Losing Our Religion?
With all due respect to the R.E.M. song from the early 90's, it would appear that the Western World is leaving its religious roots. Recently, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a study which indicated that up to 44% of the US population has left the faith tradition of the family in which they were raised. Further, it was noted that 51% of the population claim to be Protestant in the country as compared with over 70%, 20 years ago.
It is not that people are necessarily leaving Christianity. It is that they are leaving the tradition of their family. In fact, the fastest growing churches in the US seem to be non-denominational churches. Time was that if you were born Methodist, Lutheran, Nazarene or Salvo, you stayed that way. Not so now.
In fact, it appears that the days of denominational loyalty are long gone. George Barna in his book "Revolution" predicted this a couple of years back. He indicated that he saw a day of boutique churches and the occasional mega-church, where people will pick and choose their place of worship.
To answer this, several denominations have started aggressive recruitment campaigns and media blitzes. These recruitment campaigns focus on joining a denomination. I am not sure those I have seen actually concentrate on joining the church. They seem more focused on denomination building. This is not to accuse those who want to build their denominations of being ungodly. I trust their motivation. I think that their methods are not effective and will probably not produce strong disciples. I hope I am wrong on the latter statement.
Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman quotes Professor Donald Miller, of the Religious Studies Department at USC, in a recent column "You are the artist of your own life when it comes to religion," says Miller. "This enables people to be more thoughtful about what they perceive to be true and right rather than inheriting what passes down to them."
For years, I have thought that one of the things that has hampered us from making true disciples is that we have not allowed for strong questioning or opposing opinion in the Body of Christ. If someone questions doctrine or ecclesiastical practice, they are somehow branded as a malcontent, or worse, a heretic. Unfortunately, unquestioning loyalty is often rewarded, I believe, at the expense of a thoughtful, active faith.
Even family members of mine have had people tell them to get over their questions. They need to get past their hurts or anxieties. I have seen this questioning and denomination hopping not as unfaithfulness as much as I see it as a deep desire to discover deep meaningful faith.
Goodman writes, "I don't think Americans are just shopping for their beliefs in a trivial sense, trying on creeds like this year's vestment, searching for the latest spiritual fashion. But we are a people on the move. About 40 million of us move to another home every year. So too, we drop in and out of church, U-Hauling our beliefs off in search of a better fit. Today, we may shop in a spiritual mall. But what good fortune to find the mall paved over the old religious battlefields"
So I have been thinking very deeply these days about this subject. I am wondering if there will be a day when most of our denominations will close up shop? I see a day coming when we will need to change our idea of church. I continue to wonder if we are more concerned about building denominations and not the Kingdom. I know that each denomination sees itself as having certain distinctives theologically and in practice. I would submit, however, that most people really could not tell you the difference.
Where does this leave us who are faithful to denominations? Are we at the point where we are losing our religion? Is denominational loyalty important? Is it more important that we ask people join a cause for Christ or a church?
I have been rolling these thoughts through my mind. Is my questioning somehow being unfaithful? As with all of my posts, I want to know.....
What do you think?
It is not that people are necessarily leaving Christianity. It is that they are leaving the tradition of their family. In fact, the fastest growing churches in the US seem to be non-denominational churches. Time was that if you were born Methodist, Lutheran, Nazarene or Salvo, you stayed that way. Not so now.
In fact, it appears that the days of denominational loyalty are long gone. George Barna in his book "Revolution" predicted this a couple of years back. He indicated that he saw a day of boutique churches and the occasional mega-church, where people will pick and choose their place of worship.
To answer this, several denominations have started aggressive recruitment campaigns and media blitzes. These recruitment campaigns focus on joining a denomination. I am not sure those I have seen actually concentrate on joining the church. They seem more focused on denomination building. This is not to accuse those who want to build their denominations of being ungodly. I trust their motivation. I think that their methods are not effective and will probably not produce strong disciples. I hope I am wrong on the latter statement.
Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman quotes Professor Donald Miller, of the Religious Studies Department at USC, in a recent column "You are the artist of your own life when it comes to religion," says Miller. "This enables people to be more thoughtful about what they perceive to be true and right rather than inheriting what passes down to them."
For years, I have thought that one of the things that has hampered us from making true disciples is that we have not allowed for strong questioning or opposing opinion in the Body of Christ. If someone questions doctrine or ecclesiastical practice, they are somehow branded as a malcontent, or worse, a heretic. Unfortunately, unquestioning loyalty is often rewarded, I believe, at the expense of a thoughtful, active faith.
