We Need to Change

According to the latest George Barna study (found here), 80% of Americans are "self-identifying Christians."  The study shows some possibly surprising qualities of this group.  54% of them do not read their Bible outside of an organized worship service or Bible study, 53% do not attend church on a weekly basis, 78% are not involved in volunteer work at a church, 82% do not attend Sunday School, and 31% have not attended any kind of church service in the last six months.  The most worrisome statistic is that only 48% of self-identifying Christians can be termed as "Born Again" Christians (Barna's term, referring to those "who contend they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today, and who also believe they will enter Heaven solely because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior").  

With the advent of postmodernism and the increased openness to spirituality, the thought among the theological talking heads was that the Church had a great opportunity to introduce people to Christ.  But if this Barna study is accurate, the Church has lost some serious ground in the past 20 years.

There is no doubt that part of the problem can be attributed to a loss of confidence in the Bible.  Only 43% of  today's self-identifying Christians have a strong confidence that the Bible is accurate in the principles it teaches (please note the difference between this and the doctrine of inerrancy).  One wonders how one can be a follower of Christ when one lacks confidence in the book that reveals his person and work.

We could simply attribute this to the fact that there are a lot of people out there calling themselves Christians who really have no concept of what the term actually means.  However, we must realize that all of these numbers dropped except for the number of those who could be described by Barna as "Born Again" (that number increased by 7%).  In fact, the drop in religious behavior among "Born Agains" was more steep than the larger pool of self-identifying Christians--14% drop in Sunday School attendance, 12% drop in volunteerism, 9% drop in Bible reading, and 7% drop in weekly church attendance.  So "Born Agains" increased over the past 20 years, but their involvement in Christian activity declined more sharply than did that of the "nominal" Christians!

The drop in Sunday School attendance should not be as alarming as the other indicators, due to the shift from Sunday school to small groups.  But the rest of the data points to an overall malaise affecting the Church here in the United States.  What is the culprit?

People give me many reasons for why they don't invest in things like Sunday school/small groups, church attendance, volunteering, and Bible intake.  But for the most part, it boils down to choices.  People today have so many options at their fingertips, and generally speaking, priorities are not stacked according to what will provide the most spiritual benefit.  Instead, whatever will provide instant and/or material gratification makes it to the top of the list, and if church activities can be squeezed in, well and good.  If not, it's no big deal; God understands we lead busy lives, right?

I think there's a definite correlation between the lack of interest in spiritual things and the sharp decline in volunteerism.  But we also need to understand that we live in a consumer culture. In such an environment, everyone's looking for the best "product" out there; but today no one's willing to sacrifice in order to improve their church's "product."  Thus smaller churches continue to grow smaller, as less people volunteer, more people want a better product, and the staff, for the most part, is left trying to do everything and meet every need on its own (and ends up doing a poor job).  Also note that this says nothing of the struggles a small church has in being other-oriented in its efforts; if people aren't willing to serve to benefit themselves, they are even less willing to serve to meet the needs of "outsiders."

I don't think that watering down doctrine is the answer.  I doubt that making hell disappear, ignoring or even embracing sin, or marketing a cheap grace free of all responsibility will cause of any of these trends to reverse themselves.  In fact, if I were a betting man, I would wager that such tactics have contributed in part to what we are seeing take place.

At the same time, I don't think the answer is to make Christianity into a legalistic religion emptied of its power.  This was the approach the Pharisees took in their zeal to keep Judaism pure, and it completely backfired on them.  When our devotion to Christ becomes a "have-to" rather than a "want-to," we've missed the point.

More than anything, I think we need to relearn the secret joy of grace.  Perhaps a big reason for the church's funk here in America is that many of us simply feel we are entitled to the blood of Christ.  (After all, we've spent all of our lives listening to the culture tell us how we deserve anything we want.)  When we approach the cross with a sense of entitlement, it is easy for us to cavalierly give God thanks and go about our business.  But when we realize that what we are receiving is so far out of our own power to earn, it generally results in an outpouring of thanks and praise, and we want to draw closer to Christ and actively share him with others.

If we can only grasp a little bit of the significance of God's grace, it would change our perspective.  Parents would be more interested in the likelihood of their children becoming followers of Jesus rather than in the very slim chance of them becoming professional athletes.  People who have only Sunday to sleep in might be more willing to get up for church and take a nap in the afternoon.  Those who are too busy to read the Bible or join a small group or Sunday school class might realize that some of their other activities aren't nearly as profitable.  I know that all of us are busy people, but all of us have a choice in what makes us busy.

I have found that practicing the Christian faith requires us to walk the tightrope of responsible grace.  It is a balancing act between legalism and cheap grace.  Only keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, can save us from doing more than the occasional misstep to the right or to the left.  We've been given the greatest gift the world has ever known; it is a shame to abuse it or neglect it.

But understand this:  I'm not talking to those who are too busy to invest in Christian gatherings or practices.  I am talking to those of you who are there week in and week out, who do show up when volunteers are called for, who are investing in the spiritual disciplines.  I'm asking you to commit to these things for the joy of them, for like it or not, those around us will not be moved to do what we do unless they see that these practices are making a positive difference in our lives.  Postmodernism may not have brought people flocking back into the church, but it has definitely ousted the notion that people ought to do things simply because that's how things are done.

I'm calling you to do these things for the joy of them, and to share your joy with those around you.  I'm calling you to recapture the joy and wonder of God's grace.  We need to change in order that those around us can see the change in us, want it, and commit to the things that will help them change, too.