In the fifty years from 1955 to 2005, churches of Christ have dwindled from 3.0 to 1.267 million members and from 18,000 to 12,963 congregations. While the population has doubled in the same period of time, membership in churches of Christ has declined 58%. At the average rate of decline of 34,660 members or 1.16% per year, churches of Christ will vanish by 2042.The facts above demonstrate the crisis that confronts churches of Christ. The year 2042 is not a prophecy, but a "guesstimate." Whether or not it's an accurate date, this small volume discusses eight problems that contribute to the crisis and deals with the issues.Even if there were no problems, and no impending extinction, denominational concepts of the body of Christ shouldn't be harbored among Christians striving to avoid denominationalism and the catastrophic damage it's caused in the religious realm. Were there no crisis, local churches should still be independent workgroups of disciples. While we hold doctrine to be extremely important, the attitude that we can spiritually "splendidly murder" others in the defense of it is totally anti-scriptural. Were there no crisis, we still need to cultivate the skills for dealing with brethren with whom we disagree.God doesn't need us to determine for others what the truth is on any controversial subject. Much more importantly, he desparately desires that we show forth his nature in the way we deal with each other. Few will deny that we fail to teach and learn from the entire Bible, not just the New Testament, the way serious disciples should. We've experienced authoritarianism and codependence for decades, perhaps not knowing what to call them, and how to remedy them.In short, most of us will agree with the horrific effects of at least some, if not all, of these eight problems on churches of Christ.
