Bonnie Alba
The un-churched and lukewarm churches
By Bonnie Alba
In a 2007 survey, LifeWay Research reported that the number of citizens who claim to believe in God but never attend church increased from 17 percent in 2004 to 22 percent in 2007.
The two common responses were: "The churches are full of hypocrites" and "I don't need church, I have a personal relationship with God."
From the church side — There are two distinct reasons why Mainline Protestant churches, and now Evangelical Protestant churches, are declining in numbers and attendance and no longer draw those who believe in God:
** The Bible. The denial that God's Word is the Infallible, Authoritative and Inerrant Word of God. All of it, not just some of it.
Historically America once held to a majority Christian consensus or Christian ethos. The decline started about 200 years ago in Europe and has increasingly infiltrated American culture and churches over the last 150 years.
What I mean by Christian ethos, in general, up to about 60 years ago, most citizens who claimed to be Christians never doubted the Authority and Inerrancy of the Bible. There now exists a dichotomy in the denominations and evangelical community. It's become more difficult to find a church which upholds the Bible as Truth.
I think if we were to chart it over the past 60 years, the line of church attendance would descend and the line for the division of the Bible into "true and false" parts would ascend.
** The accommodation of the churches to the world. Instead of the churches standing apart from the culture, they have taken on elements of the world spirit. So, why go to church if the environment inside is no different from the environment outside the church doors?
Many unchurched people who claim a "personal relationship with God" have this subjective "inner feeling" that God exists, but cannot tell you why they believe.
What the unchurched fail to recognize is that they can know about God through His Word where he described Himself, his personality, his holiness, his authority, his Truth. God gives us His History with his Creation and mankind from beginning to end.
Without the foundation, those who rely on an inner feeling of "I know" stand on shifting sands. The churches also stand on quicksand when they divide the Bible into pieces of "believable" and "unbelievable."
Before he died in 1984, noted Christian thinker Frances A. Schaeffer wrote "The Great Evangelical Disaster." He emphasized the churches' "accommodation to the world spirit." The evangelical churches, as well as the mainline denominations, have been weakened by liberal humanism. Humanism and the existential world view inhabit all areas of education and culture. The churches have also adapted to the surrounding cultural moral relativism and subjective experience.
Expressing "an inner witness" but denying the Bible's objective and rightful foundation — this liberal world view omits God's authority. The liberal humanist allows for man to personally decide what is true or not true.
While unchurched Christians are left swinging on a limb unable to grasp the enormity of the influence the humanist world view has on their lives — the churches continue to adapt to whatever is in vogue to attract people. The Bible appears to be just a prop in church and the unchurched don't know what they are missing.
As long as churches continue to "accommodate " to the culture and teach only parts of the Bible as Truth, then they follow the road of weakness — and lukewarmness.
As long as the unchurched don't know even the most basic tenets or truths about God contained in the Bible, they will see no reason to attend church.
In Shaeffer's words, "Bible believers know that the culture is to be constantly judged by the Bible, rather than the Bible being bent to conform to the surrounding culture. The early church did this in regard to the Roman-Greek culture of its day. ...All the great revivalists did this concerning the surrounding culture of their day. And the Christian church did this at every one of its great points in history."
The 21st century Christian church and many Christians are missing that Greatness.
More information on: "Lukewarm Churches Mirror Society" (www.renewamerica.com/columns/alba/080710)
Lifeway Research has raised the same issue I raised regarding a question in the Pew Forum's recent finding that 57 percent of Evangelical Protestants and 83 percent Mainline Protestants believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life." Scott McConnell, Associate Director of LifeWay Research, reported that the wording of the Pew Forum question may have confused denominational Christians. (www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=28386)
© Bonnie Alba
In a 2007 survey, LifeWay Research reported that the number of citizens who claim to believe in God but never attend church increased from 17 percent in 2004 to 22 percent in 2007.
The two common responses were: "The churches are full of hypocrites" and "I don't need church, I have a personal relationship with God."
From the church side — There are two distinct reasons why Mainline Protestant churches, and now Evangelical Protestant churches, are declining in numbers and attendance and no longer draw those who believe in God:
** The Bible. The denial that God's Word is the Infallible, Authoritative and Inerrant Word of God. All of it, not just some of it.
Historically America once held to a majority Christian consensus or Christian ethos. The decline started about 200 years ago in Europe and has increasingly infiltrated American culture and churches over the last 150 years.
What I mean by Christian ethos, in general, up to about 60 years ago, most citizens who claimed to be Christians never doubted the Authority and Inerrancy of the Bible. There now exists a dichotomy in the denominations and evangelical community. It's become more difficult to find a church which upholds the Bible as Truth.
I think if we were to chart it over the past 60 years, the line of church attendance would descend and the line for the division of the Bible into "true and false" parts would ascend.
** The accommodation of the churches to the world. Instead of the churches standing apart from the culture, they have taken on elements of the world spirit. So, why go to church if the environment inside is no different from the environment outside the church doors?
Many unchurched people who claim a "personal relationship with God" have this subjective "inner feeling" that God exists, but cannot tell you why they believe.
What the unchurched fail to recognize is that they can know about God through His Word where he described Himself, his personality, his holiness, his authority, his Truth. God gives us His History with his Creation and mankind from beginning to end.
Without the foundation, those who rely on an inner feeling of "I know" stand on shifting sands. The churches also stand on quicksand when they divide the Bible into pieces of "believable" and "unbelievable."
Before he died in 1984, noted Christian thinker Frances A. Schaeffer wrote "The Great Evangelical Disaster." He emphasized the churches' "accommodation to the world spirit." The evangelical churches, as well as the mainline denominations, have been weakened by liberal humanism. Humanism and the existential world view inhabit all areas of education and culture. The churches have also adapted to the surrounding cultural moral relativism and subjective experience.
Expressing "an inner witness" but denying the Bible's objective and rightful foundation — this liberal world view omits God's authority. The liberal humanist allows for man to personally decide what is true or not true.
While unchurched Christians are left swinging on a limb unable to grasp the enormity of the influence the humanist world view has on their lives — the churches continue to adapt to whatever is in vogue to attract people. The Bible appears to be just a prop in church and the unchurched don't know what they are missing.
As long as churches continue to "accommodate " to the culture and teach only parts of the Bible as Truth, then they follow the road of weakness — and lukewarmness.
As long as the unchurched don't know even the most basic tenets or truths about God contained in the Bible, they will see no reason to attend church.
In Shaeffer's words, "Bible believers know that the culture is to be constantly judged by the Bible, rather than the Bible being bent to conform to the surrounding culture. The early church did this in regard to the Roman-Greek culture of its day. ...All the great revivalists did this concerning the surrounding culture of their day. And the Christian church did this at every one of its great points in history."
The 21st century Christian church and many Christians are missing that Greatness.
More information on: "Lukewarm Churches Mirror Society" (www.renewamerica.com/columns/alba/080710)
Lifeway Research has raised the same issue I raised regarding a question in the Pew Forum's recent finding that 57 percent of Evangelical Protestants and 83 percent Mainline Protestants believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life." Scott McConnell, Associate Director of LifeWay Research, reported that the wording of the Pew Forum question may have confused denominational Christians. (www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=28386)
© Bonnie Alba
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