Is everything wrong with practically everything these days?
You can hardly turn over a blog page, or flip through a list of scrolling tweets, or listen to some startling statistic, without being given the impression that this is the case.
The economy stinks, the politicians are up to their usual tricks, the celebrities are vain, the media are corrupt — in short, we are in terminal decline. Chicken Littles are everywhere declaring that the sky is about to fall on our heads.
Not so fast. Perhaps the quickest growing churches are no longer in Europe or America, but from where I sit there is plenty of health, and also plenty of growth. It is — certainly, indubitably — startling to hear that Protestants in America now number just a smidgen below 50% of the population, rather than just an inch above 50%. But really, without examining at great length all the assumptions behind the surveys that produce these kinds of reckonings, I am not too sure that the difference is much beyond statistical dead heats.
Yes, again, there may well be threats to religious freedom in America (of all places! That’s like having a threat to the rights of lumberjacks in Canada, or the right to drink tea in England. I mean, come on, you cannot be serious). And yes, some of these cultural shifts may lead to significant pressure on evangelical institutions, which may mean some have to take fresh and scary, but bold stances in opposition to the prevailing trends.
I am not saying there are not clouds on the horizon. Nor am I trying to make an argument for looking at life from the bright side — a glass is half full kind of approach.
Not Chicken Littles
I am saying that Christians by their nature cannot be Chicken Littles. It’s something to do with our eschatology. Our view of history is that it started somewhere good, fell and, through God’s intervention, is in the process of returning to something even better. There may be pain in the meantime, disappointments, temporary setbacks, but the movement of world history is on the side of Christ the King.
It’s time to take our courage in both hands and speak a message of encouragement.
Josh Moody is the senior pastor of College Church, Wheaton, Illinois.
