America and Europe are entering a “post-Christian culture.” Don’t worry, Christianity’s not going anywhere (at least not for a while [see Luke 18:8]). For Westerners, however, it can no longer be taken for granted as the default religion.
In my last fifteen years as a pastor, I have a chance to observe how church leaders are reacting to the smaller numbers in the pews, and I regret to say that most of their solutions are short-sighted and show little understanding of the problem.
Imagine we are the inhabitants of a ten-story apartment building. Now imagine that first floor of this building is on fire. Finally, imagine that we are uninterested about what to do about the fire down on the first floor because we are arguing about how to decorate our apartment. That is the present condition of many American churches. They are passionate about small issues while many of their children and grandchildren are deciding whether the faith itself is even true. Too often Christians keep ignoring their children’s questions and the questions of those around them as long as possible. Then, in desperation, they offer their children and neighbors some new styles of music, trade their suits for jeans, and redecorate their sanctuary.
"Young People today...want the truth, not gimmicks"
To their credit, the young people of today are fairly immune to the slick salesmanship of the baby-boomer generation. They want the truth, not gimmicks, and to that extent their attitude has more integrity and more spirituality than that of their parents’ generation. It also has fewer guarantees. In the absence of truth, some are willing to shelve religious questions altogether and settle for an ethic of live-and-let-live. Others are turning toward more traditional brands of Christianity, like Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Anglicanism. Either way, however, Protestant evangelicalism as we knew it, at least as it was in the 80s and 90s, is substantially over.
Such change isn’t always bad, and it is not without precedent in the Bible. In the days of Isaiah the prophet, he said the people of God would be tried as with fire until only a stump remained (Is. 6:11-13). Likewise, in the days of John the Baptist, John had said that the Messiah would thresh God’s house as a winnower threshes grain, separating the wheat from the chaff (Matt. 3:12). I think we are entering a similar season in the church today. The times do not call for better salesmanship, but for a deeper and more intelligent expression of the Christian faith than many of us were raised with, a faith we grow into rather than out of. The churches will probably be smaller, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there will be fewer Christians. On the contrary, it may mean a purer faith among those who name the name of Christ, and that is a good thing.
I am excited to be a pastor in these new and challenging times, and especially to be on this journey with you as together we learn what it means to follow Christ in the 21st century. As we remain faithful to him, he will remain faithful to us, and I believe we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
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