Keepin’ the Faith

I just read a rather startling statistic from Lifeway Research: 27% of Protestant pastors in the U.S. report that they’ve observed church members or attendees “methodically deconstruct” their Christian faith within the last two years. This may explain, at least in part, America’s overall decline in church attendance: many among us no longer believe. I understand full well that a true Christ follower can’t undo their own salvation (Philippians 1:6), but I think you get my point. There are lots of people who, just a few years ago, would have assented to the primary claims of Christianity, but who now simply do not.

Just putting a few of those stats together for my own study has led me to another conclusion: the younger and the more educated are the most likely to “deconstruct.” This is really happening.

I’m going to offer a few reasons here why this may be happening, and I’m open to your thoughts and additions …

1. We live in such technology-driven culture that new ideas are always at our fingertips, leaving little room for what feels historic and orthodox.

2. People are more and more distrustful of every institution, so this would include a growing distrust for the church, and for leaders in the church.

3. Postmodernism, and particularly the stream of it in which we’ve been swimming for some time now, naturally lends itself to widespread skepticism.

4. Older church members, after years of taxing service to their local congregations, are so exhausted that they’re not adequately discipling successive generations.

5. The modern evangelical church has all too often settled for a spiritual diet of moralism instead of insisting upon the good news of Christ’s gospel.

6. The celebrity-church culture has promoted rampant spiritual idolatry, while failing to hold church leaders accountable for wildly inappropriate behavior.

7. We have not done a good job at fostering genuine Biblical unity in the church, but we didn’t notice because we were so focused on uniformity.

Quite sadly, I fear that I’ve only scratched the surface. And you’ll notice that three items on my list correlate with what we might label “external pressures,” while at least four items we would have to admit should be numbered among our “internal failures.” This trend toward deconstruction is nothing short of tragic, friends, and we bear some of the responsibility.

Business leaders often quip: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” (I think Peter Drucker coined that phrase.) And, though the church is not primarily a business, you and I would have to admit that there’s a whole lot of wisdom in that observation – even in the church.

But let me pause just to be super clear here: a Christian can’t “lose” his or her salvation. But the Bible warns of spiritual apostasy, which is a real threat. The Scriptures (for example, Hebrews 5:11 – 6:20) directly address the reality that many will profess Christ but then “fall away” from that profession. I would also urge you to go back and read (and reread) the Parable of the Soils/Sower (Matthew 13:1-23). I believe that these passages are meant to keep us sober-minded in regard to our own relationship to Christ, and in regard to our own trust and faith: in whom are we really believing? Persecution tends to reveal our true colors. So does an honest look at our obsession (or lack thereof) over material possessions.

So back to the issue of culture, and particularly church culture … what we do always speaks louder than what we say … so how can we help reverse some of these unhealthy trends?

Let’s make sure that we’re all doing our part in the task of disciple-making. Don’t leave it up to the “professional” ministers – there’s really no such thing. We’re all ministers. Ask the Lord who you should be taking under your wing in modeling the Christian life (remembering that nobody but Jesus models it even close to perfectly). You’ll find that people will enjoy doing life with you, and learning from the things you’ve learned the hard way. So you don’t have to worry about being anybody you’re not – just be who you are and watch God work!

Let’s make sure that we’re preaching the gospel to ourselves on a regular basis. There’s a Pharisee living in each one of us, and he loves to get us thinking that we’re earning God’s approval by our stellar performance. Nonsense! Keep the focus of your own heart on Christ. If you want to be impressed, be impressed with Christ’s righteousness –that’s the only righteousness that counts. Work with me to make sure that the doctrine of the church keeps Jesus front-and-center, and that we’re never settling for the cheap stuff like legalism. Works never works! Let’s keep our eyes on our only true hero.

Let’s make sure that we allow – and even actively promote– a healthy diversity in the church. We don’t need cookie-cutter Christians anyway. The more diversity – the more we get stretched by the rich tapestry of people whom God has created – the better! Let’s keep all secondary issues secondary. Let’s keep Jesus and His glorious gospel as the one common denominator which unites us, and let’s try not to build unhealthy walls between us. (And, when we notice some inadvertent ones, let’s humbly work together to bring them down.)

The authority doesn’t ultimately rest on our shoulders – we can breathe deeply – but perhaps God will give us the grace to light up our little corner of the world. Together. For His glory.

Shine!

Pastor Charles