Even family members of mine have had people tell them to get over their questions. They need to get past their hurts or anxieties. I have seen this questioning and denomination hopping not as unfaithfulness as much as I see it as a deep desire to discover deep meaningful faith.
Goodman writes, "I don't think Americans are just shopping for their beliefs in a trivial sense, trying on creeds like this year's vestment, searching for the latest spiritual fashion. But we are a people on the move. About 40 million of us move to another home every year. So too, we drop in and out of church, U-Hauling our beliefs off in search of a better fit. Today, we may shop in a spiritual mall. But what good fortune to find the mall paved over the old religious battlefields"
So I have been thinking very deeply these days about this subject. I am wondering if there will be a day when most of our denominations will close up shop? I see a day coming when we will need to change our idea of church. I continue to wonder if we are more concerned about building denominations and not the Kingdom. I know that each denomination sees itself as having certain distinctives theologically and in practice. I would submit, however, that most people really could not tell you the difference.
Where does this leave us who are faithful to denominations? Are we at the point where we are losing our religion? Is denominational loyalty important? Is it more important that we ask people join a cause for Christ or a church?
I have been rolling these thoughts through my mind. Is my questioning somehow being unfaithful? As with all of my posts, I want to know.....
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 7:13 PM
11 Comments:
I’ve been reading this study lately too.
To be honest with you, it wasn’t anything new, nor was it a surprise. If you’ve been paying attention at all, you don’t need a million dollar study to know that people are leaving denominations, but that non-denominational churches are growing. Nine years ago I thought I had left denominationalism for good. It had too much red tape and way too many road blocks in the way of reaching lost people. Phrases like “we don’t do it that way” were more important than getting the message of the gospel to the lost, and so I left in search of a better alternative.
The funny thing…absolutely ironic thing, is that I joined the Army thinking I had actually found a denomination that might still be able to do it. While every other denomination had started up because of doctrinal differences, the Army had started up as simply a movement of Christians hell bent (poor phrase maybe?) on getting the least of these into the Kingdom. Add in my belief that more and more people were interested in social action and you had a pretty decent formula for a denomination that just might buck the odds.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve been telling friends and family, since that time, that I’m here to see if a denomination can be saved. In my view, denominations should be saved. The Church has no better resource than denominations because denominations have the ability to communicate and resource globally, while a non-denominational church can only communicate with a handful of churches total. If denominations could be saved, it would be a good thing.
The problem is that, to be saved, so much will have to change about them. First and foremost, they’ll have to decide that the mission really is more important than their traditions. Second, they’ll have to re-educate themselves. I can’t stress that one enough. When I look around at our own leaders, I often see leaders who want to do things differently, they just don’t know how. I honestly believe, for instance, that more CO’s would love to add more contemporary worship to their services, they just don’t know how to do it. I also believe that more and more CO’s don’t understand social work anymore. Re-education is vital, so a lot would have to change about the way we train leaders in the Army as well.
You can see why I’m not feeling as hopeful these days. From the outside in, the Army appears to just need a few tweaks here and there. But when you get inside, under the hood, and have a really good look around, you realize that quite a bit has to be done to make this denomination road worthy again. One way or the other, it’s going to take great leadership. Either great leaders rising from the ground up (which means that we would have to stop losing people and start gaining them), or an unbelievable leader, the likes that this denomination hasn’t seen since Booth himself, leading from the top down.
I don’t know. I just don’t know.
Sorry for the long post.
I have always seen going to Church in the SA as being faithful to the Army. I believe that may stem from my mom and her 'only the Army is the truth' way of expressing her faith to me. The Army is so all encompassing in it's procedures such as uniform wearing, banding etc. it overshadowed to me why we we were Christians in the first place. I believe that is changing. But in ways like Arts ministries and things that point to non denominational-ism. The thing I like the most about this post is the paragraph where you talked about not allowing for strong questioning or opposing positions, which I believe are vital for discovering where the church may have taken a turn off of what Jesus has asked/told us to do to get the word out in the first place. And again, that is more personal to me as I was shut down a lot when I asked questions that were less than doctrinal of my leaders.
What keeps me in the Army and not running off to a very large non denominational church which is always a temptaion to me? It is the Spirit of the mentors of my past, loving officers. The ones that loved me no matter what my views or faults. And they were effective enough to make me want to become the same. And of course the Lord has kept me in.
A good church I believe has loving people. People that welcome questions and discovery. People that have the intense desire to shepherd. Looking for new ways, within the bounds of Scripture to seek and love the lost.
They will know our church by its love.
I may have some clearer comments on this as others comment. I needed to weed out the surface thoughts first.
