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{"id":33010,"date":"2014-04-03T08:13:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T16:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/?p=33010"},"modified":"2015-01-14T11:57:32","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T19:57:32","slug":"85-million-unchurched-christians-is-that-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnshore\/2014\/04\/85-million-unchurched-christians-is-that-good\/","title":{"rendered":"85 million unchurched Christians. Is that good?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\n<\/a>The moment I became a Christian (see I, a Rabid Anti-Christian, Very Suddenly Convert<\/a><\/em>), I did not also simultaneously transform into something which apparently God himself can\u2019t turn me into, which is a joiner. I have no idea why it\u2019s true, and I\u2019m not proud of it, but if independentitis were a disease I\u2019d have died of it long ago. I couldn\u2019t join an \u201cUp with Water\u201d organization in the middle of a draught. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t like people; I\u2019m resolutely pro-people! But if I\u2019m in a room with more than about three of them who all start agreeing upon the same things\u2014let alone upon the same set of, say, moral principals\u2014I can\u2019t help but feel that I\u2019m about two minutes and the working out of a secret handshake away from being waterboarded until I confess something.<\/p>\n

Upon converting to Christianity I also did not become a conservative evangelical Christian. I didn\u2019t think there was anything wrong with being gay before I was a Christian, and I didn\u2019t think so afterward. Before my conversion I thought it was crazy to think that upon dying all non-Christians are automatically sentenced to hell; after my conversion I thought that was even crazier. Before my conversion I thought it totally obnoxious for Christians to \u201cevangelize\u201d to non-Christians; the very thought I had while reaching for the doorknob on my way out of the supply closet in which I had my conversion experience was, \u201cOh. So that whole evangelizing thing really is<\/em> bullshit.\u201d Before I was a Christian I thought Christian rock n\u2019 roll was the most painfully awful thing in the history of ear drums; after I was a Christian my taste in music remained intact. (That\u2019s an obnoxious joke; sorry. I know lots of today\u2019s Christian music is great.)<\/p>\n

So though I\u2019ve been a Christian for some eighteen years now, when it comes to church I\u2019ve largely remained as ever I was, which is less of a go-to kind of guy, and more of a, \u201cIf I wanted to be bored into a coma I could spend the morning staring at my sink full of dirty dishes\u201d kind of guy. Or I could watch golf on TV. Or I could polish my ancient fancy shoes\u2014the shoes I would<\/em> wear to church if I ever went\u2014that I bought at a thrift store.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, I would prefer to do just about anything on a Sunday morning other than drag my disheveled, unshaven, still-sleepy self to church.<\/p>\n

Am I alone in this sentiment? Am I the only Christian in the world whose basic attitude is that church is to the life of a Christian what, say, Sea World is to the life of a dolphin?<\/p>\n

A slew of polls in recent years tells us that about one in three Americans do not attend church. Furthermore, eighty-five percent of those \u201cunchurched\u201d people self-identify as Christian.<\/p>\n

That works out to about eighty-five million American Christians who do not attend church.<\/p>\n

So no, I guess I\u2019m very much not alone.<\/p>\n

Hey, I am<\/em>\u00a0part of a group!<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s exactly my kind of group, too: the kind that never gets together for anything.<\/p>\n

Whoo-hoo!<\/p>\n

Except, wait.<\/p>\n

Wait.<\/p>\n

Eight-five million Christians who don\u2019t go to church.<\/p>\n

Is that actually a good thing?<\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"