According to the Pew Research Center, the Christian population in the United States has declined steadily from 78.4% to 70.6% since 2007. Throughout social media, prognosticators and pundits have raced to explain why the church is dying and how it can be saved. The frenzy of it all has been very informative for me. Everyone wants to freak out about the decline yet no one wants to analyze why this information makes us freak out in the first place.
Did Jesus ever identify as a Christian? Why would we expect followers of Jesus to identify as something that Jesus never identified as? There is an entire generation of followers of Jesus learning to identify as just that…followers of Jesus. Why are we so protective of the name Christian? I think the name Christian has to do with power. Christians have always been a recognized political and economic force in the world. We are desperate to maintain our influence. Jesus is not interested in such constructs. Jesus shit on our influence in order to bring about the realm of God. Drop the names and just take up the name above all names.
Why do we care so much about our buildings and institutions? Jesus tore down our constructions in order to bring about the realm of God. I think that people freak out about the decline of Christians because they want to protect the wealth of their churches. Jesus said to sell everything you have…yet we have churches sitting on millions and millions of dollars. If we lost everything, we might see Jesus clearer than we ever have.
Do we not believe that the Spirit of God is in the business of drawing in all people? Do we actually believe that God lost a few over the last couple of years? Leave the numbers alone and just make sure you are in the number.
There was a time when Peter got concerned about everyone else and Jesus shared some wise words in John 21:22:
“…what is that to you? Just follow me!”
The church in the US is dying. Don’t freak out. Kill it and we might actually learn to follow Jesus.
Amen.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/12/5-key-findings-u-s-religious-landscape/
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In