Articles

Two articles came my way today. Each in their own way have given me much to think about.

The first was reported by Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press with the headline of "More Americans say they have no religion." The survey was the American Religious Identification Survey.

This article points out that the number of Americans who say they have no religion is growing and is now at 15%. Roughly 75% identify themselves as Christian and another 10% identify themselves as other (Jewish, Muslim, etc). This is down from 86% in 1990.

There is a downward trend in the number of Americans who say that they are Christians. And remember, just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't mean that you are one.

The second article was in The Christian Science Monitor by Michael Spencer and titled "The coming evangelical collapse."

Mr Spencer expects that within the next ten years there will be a major collapse in evangelicalism in the United States. The main points are that evangelicals have tied themselves too closely to political conservatism in the culture wars. We have also failed to pass on to our young the ability to withstand a cultural onslaught on their faith. They know what they should think but not why.

It pretty much comes down to a widespread ignorance of the Bible. We have failed to become biblically literate. We have failed to use the Bible as a relevant tool in our day to day life.

A couple of good passages from the article:

"American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success."

We miss the boat. From our performance based worship services and corporate style church governance, we have allowed the culture to dictate how we do church. This includes the rise of the modern mega church and the continued fragmentation of denominations.

Mr Spencer also asks the question: Is the coming collapse a bad thing?

I don't think so. First of all I don't necessarily agree with his basic premise that the evangelical church will collapse within the next ten years. But as I have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the corporate church and canned, passive, performance based worship, I have come to the conclusion that radical change is sometimes a desirable thing. And sometimes that radical change is painful to all involved.

And finally, Mr Spencer states:

"We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture."

Amen, brother.

We need to be aware of whose we are and where we are. And I think that all too often we forget that.