Easter and the Church 2025

Churches of varying denominations, nationalities, and people groups will gather this weekend to celebrate Easter. Easter marks the kernel of the Christian faith—Jesus is risen from the dead! Easter celebrations typically record greater attendance numbers as the churched prioritize attending church, the de-churched return out of curiosity or habit, and the unchurched seek hope. For most, the swell in church attendance at Easter often recesses by summer. Therefore, as church leaders, we must remember that kingdom impact requires leadership committed to the long game of disciplemaking.

As early as the mid-1990s, scholars sounded the alarm that the Christian church was losing attendees and influence beginning in Western Europe. Over two decades and a global pandemic later, the alarm bells are going off for the Western church of the Global North in the United States. Attendance numbers will be more than healthy during the Easter season. However, the church must change, or it might continue losing ground in attendance and cultural influence.

Churches in the United States cannot remain divided over non-essential concerns, nationalism, and being known most for what the church is against while ignoring God’s mission. The Western Church in the United States must change its trajectory, finding new life and new hope in Jesus’ divine authority, the community of His body, and living sent, empowered by the Holy Spirit on God’s mission with Jesus.

Connecting with God and one another and engaging in a gospel-centered mission is not a new approach in the history of the Christian church. Connecting with God, others, and mission is Sentral to disciplemaking. Connecting with God and His mission brings purpose and direction to our smaller communities and how we live on mission as part of the church. Our smaller communities' missional encouragement and accountability reinforce our connection with God and His mission and help us plan and engage in missional living. As we live sent with God in our disciplemaking journey, we increase our connection with Him and His mission, and we are supported, encouraged, and held accountable by the people in our smaller missional encouragement communities.

The Western church is missing disciplemaking as a missional launching mechanism. Divine knowledge or connecting with God and His mission is good, but we can be over-trained and over-inspired if we are never challenged or mobilized toward God’s mission. The Western church needs a new perspective, challenging how we view the Church, engage in disciplemaking, and participate daily in God’s mission.

The problem facing the Western Church in the United States of diminishing attendance

 and influence did not happen overnight. Recent research reinforces concerns about the Church in the United States following the same trajectory as the Church in Western Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problems of declining church attendance and people leaving the Christian faith. Approximately ten million people did not return to church physically or virtually, and in the years following the pandemic, declining attendance sidelined the church's influence in many communities. However, there is hope. We will not find an instant fix; long-term problems  require long-term solutions.

We must be engaged in long-term disciplemaking. We need to be ready for the next defining moment, the next move of the Spirit, the next revival. In 2020, a pandemic was a defining moment; in April 2025, Easter is a defining moment. The church and how we approach disciplemaking must change from a landing pad to a launching platform. Therefore, how we lead must change, how we engage in the church must change, and how we live our lives must change.

The church must change. What is your role in God’s gospel mission?

Consider these three questions:

Why you?

Why here (where you live, work, and play)?

Why now?

God is on the move; will you join Him?

From Chapter Three of Revive: Leading Change—Igniting Movement by Jim Strecker