Anyone who visits England cannot help but be overwhelmed by the dominating physical presence of the churches that dot the landscape. Be it major city or quiet country village, there are churches everywhere. Hardly a block goes by, even in the heart of London, that one doesn’t pass another church. I suspect one could easily spend an entire year in London alone just visiting churches. Nowhere else in my travels has the church so dominated the landscape and yet it is reported that less than 15% of the English are members of a Christian congregation.

In a country where you can’t even turn around but for bumping into another church building, the tiniest of minorities call themselves church members.

What has happened?

There are countless theories and it is presumptuous of me to add mine but lovingly I offer this:

Somewhere along the line, the church in England lost its radical association with a wandering band of twelve impoverished disciples and one offensive leader. Somewhere, somehow, the church changed its allegiance with the powerless and the poor to the powerful and the rich. Great cathedrals no longer witnessed to the glory of God but the machinations of men. The church became an institution of culture instead of a loving critic of institutions. Suddenly the church was seen as a fortifier of the status quo rather than a champion of those with no status at all.

All of this does not mean that the church in America is any better.

It is precisely the same, only younger.

And certainly no wiser.