By: Jojo Ruba

Almost 30 years ago, Mr. Bud, the choir director at my high school, had a vision to revive school musicals. These musicals would include singing, instruments, and even elaborate dance numbers taught by his wife. On our first day of practice, he sat all the students down who wanted to be involved and warned us that in order to produce a spectacular show, we needed to fully commit evenings, weekends, and any other odd hours. When he started assigning practices on Sunday morning, I pointed out to him that my brother and I could not take part in practices then because we were at church. He made a grumpy face and then asked if anyone else was in the same boat. Thankfully, enough students raised their hands to make him change his Sunday plans.

I am reminded of Mr. Bud’s question when I think about the role of church in students’ lives today. How many would be willing to prioritize going to church over an important practice? Would any be going to church at all?

In fact, since the Covid crisis, churches have faced drastic declines in attendance.  Last month, the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) and Leger polling found the number of Canadians who said they never attend services jumped from 30 percent pre-pandemic to 67 percent. Though the poll found a majority of Canadians still believed in God, it also found that that 60.5 percent of Canadians who say they strongly believe in God never or rarely attended a religious service since the beginning of the pandemic. (https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/while-church-attendance-among-canadians-plunges-belief-in-god-stays-nearly-level-poll)

For young people, the numbers are even worse. According to the same poll, only 41 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 say they believe in God, compared to 64 percent of those 55 years of age or older.

No wonder almost every person in church ministry I’ve talked to, shares anecdotal evidence about how their church attendance has drastically declined, including at my own church. Members perhaps attend online services for a while but then slowly stop showing up. A few rare churches have grown but only because Christians from other churches that have followed restrictions, have joined them. Some of these never return to their old congregation. These churches though are often targeted by government or by-law officials for disregarding the law. Both trends point to chaos among our churches because of Covid.

Check out our Friendlies!

*Click the image to go to their site.

This year at Faith Beyond Belief, we want to focus on the need for God’s people to rebuild after this time of crisis. Thankfully, we aren’t the first to face this task. The book of Nehemiah focuses on the work of a Jewish cupbearer tasked to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, long broken down when God sent non-believers to punish His people for their disobedience. By looking at the life of Nehemiah, we can glean key lessons about why God’s people ought to rebuild after a great calamity and how we can do so successfully. Every month, we want to feature a lesson we can learn from this Old Testament book in our blogs, podcasts and seminars. 

In the opening chapter of the book, Nehemiah is told that the first group of Jewish exiles to return to Jerusalem had not rebuilt the walls of the city and needed help. Nehemiah immediately knew that without the walls, the city of Jerusalem was just another broken city – one that had no influence or importance. But with the walls rebuilt, the city would be a testament of how God had not abandoned His people. They were still to be His witnesses among unbelieving people, of God’s existence and faithfulness.

In the same way, rebuilding the church after this crisis is a testament to this culture about how the church is still a critical and relevant part of our nation. We want Canadians to know that we all still need community and that the best community centers around the person and work of Christ. 

Rebuilding the church in this culture also requires Christians to have a robust and pervasive biblical worldview. We need to show Canadians how the Christian worldview is both intellectually sound and morally good. This way, we can counter the growing trend among young people to reject any religious views as well as those who blame all believers for wrong done by a few, such as wrongs involved in residential schools. 

Our hope is that as we feature these lessons from scripture about rebuilding, the people in your church and ministry will know that they are not alone in this important work. We all need to work together to meet this challenge. Moreover, the task of rebuilding the church is critical because it isn’t about building up our organizations or ministries. Rather, it is about building into the lives of believers who then are able to build into the lives of their unbelieving friends. Just like Nehemiah, the task of rebuilding begins when we admit there is a problem that must be addressed and commit to do something about it.