Letter from America

A new Barna poll (January 12 2009) claims to show that most American Christians are adopting a pick and mix attitude towards Christianity and (indeed) other faiths.¹

In itself, such a claim might not appear particularly surprising. It is certainly part of a long observed trend from objective truth to subjective interpretation, and from acceptance of authority to individual choice of belief.

Startling numbers

Still some of the numbers are quite startling. While over 70% agree that their faith is becoming ever more important to them, this is balanced by the individualisation of this faith. Barna himself describes their attitude as, ‘Growing numbers of people now serve as their own theologian-in-residence’. For, the poll claims, 71% of American adults are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than accept those from a church. Among ‘born again’ Christians this figure is still at 61%. And, for people under the age of 25, it rises to 82%. Half of those surveyed accepted that Christianity is no longer the default faith of Americans.

A long drift

From the Bible’s perspective, what we seem to be observing is closely paralleled in the book of Judges. Without a clear authority, or objective standard, everyone does as they see fit (Judges 21.25). For the last few hundred years Western society has been moving from an authority-based mentality to one that grants the individual the right to determine their belief system. Few of us perhaps want to undo all these developments. We wish to live in a society where there is genuine freedom of religion. But what we must advocate for is that this openness is an opportunity to find the truth, not an implicit message that there is no truth, or that truth in matters of religion is a matter of opinion.

As Christians we have good resources to do so. First and foremost our churches — for the poll surveys Christians as well — need to continue to have a clear God-centred approach to their ministry and their corporate worship. If we generate a church culture where we are aping the mores of the society around us unthinkingly, and therefore being driven by trend not directed by the Word, then is it any surprise when that approach is taken to the next level in terms of our belief system? What I am talking about here is straight and simple expositional preaching.

Letting God set the agenda

In EN I am no doubt preaching to the choir in this regard, but it is important for us to join the dots and realise that having a clear explanation of Scripture — and thereby letting God set the agenda — goes a long way to creating a church culture that is God-centred and following his standard. Christ rules the church and he rules by his Word.

Then, in our outreach and apologetic, our approach needs to be that there is something called authentic spirituality. There is, every survey and many of our personal experiences confirm, a great hunger for transcendence, mysticism, and spirituality in our culture. Surely this is an opportunity for us. It is also a danger too. Like anything, it has its pitfalls. But, without in any way being blind to the danger, we also need to seize the opportunity. We need to position ourselves as those who have the answer to spiritual matters and can attest to the way to the Father being through Christ.

If we take these two responses to the growing postmodernism not just of our world but also of our churches — that is if we develop God-centeredness through expository preaching, and initiate outreach that points to Christ as the vehicle for authentic spirituality — then we will be going a long way to beginning to provide the antidote to our contemporary pick and mix society. I don’t think I mind how many ‘theologians in residence’ we have as long as we have one Bible and one Christ.

1 You can find all the details at the Barna web page: http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrowPreview&BarnaUpdateID=324

When everyone does as they see fit

Startling numbers

A long drift

Letting God set the agenda

Josh Moody

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