Church: It isn’t working
Feb 4th, 2008 by Amanda
Did you know that nearly half of all church attenders are not born again Christians? And the majority of those who aren’t are long time loyal attenders of church. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that it’s not doing us any good to get people into church. Just getting someone inside the door seems to be the goal of most evangelists, but getting people through the doors of a church isn’t changing anyone’s life.
I had the great privilege of attending two sessions by George Barna last week. I wasn’t sure whether his sessions would be incredible or incredibly boring. He’s a pollster who researches trends concerning faith and culture in America. Definitely a numbers guy. I had visions of a monotone recitation of pure statistics. But Barna is a dynamic speaker who is passionate about his work and his faith. He believes his calling is to wake the Church in America up.
And we need waking up.
We’ve come to the place in this world where we mistake activity for significance. As long as we’re doing something, we think we’re accomplishing something. But we’ve lost ourselves in the doing. We never think about what we’re doing. We just do it. And in the process, we have become blind. The Church doesn’t see what people are taking away about Christianity. So we never change what we do in order to change that perception.
People see Christianity as oppressive, when it should be freeing. It’s seen as critical, rather than understanding. Disengaged instead of relevant. Indistinct, when it is unique. Staged, when it is authentic. Suffocating, instead of tolerant.
There are 224 million adults in this country. 186 million would say they are “Christian.” 154 million go to church. 90 million are born again. And 13 million have a Biblical world view.
13 million. That may not be the majority of the adults in this country, but Jesus never waited until he had a majority. 13 million people can change the world!
Our world needs changing. There are 27 million people enslaved in this world today. Around 8% of the US population is homeless - and we’re one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
We need a revolution.
A revolution of faith. A revolution of compassion. A revolution of mercy.
Am I being particularly dim here but why do you have to be a ‘born again’ Christian in order for it to be worthwhile going to church? Why can’t you just be a normal Christian?
Two points:
1) How precisely do you determine, for the purposes of statistical polling, whether someone is “born again”? A questionnaire? I’m not aware of any conclusive medical test that’ll tell you whether someone’s had a Damascus experience.
2) Why do you think that a world full of “born-again” Christians would be any more compassionate or merciful? When I try to imagine what such a world would be like, I keep getting flashbacks to “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
Many born-again Christians are lovely people. But then so are many other churchgoers, many Muslims, many Hindus, many atheists, etc. I can’t say I’ve ever noticed a correlation between religiosity - of any stripe - and virtue. Often it just makes people more fanatical in their misdeeds - think 9/11.
My questions about the survey would be:
- How are the surveyors defining ‘born again’?
- How would those being surveyed define ‘born again’?
- Do you think people shy away from the term ‘born again’ because of negative connotations (i.e. Bible thumpers)?
I’ll admit, I would never use the *term* ‘born again’, though I would consider myself to be a born-again believer. But it’s NOT a universally used phrase, and in fact, some of the most devout Orthodox believers I know would scratch their heads if asked “Are you born again?”. Doesn’t make them less Christian. I think the problem here may lie more with the terminology, and less with people’s personal faith.
Mandi, I’ve been reading two books at once and they should so be squeezed into the same book! One is called “The 10 Biggest Mistakes Christians Make” and one of those mistakes is winning people to the church instead of Jesus. The secnd is called “Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Family of God” and talks about how activity in the church isn’t enough. We need to be committed to the things Jesus love, including the Bride of Christ.
[…] Amanda presents Church: Is Isn’t Working […]
Buffy -
There’s no such thing as a “normal Christian.” All Christians are born again. If you’re not born again, you’re simply not a Christian.
The distinction Barna is making is between those who *say* they are a Christian (”Christian”) and those are *are* a Christian (born again).
That distinction has to be made because of the many people in this country who say they are Christian because their grandma was a faithful servant. People think you can be born into faith, but you can’t be. To be a Christian, you have to make your own personal decision for faith. That is the defining characteristic of a “born again Christian.”
Emily -
I addressed this is an email to you, but here it is again…
I went online to Barna.org to find out who they consider “born-again” and it isn’t based on how individuals classify themselves.
Since it’s based on the answer to those two questions, it has nothing to do with the negative connotation of the phrase, because the phrase itself isn’t used when the questions are asked.
Amanda….I get where you’re coming from. The only problem is that the “born-again” laguage is almost exclusively used by evangelicals, largely Baptists…maybe a few others. Christians from more liturgical traditions don’t usually use the term. The “born-again” term implies a particular moment when a person has a revelatory experience and makes a commitment to Jesus. I, myself, have had such an experience, but I have also known others for whom coming to believe in Jesus was a long process with no particular “aha” moment.
I would say that the language can bias the results and that polls aren’t always accurate.
That being said, I understand the desire for Church to be more and better than it is.
I’m a big fan of George Barna’s research. He seems very passionate about his ministry. Thanks for this post!
Are you suggesting that the 13 million is too small?
I agree we need a huge change. But the required change, the only one that has a chance of bringing unity to world of dischord, is one in which we all base our actions and reactions toward the good of humanity, not someones version of one god or another. That route is one we have taken for thousands of years and is the route that got us here. We as human beings have never taken a route where we base our choices on only evidence.
13 million people who think the world is only 6000 years old is 13 million too many.
sorry.
Good post! I agree with commenter Amanda though. All Christians should be born again. Perhaps I am a bit sensitive to this as I grew up in a liberal Protestant church where the gospel of salvation wasn’t preached. Therefore, you could not become a Christian because you didn’t hear the gospel. I do disagree with Barna about his definition of “evangelical” and “born again.” I think he has the wrong subsets.
Yes, I think the problem is one of language. I see ‘born again’ as being a particular branch of Christianity - just as Terri describes. And also many of those people are bringing up their children to beleive exactly the same that they do so there is no ‘born again’ as there would be for someone who was not raised as a Christian in the first place. I think it is worth noting that for many people the path to Christianity is a long one of small steps rather than a big bang.
tech -
Am I suggesting that 13 million is too few?
You bet your bippy.
Your opinion is skewed by your negative perception of us, IMO. Even though you’ve seen that we’re not all Phelpsian, you’re still scared that we are.
We’re not.
Even one Fred Phelps is too many.
13 million people who think and act like Christ (try to, at least)?
That’s too few.