Did you just say that the Lord kept you in the Army???
I think there are only a handful of reasons why many people never leave the zip code where they grew up. They are:
(1) They don't know what they're missing.
(2) They're afraid.
(3) They're comfortable.
(4) They need to stick around and take care of a sick parent.
(5) They've inherited something worth sticking around for.
Assuming that the above list is complete, I wonder why most lifelong Salvationists would say they're sticking around?
Perhaps a movement away from denominational loyalty is actually a return to the spirit of the earliest church. The historical development of denominations is fascinating for the stories, often of schism based on personalities, on one element of doctrine, or even power struggles. Definitely the good, the bad and the ugly. What I like about the approach of the non-denominational direction is that there seems to be more room at the table for a diverse group of people.
For life-long Salvationists, I'd venture a couple of reasons they stay:
1. they've actually found a place where they feel as though they belong
2. they want to protect what they've known
for officers, the structure makes it difficult to walk, especially after a number of years (think golden handcuffs), but as one who left the denomination of my youth to come the the Army, it is the mission that keeps me. I want to be part of a group of believers that has room for lots of people who don't fit well in other places.
"for officers, the structure makes it difficult to walk, especially after a number of years (think golden handcuffs)"
the visual imagery is hilarious.
It is important to appreciate the spiritual questions of faith which come to the surface, questions which are very natural and predictable. The seeking for those answers is not denying God's activity, but rather the questions expose the inner journey an individual has travelled.
These asnwers may draw someone from one denoiminational congregation to another...it is not alarming.
What is more important to examine is the intent of the questions - Is particpating in the sacrament of communion every week an essential expression of faith in Christ? Is the virgin birth of Jesus an important aspect of Jesus' ministry? Are women seen as people who can be used by God in the role of teaching, preaching and ordination? How do the Great Commission (Go into the world and make disciples) and the Great Commandment (Love God and love your neighbor) intersect within faith? Was the Holy Spirit given to the believers through Jesus Christ or in Jesus Christ?
These questions bring answers which can help a beliver in God see life through God's perspective. Sometimes the answer develops because of a life change, such as the covenented relationship of marriage. It is a sad commentary to choose not to worship with one's spouse because of "denominational" differences. For some people, a denomination change occurs because of the desire to worship God with one's spouse.
Moving from one denomination to another because of the answers a believer finds in these kinds of faith questions is a natural progression. It is also a natural progression that when a believer feels these questions are answered within their denomination that they will remain connected with it.
I am drawn denominationally to the mission of The Salvation Army to live out the God's parameters of Isaiah 58. God calls believers to loose the chains of injustice, untie the cords of burden, to share food with the hungry, provide shelter for a wanderer, to bring healing and hope in His divine name.
Its a complex working to do all that reaching - but it is simple at the same time. Jesus said it was important to love God and love others and take care of the poor.
I know why I remain within my denomination, and it is not from ignorance, or fear, or comfort, or laziness or from any accident. The calling of God to share His hope and participate in His transformation has aligned my heart to work for Jesus. I don't need a denomination to tell me to do it, but not every denomination would accept my ministry from the pulpit.
Jessie,
I'm not sure that most people change churches or denominations because of the issues you've noted - I've not read the full Pew study, but guess, from personal observation and other things I've read over the years, is that it has more to do with what "fits," what provides what a family is looking for for their kids, and, sadly, what meets the needs of the one who is church shopping.
As for Miller's comment, why shouldn't you be the artist of your life when it comes to religion - those with the means to do so are the artists of their own lives in a variety of ways in a culture based on individualism.
The question that interests me is how those with limited means (finance, intellect, etc.) respond. Is there more migration for those with a higher socio-economic standing?
Larry, can you give us a couple of examples of the denominations that are utilizing an aggressive recruitment campaign? How do they differ from, or are similiar to, the Come Join Our Army emphasis?
hs,
a couple of years ago, the methodists did a media blitz,. i believe the tag line was "open arms, open minds?" i just remember seeing the commercials on tv. the mormons have also done some big tv promotion. in ny, the catholic church did a membership drive called "catholics can always come home," which tried to bring back those who had left the church early and now had families.
these were also short as compared to our three year campaign.
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"For some people, a denomination change occurs because of the desire to worship God with one's spouse."
I can tell you from personal experience that this is the case. My wife has been asked on several occasions whether or not she was a Salvationist. Her answer - "no" - was often met with dissappointment and snobbery. My current job is leading worship at a small Baptist church that is really more of a non-denominational church. Not once has someone asked whether I'm a baptist.
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