This week, I read an article about a recent survey by George Barna on American attitudes toward the church and spiritual growth. Apparently, on one-third of evangelical believers in the US think that “a person’s faith is meant to be developed mainly by involvement in a local church.” Aside from my usual skepticism about the way survey questions are framed, I found Barna's comments a little confusing.
Barna seems to connect lack of involvement in church to lack of commitment to God. He says that the survey results are evidence of a "soft commitment to God." Now, I'll be the first to affirm that involvement in a community of believers is absolutely necessary for our faith lives. That's why I'm trying to plant churches in France. It seems to me, though, that the problem lies not with believers but with churches. We in the US have not often shown how bodylife is important, but instead have emphasized commitment to the institution.
As far as implications for work here in WE, I'd guess that a survey here would reveal that even fewer people believe that church is important. Bringing the US model here certainly won't help. Being disciples (which means walking in community) will.
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bringing the light of Christ to the cities of the world
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Irons in the Fire
- Urban Evangelism: Presence or Persuasion?
- Research: SBC Urban Church Planting
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- Discipled Warriors, by Chuck Lawless
- Scripture and Strategy:The Use of the Bible in Postmodern Church and Mission, by David Hesselgrave
- Organic Church, by Neil Cole
- Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney
- Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky
- Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, and the People of God, by Conn & Ortiz
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5 comments:
Amen! We keep talking about a lack of commitment "these days", but commitment has to be a two-way street, whether in marriage, employment or church. This generation of believers is not blindly loyal to either church or employer (or, sadly,to a marriage partner either for that matter!). All the tut-tutting in the world isn't going to change that. Pastors, mission leaders and denominational leaders must emhasize and demonstrate a deep commitment to Christ and unity among believers before this generation begins to significantly demonstrate commitment in return.
Glad to see you've found your blogging voice!
How true. I'm still seeing this at your old church. There's a general lack of commitment. And while I do agree that some of the responsibility lies in the church, I feel that the individual should bear a large part of the burden. We aren't saved by the church, but by Jesus Christ. Our personal relationship to him is limited if the commitment stops with church attendance.
I taught a Sunday School lesson last week about ants and how we are like ants in that they follow the scent of other ants to signal food, danger, etc. We have followed the scent of comfort and the result is that we've equated discipleship with church attendance (or so it seems). How short-sighted, limiting, and unfulfilling. Not that worship, fellowship, and study are unfulfilling, but there's SOOOooo much more. I've been guilty of complacency too, but I feel like God is opening my eyes.
Anyway, glad to see you've started blogging. I have a blog too, but it's strictly job related and updated rather infrequently. I've been trying to keep your Monday morning prayergrams on our website, but I'm sure people read it more often via e-mail.
Jeff, would it be OK if I syndicate your blog on Smyrna's church website? If you do not have a Pro account on Blogger.com, they recommend using feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/popup-quickstart-blogger). It's really easy to setup. Let me know if you need help.
-bp
(I made the previous comment post too, just forgot to indicate that it was me)
The syndication would appear on this page: http://shrinkster.com/eia
-bp
Jeff,
Excellent point. I would go a step further and place a lot of responsibility on us pastors for this condition. We have failed to consistently preach the full counsel of God and thus failed to lay open a biblical vision of what Church life is and shopuld be for the christian life. Worst yet, we have failed to hold open an all consuming and glorious vision of the supremacy of God. 4-steps to better finances and success at work is never going to inspire the generations to change there lives and commit time to the Church.
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