Does God Reward the Faithful?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Well, 57% of megachurch attendees think so, at least according to a 2007 Baylor University survey. So reports a fascinating article in AdWeek (HT: Bob\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2008\/10\/14\/does-god-reward-the-faithful\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does God Reward the Faithful?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, 57% of megachurch attendees think so, at least according to a 2007 Baylor University survey. 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{"id":630,"date":"2008-10-14T09:11:16","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T15:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theoblogy.wordpress.com\/?p=734"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:08:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:08:49","slug":"does-god-reward-the-faithful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2008\/10\/14\/does-god-reward-the-faithful\/","title":{"rendered":"Does God Reward the Faithful?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Well, 57% of megachurch attendees think so, at least according to a 2007 Baylor University survey.<\/p>\n

So reports a fascinating article in AdWeek<\/a> (HT: Bob Carlton<\/a>, finder of all articles stimulating).\u00a0 The point of the article is to once again remind advertising and marketing peeps that Americans are a very religious people.\u00a0 In fact, we are surely the most religious of all industrialized countries.<\/p>\n

This is a point I try to make repeatedly, like I did a couple weeks ago when reflecting on my time in Australia<\/a>.\u00a0 And I make it right at the outset of The New Christians<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 In Australia, committed Christians really are dealing with a large segment of the population with no Christian background.\u00a0 It makes catechesis particularly relevant, and you can see why programs like the Alpha Course<\/a> catch on there and in the U.K.<\/p>\n

But in the U.S. in general, and in my locale in particular, Christianity is in the drinking water.\u00a0 Every year that I taught confirmation class at Colonial Church<\/a> while on staff there, parents with no connection to the church would arrive in September with their 15-year-olds and enroll them in the program.\u00a0 Confirmation at Colonial was a fairly rigorous, 12-month process that included lots of church history and theology, two retreats, spiritual disciplines and a summer mission trip.<\/p>\n

To this day, the churches in my hometown have between 50 and 200 ninth graders in their confirmation classes.\u00a0 And while those numbers skew higher than other parts of the country, Minnesota is still one of the most progressive (read, liberal) places in the country.\u00a0 And yet, here we are, full of big churches and big youth groups.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, erstwhile church planters journey around this land, claiming that they\u2019re going to save the \u201cmost unchurched city in America.\u201d\u00a0 Which city is that?\u00a0 Depends on whom you ask (as we discovered this summer<\/a> on the Church Basement Roadshow).<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s true that too often those who work in advertising, marketing, journalism, and politics have underestimated the religiosity of Americans, those of us in the church world dare not make that same mistake.<\/p>\n

By the way, in answer to the opening question: The rain falls equally on the just and the unjust.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"