It is popular to blame the decline of church attendance on the secularization of society, but declining attendance does not point directly to enmity with religious belief. It is more a result of the condition under which we live and must work. In order for attendance to be meaningful, it means religious faith must be demonstrated as true and necessary in order for humans to become all they are made to be, regardless of the conditions under which they live.
As long as Protestant Christianity was the de facto religion of the U.S., it was socially normative for almost everyone to attach themselves to a denomination. It was the socially correct thing to do. It was expected and for some people it produced a superficial veneer of faith, easily discarded when society no longer required it.
A large proportion of the population knows there is a bible but not what it is about or what is in it. They have heard of Jesus but know nothing of his story. They are aware of churches but have never been in one, or if they have, did not understand what was going on. Major news media are no better informed. Personal spirituality has taken the place of “organized religion.” It has created a new pantheon of personal gods existing only in the imaginations of their creators.
The church must be born anew. We must be like Paul in Athens with its many gods. Today’s population has many gods indicating an awareness of the divine and a desire to be in relationship with it. In that sense, they are not unlike the ancient Athenians, and the new church must start where Paul did. He encountered ridicule and disbelief when he tried to proclaim the good news of God in Christ Jesus to the Athenians. He didn’t gain an audience willing to listen until he spoke to them of their own gods and poets, with a degree of respect and understanding. It was only then that he could connect their deepest longings with the news that a relationship with the living God would fulfill what their gods could never do. How much success he had is a matter of debate, but it was enough. More important, it established for us the pattern of evangelism that we need to reclaim in our own day.
It means listening carefully to what people are saying that indicates the gods they have created. Some will be spiritual, some political, and others will represent romance, power, material success, professional acclaim, and all the things represented by the many Greek gods of Athens. All of them will point, each in their own way, to the god yet unknown. It is the unknown God whom we proclaim, the living God in whom we ”live and breathe and have our being.” Asking questions will help uncover what is desired from their gods, how they indicate an awareness of the divine, and how their “worship” Is expressed in ritual. The answers may open doors through which the good news of God in Christ can enter. As Paul quickly discovered, they may not but it’s the place to start. Speaking only from my own experience, it seems many want to know more. They are curious. They don’t want to be saved, they want answers to questions that make sense to them. Will it lead to conversion? This is the wrong question. They are not “unbelievers.” They don’t know what to believe and are cautious about what is worthy of belief. If Christianity is presented as a set of rituals and an adherence to prescribed social/political religious beliefs, the conversation will probably go nowhere. If it is about living into a relationship with the living God through God’s Word made flesh in Jesus, it may go forward. They want to be assured that reason, science and Christianity can coexist in the same space. They need to discover that the history of the church and the history the faith are related but not the same.
Paul did not leave a new congregation in his wake as he traveled on, but a new church came into being anyway because he had done enough. We have a better foundation than he had on which to renew and rebuild the church, but we have to begin the task as he did in Athens. It is not our job to fill the pews. It is our job too proclaim the good news in ways that speak to the curious and spiritually hungry.
CP – nice article. Thank you. D
Hello Steven! As always, your essays provide much food for thought. I am in agreement with much of what you wrote; the one matter I hope you will also address some time is that another challenge to the Christian faith (but not an overtly negative challenge) is that unlike the experience of our forebears, folks are also being drawn to other expressions of how to encounter the Divine, and they are seeing authentic lives lived in response to those other expressions, whether the expressions are Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, secular Humanism, or some other world shaping ideology/religion. I find myself, for example, quite drawn to Islam, but find the concept of the incarnation of a suffering God quite compelling.
Keep up the good work, sir.