has only a fraction of the total amount of the knowledge of a church community and it is at least generally the case that much of the knowledge that the pastor doesn’t have is knowledge which would be useful for many members of the community to have. In light of this, we might conclude that it is a good idea if others beside the pastor give one or more talks within the context of church activities.

Isn’t there something to say for inviting the businessman, doctor or therapist in your church to speak on something on which they are an expert? Perhaps the gardener, factory worker or rubbish man in your church has something to add to the pastor’s ideas about faith and work? Maybe one of the mothers has some helpful things to say about parenting? Perhaps some of the elderly can help us see that things can be done differently than we are doing them now? Maybe some of the younger members can help us understand what challenges young Christians are facing at school, college or university?

5. Make & Establish Contact With Other Churches

If there is a ridiculous number of church denominations and independent churches today, then Protestants are largely to blame for this. Many Protestants have been schismatics or at least promoters of a deep sort of separation, even while many other Protestants have tried (often unsuccessfully) to keep everyone together. Indeed, perhaps the vast losses of Protestant churches in the West are not entirely surprising given how common it has been for Protestants to leave a church, never to return.

Of course, it is not always wrong to distance ourselves from a person or a group of people, but neither is it always wrong to reduce the distance between ourselves and others. One simple way of reducing the distance between a Protestant church and other (local) churches involves making and establishing contact between leaders of the various churches. This could be part of a larger strategy of seeking cooperation or even (re)union with other churches, but need not be. A Protestant church having a good relationship with other (local) churches is already something good (in general).

6. Sing a Mix of Beautiful Old and New Songs

Over the centuries many beautiful Christian songs have been written and many of them were written by Protestants. Let me just mention five older songs and two more recent songs that I find beautiful: Nearer, My God, to Thee; Up From the Grave He Arose; Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing; Hark! The Herald Angles Sing; O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; There is a Redeemer and O Praise The Name.

If the way a Protestant church survives in the West is to be both ancient and modern, then maybe that is also the way it sings.

7. Start a Course on Christian Life

Protestant churches establishing a course on living as a Christian will, at least under certain conditions, lead to more Protestants confidently living in a largely mainstream (or even ‘catholic’) Christian way. That will be more likely if instruction is complemented with argumentation and if the course is partially written or at least reviewed by knowledgeable Christians who are from other parts of the world and from other traditions (think of Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy).

The course could cover a whole host of topics such as study, friendship, marriage, celibacy, sex, procreation, parenting, family life, mission, helping others, church involvement, aging and death. Too be clear, the course materials need not provide people with a flawless description of ‘the Christian life’ to be of great benefit. If participants were merely (and humbly) presented with a vision for Christian living that was informed by a/the Bible, Christian tradition and scientific research, that might already benefit them greatly, especially if they were raised in a non-Christian home.

8. Establish One or More Reading Groups

Reading groups can be great for churchgoers who want to grow in knowledge and understanding and/or wish their pastor would offer more in-depth treatments of certain topics and/or would like to read books by well-known (Christian) scholars, but struggle to do so alone and/or would love to talk, discuss and argue about theological, philosophical and scientific matters with Christian peers.

If not for the sake of these kind of people, then, arguably, such groups should at least be established for the sake of the reputation of Protestant churches, which are now not commonly thought of as communities deeply committed either to serious study or to searching for greater understanding and truth.

9. Ask for Advice from Christians and Non-Christians

The idea here is roughly churches, church leaders or church members actively seeking out advice from people on how the church and/or its activities can be improved. Those at least initially opposed to this do well to consider (1) that church leaders by themselves typically do not know either all that can be improved about a church and its activities or all the ways in which the improvement can be brought about and (2) that asking for advice on how things can be improved is or can be a pretty effective way of getting a better understanding of what can be improved and how that might be accomplished.

10. Strengthen & Equip Those Who Go Where the Non-Christians Are

Perhaps church leaders sometimes spend too much time and energy trying to attract non-Christians to a few weekly, monthly or yearly church activities and too little time and energy strengthening, training and equipping church members who have close contact with non-Christians on an almost daily basis.

Even if such training is ordered towards mission and evangelism, it should perhaps not start at the level of learning useful conversational skills, but at the level of learning to ask God for more confidence that basic Christian claims are, in fact, true (if you haven’t noticed, serious doubt is widespread among at least Protestants in the West) and for a stronger desire to speak to others about core Christian claims and related matters.

Concluding Remarks

Hopefully, at least some of the advice above will seem to be good advice. I realize that an extensive case for the ten suggestions has not been offered here and that (consequently) some readers may have been left unpersuaded. Perhaps a fuller defense can be offered at some later time. Lastly, if there is a Protestant church doing more or less what has been suggested here, I would like to know about it, especially if it is thriving in the tough conditions of the West.

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[1] Talk of ‘an/the entire Bible’ may be confusing to some readers. It partly reflects an attempt to do justice to the fact that a modern Bible (e.g. an ESV Bible) is not, in one sense, the Bible.