by Rich Doebler
I read something interesting the other day that challenged some conclusions in popular surveys and statistics. It’s from the Index of Culture and Opportunity —with an analysis by Byron R. Johnson, professor of social sciences at Baylor University and founding director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. Here are some of the key points I want to share with you and some of my thoughts and questions after reflecting on it:
“Media accounts suggest a consistent if not dramatic decline of the faith factor in America: that young people under 30 are deserting the church; that women are rapidly falling away from religion; that millennials are leaving the faith of their parents; and that the religiously unaffiliated (a.k.a., “nones”) have increased twofold in recent decades. But upon closer examination of additional data from the General Social Survey (GSS), as well as other data sources, these headlines are revealed as misleading, inaccurate, and biased. The real story is that across 40 years, there have been only small variations in church attendance.“
“Most surveys…do not ask respondents enough questions to accurately sort out religious affiliation. In the Baylor Religion Survey, we not only asked the identical affiliation question used by the GSS; we also asked respondents—including the nones—if they attended religious services. Some of the nones not only indicated they regularly attended, but provided us with the name and address of their church, and a surprising number were nondenominational and evangelical. The knee-jerk reaction that all nones are unaffiliated—or atheists—is false.”
“Millennials, like the vast majority of Americans, consider themselves religious. In fact, in a pluralistic society like America, where options abound, many people, including millennials, switch churches, and they do so for a variety of reasons…This change does not mean, as many have wrongly concluded, that they have departed the faith. In fact, many go to churches that are more theologically conservative than the ones in which they were raised. Switching churches is a fascinating subject and if anything, a maker of religious vitality, not decline.”
“…the number of American atheists has remained steady at 4 percent since 1944…church membership has reached an all-time high.”
Obviously, we in the church have a lot left to do. Even with numbers not as bad as we’ve been led to believe—some even indicating spiritual vitality (as when “nones” unaffiliated with organized religion say they attend church and consider themselves spiritual)—the Great Commission is not complete.
Church “growth” in the U.S. often consists of church “transfers,” not conversions from the secular segments of society. To see more conversions, we must strive to see people with the eyes of a missionary.
Let’s face it. Our unchurched neighbors and coworkers do not speak “Christianese.” They do not understand evangelical culture. Many are skeptical of religious institutions. They have bought typical media stereotypes of Christians as being narrow-minded, ignorant, judgmental bigots.
So we must work to speak their language, work to understand their culture, and work to prove the stereotypes wrong. I suspect this means becoming less combative in the culture wars. It may mean surrendering our “rights” in order to serve those we want to reach. We may need, as Paul put it, to become slaves to others in order “to win as many as possible” (1 Cor 9:19).
So here are some questions I want to put out there for your reflection and response:
(1) How have these commonly reported statistics influenced how you thought of the spiritual state of things in America? How do you think they really are in light of the findings of this survey?
(2) Can Christians and churches lay aside their own interests in order to “become all things to all people so that by all possible means [they] might save some” (1 Cor 9:22)?
(3) Have you found ways to push long-term believers out of their comfort zones in order to help people become followers of Jesus?
Rich Doebler is Senior Pastor of Cloquet Gospel Tabernacle in Minnesota and also serves as a Fellowship Elder for the Upper-Midwest.
