The Great De-Churching of America

 Not too many years ago you could ask just about anyone in America, "What church do you go to?"  And the answer would ALWAYS be, "We go to such and such church."  I'm not saying that all those folks were born-again believers but they were at least sitting in the pews and hopefully hearing something about the 10 Commandments, being nice to your neighbors, being respectful to adults and stay away from drunkenness and false idols.

There were certainly no activities planned for Sunday morning or Wednesday night since everyone knew to remember the Sabbath and they also wanted their kids in church school on Wednesday night.

Today that's all gone.  Hockey, basketball, softball, baseball tournaments are all scheduled for Sunday morning and Wednesday nights.  Parents long ago had to choose between their kid playing sports or "dragging them to church."

And when you allow your kids to skip church in favor of basketball you are giving them a VERY CLEAR MESSAGE of what activity is MOST important.  When those kids leave your house they will most likely not believe that church is important.

Americans' identification with the Christian faith is in decline. In their new book, "The Great Dechurching," Jim Davis and Michael Graham detail how about "40 million adult Americans who used to go to church ... don't go anymore."

This is not a new phenomenon. Christians have always wrestled with remaining faithful. For example, the writer of Hebrews warns, "Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God" (Hebrews 3:12).

Many of those who have left their previously professed faith might well have been merely "religious," never having been born a second time (see John 3:1-18) and active in their local churches due to family tradition, a desire to "do good," or things not grounded in a robust theology. 

Additionally, the seven "old line" Protestant churches are shrinking by the day -- and for good reason. Abandoning historic Christian teaching is not a matter of being "relevant" in a changing culture. It is the creation of an alternative religion cloaked in the language and rites of a discarded faith.

There are other reasons. Some believers have been so passionate about the cultural crisis we are in that they have prioritized political victory over eternal values. We decry ends justifying means, but in recent years some of us have been more concerned with electoral outcomes than biblical faithfulness. 

As a result, our professed allegiance to scriptural virtues has been compromised by our desperation to save our nation. I plead guilty to falling prey to this mindset more than I would like to admit. So, for many (especially younger) Christians, disillusionment has been the result of our putting winning over character: we decried Bill Clinton's sordidness but have made excuses when "our guys" -- those who pledge allegiance to the things we cherish -- match Clinton's manifest crudeness.

Then there's the cost of being a disciple. No one wants to be misrepresented, castigated, or disliked. Yet to affirm something as simple as marriage as the union of a man and a woman can be personally and professionally costly. Like the seed that fell on rocky ground, some self-proclaimed Christians wilt under the heat of aspersion, however unjustified.

With this, we're sometimes almost frantic in our efforts to be "relevant". While liberal churches are eager to be seen as "progressive," some evangelical churches believe that snazzy sneakers and smoke machines are more needed than sound exposition of the Word of God. While rock concert-like glitz entertains, substituting it for true worship and teaching is like drinking a soft drink while eating popcorn: temporarily filling and enjoyable but ultimately empty.

Finally, there's our failure to adequately teach our youth not only the great truths of "the faith once delivered" to us (Jude 3) but why these truths are life-giving if properly understood and applied. For example, most evangelical young people understand they should remain sexually abstinent until marriage, but asking them why discloses a good bit of uncertainty. I know; I teach young people from strong Christian homes. 

As often as not, they cannot articulate why their expressed convictions have a grounding in Scripture, common sense, and so forth. The bland acceptance of what one has been taught won't last in the aggressive godlessness of our time.

Here;  The Great Dechurching - Americans No Longer Identifying With Christian Faith (prophecynewswatch.com)

For those folks who believe that America can continue to be great without possessing the FEAR OF THE LORD, we would strongly disagree.  By all appearances from many, many sectors of American life, it would appear that America is reaching the end of greatness.

Of course America is not mentioned anywhere in Last Days prophecy.  So where did she go?  As we have said many times in previous posts, we believe that the "full faith and confidence" in America and our financial system will quickly vanish when millions of Christ followers vanish to go meet Christ in the clouds.  So encourage each other with those words.