still believing

I recently posted regarding the perceived decline in church. Personally, I do not see it but many of my friends disagree. First, sources conflict (no surprise there). Second, if people from christian group 1 move to christian group 2 is that a decline? Yes if you are in group 1. The opposite if you are group 2. And neither if you are outside of both. Third, who defines that groups 1 & 2 are in and group 3 is out. That is, if people from christian group 1& 2 now form a new group 3, who determines if group 3 is part of the larger group "christian" or not. Fourth, who decides what is "in" or "out" of a given group. Is one in because they say they are? Because they attend a defined "service" on some approved frequency? Because they give an approved amount of money and/or time? Etc...?

For me, I don't care that much. The numbers of true believers are much smaller than those reporting to be and I don't think our measuring of this is important. The above is only important for a given organization and only from an organizational perspective (i.e., as opposed to being important from a Kingdom perspective), Some are growing, some are not, and new ones are springing up.

What bothers me is the broad statement that the church (especially that of the west) is dying/hemorhagging, etc... I don't see convincing evidence to support that - well, let me say it differently, I see convincing evidence in both camps. With that, it is my conviction that saying the church is dying is doing her a disservice. If your organization is dying, reevaluate by all means, but don't conclude the church is dying.

Here is some evidence offered by Scot McKnight yesterday from Bradley Wright's Christians are Hate-filled Hypocrites ...:

1. Evangelical numbers have remained about 25% for the entire period. But an increasing number -- big time shift (from 200,000 to 8 million) -- are nondenominational. But the number of evangelicals has more than doubled since 1972: from 25 million to 60 million. (Catholics and unaffiliated also grew in this time.)
2. The unaffiliated jumped in the 80s and 90s from about 8% to about 15% and have stayed right there since.
3. The mainline numbers have continued to go down since the 70s, and have been going down most of the last century. The numbers since the 70s is that 30% of Americans were mainliners and now only 15% are. Mainliners were the biggest religious group in the USA 3 decades ago, now they are behind Evangelicals, Catholics and the unaffiliated.
4. Black Protestants have stayed right at about 9% since the 70s.
5. Big one: Colonial America was the least religious/Christian period in American history. (Check out his chart on p. 52. Wowzers.) The myth of Christian colonial America continues to makes its way among many. He calculates about 17-18% of Americans in 1775 were affiliated with religion; now it's just over 60%. The increase has been steady.

I'm not swearing by the above. I'm only saying it is not overwhelmingly true that the church is dying and more important, what is being measured is generally unimportant. To say otherwise I find unhelpful.

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