The Churches of Our Movement Were Made for This

By Michael C. Mack

I believe the Restoration Movement is a strong and vibrant movement with a bright future. Here are four reasons I believe that’s true.

First, our movement is in good hands. Every feature writer this month is under the age of 45, and many are in their 20s and 30s. We sought younger writers to make a point. As one young writer, Josh Ross, put it, “In the kingdom of God, the movement is before us, not behind us.”

While we often look back at the rich history of our movement, it’s time to look to the future. You may notice that several writers are preachers’ kids; others point to their Bible college education or the churches where they grew up. Either way, the next generation of leaders has been mentored and equipped to lead our churches well. They will lead differently than leaders in the past—and that’s good! No one generation has all the answers for the best ways of doing ministry, and often the next generation needs to correct the mistakes of the previous ones. Those of us who are older should—must—listen to God speaking to us through younger voices. And, of course, the opposite is also true.

This issue was a multigenerational team effort. Thanks go to Tyler McKenzie, who wrote our lead article in this issue; we met together and discussed the theme, topics, and whom we might ask to write. As a young preacher himself, Tyler was a valuable resource because of his relationships with many other young preachers. I also thank several “older” men, especially David Fincher and Kent Fillinger, who gave me more names of young preachers to contact.

This points to another strength in our movement:

Though our churches are often described as “independent,” we actually are quite interdependent. While each church is governed autonomously, we know we are better together. After all, we are a unity movement, and that results in a beautiful synergy.

That being said, our decentralized nature is still one of our biggest strengths. A network of autonomous churches has many advantages over denominational structures. In February 2020 the Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece, “Thank God, American Churches Are Dying.” Erica Anderson wrote that while thousands of churches in America, particularly denominational churches (Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic) are dying, “nondenominational, evangelical churches are growing in number.” Anderson pointed to one big reason for that growth: an emphasis on church multiplication, and she quoted Dave Ferguson, lead pastor at Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois, and president of Exponential, about those upward trends. If the current growth (from 4 percent to 7 percent over the last four years) of multiplying churches continues, Ferguson said, “it will change the spiritual landscape.”

Our movement has a distinct opportunity, if we will take it. “Those with denominational affinity will be sad to see a certain kind of church fall away,” said Anderson. “But the success of new models shows significant groups of people looking for ways to live faithfully, albeit in a less structured way.”

The WSJ writer then asked a significant question: “Could this really signify a religious awakening?”

Our movement is attractive to a world in need of hope and real life—a world tired of labels and rules and power structures and all kinds of add-ons to the original. But we identify ourselves with the original, which we believe is worth restoring.

A major strength of the Restoration Movement is that we are, well . . . a movement. Movement can simply mean “the act or process of moving.” We have two preeminent calls to action from Jesus: “Follow me” and “Go!” We must resist a drift into preservation and passivity; we are a people of action.

I’m writing this in early April, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. And I’m seeing an admirable response from many of our churches across the country. We have no denominational headquarters telling us how to respond, and churches are dealing with the crisis in many different ways. One might think this would lead to chaos, but the opposite is true . . . because the head of the church is Christ and his Spirit is guiding each one. I’ve seen churches helping one another, churches and parachurch ministries talking together, working together, banding together to continue taking the good news to people who desperately need it. I see incredible creativity and innovation in teaching, fellowshipping, sharing, serving, and loving others. God has prepared us for such a time as this. As Tyler McKenzie said at Northeast Christian during the crisis, “We wouldn’t have prayed for this, but we were made for this!”

Indeed, the church Jesus founded, his body, was made for responding to a world in crisis, to a world in need of a cure, to a world in need of a Savior. Yes, I believe we were made for this.