What Will Come From The Ashes?
“There is the hope that a younger rising generation will discover the Gospels and the teachings of Christ and will then form new, small, communities of faith. Yet, that is a hope, not a certainty, as those who have prided themselves on being culture warriors will leave in their wake the sterile and blackened ground of a battlefield that produced no victory in what will be seen, in retrospect, as an act of self-destruction.”
I am not young, but I think a lot about creating new communities of faith.
When I say that I’m also saying that the current communities of faith are deficient in what I believe thew church is meant to be.
I’ll own that from the beginning.
I wonder sometimes if I’m trying to create a product that there is no market for…something like chocolate flavored cat litter.
Our younger generations have no experience with a church that isn’t filtered through the lens of American politics.
Duane,
If you said tuna-flavored litter, my cat would be your best friend! I’m not a good prophet, but I hope we learn something from the present mess. I can say that there are some new congregations in my area that are more about c helping the community than they are about fighting about politics. They tend to rent old church buildings where there is no longer a congregation big enough to support the former church. I do hope they do better than many of our generation.
Speaking of ashes, this is from Crisis Magazine, mainly dealing with the Roman Catholic Church, but with figures from the most recent Pew Survey that will affect us…
“Only 19% of Americans self-identify as Catholic, down from 24% in 2007. This is a 20% decrease. By comparison, Protestants decreased by 21%, while religious “nones” increased by 81% and Muslims increased by an astounding 200% (although they still make up a small percentage of the overall population—only 1.2%). Even though the Pew Survey headline suggests that the decline in Christianity in this country may have “leveled off,” it’s clear the overall direction is downward.”
“The numbers get worse for Catholics. Perhaps the most stunning finding in the survey is that for every 100 people who join the Catholic Church, 840 leave. So when you rejoice seeing folks become Catholic at Easter (which you should), remember that more than 8 people have left by the back door for each one who’s come in the front.”
“No other religion has nearly as bad of a join/leave ratio. For every 100 people that become Protestant, 180 leave. That’s bad, but it’s not Catholic bad. Conversely, for every 100 people who leave the religious “nones” (i.e., they join a religion), a full 590 become part of that irreligious cohort.”
Duane,
And that trend will only continue. Things will start to level off (the current pause is but temporary IMHO), once the law of diminishing returns sets in. Also, those nones will be instrumental in showing their children to be nones, so the trend will likely continue. The decline will continue (and likely accelerate) depending on what American Christians’ true lord and savior Trump, his minions, and his “Christian” supporters do in next few years.
This is a perfect case of “One finds his destiny on the road they take to avoid it.”
I was reading Zacharia today. I fixated on the two olive branches feeding the lamp stand. I wanted it to be Israel and the church but that’s not where I was lead. No, the King and the Priest. The king has given the edict the corruption decay and apathy has been exposed. It’s the job of the preist now to expose the spiritual corruption decay and apathy in the hearts minds and institutions of the nation.
Truth is now to be honored. Speak truth and life this is the way forward.