Is Christianity in Decline?

[Stephen Fox]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/opin ... anity.html

[KeithE]

Key surveys:

[Sandy]

Wonder what standard they use to determine "religiously unaffiliated"? There's a big difference on the membership rolls of most churches between "affiliated" and "engaged."

It's become increasingly important in my business to have accurate measurements of the church attendance and affiliation patterns of the surrounding areas. Our constituency of parents who see the value of a Christian school education aren't, for the most part, going to be people who are only nominal church attendees a few Sundays here and there. If you're going to measure the numerical strength of Christianity in the culture, those who don't appear to be practicing their faith by at least attending worship and being involved in some kind of Bible study aren't engaged.

I also wonder where they get their figures regarding Millennials involvement in the church. Most current parents of school aged children are now members of the millennial generation and I don't see them "affiliated" anywhere near the way their parents and grandparents were.

The trendy churches today, pastors with untucked tails, top 40 contemporary music and slick names aren't reaching millennials, they are just attracting those already in other churches.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

IMHO, which does not have any scientific evidence to back it up, Christianity is changing. Church, as the institutional reflection of Christianity, is declining. I am not certain how to assess the changes in Christianity which seems to be moving away from large institutional groupings of people into a more informal and missional expression. I talk to people who never come to church who participate in online Bible studies, who read numerous blogs from people whom they respect and consider Christian leaders, , and there are those who worship with livestreaming church worship which may be halfway across the country. I'm certain that "local church" does not mean anything like it did when I was growing up. Ministries outside the walls of congregations draw many people into their activities. For example, the church where I am interim shares in a Backpack Ministry to provide easily prepared items to insure that children in poverty who may or may not have food on the weekends receive items that can be prepared by elementary children. Last week we were contacted by a civic group that wants to partner with us packing the fifty backpacks we fix. They do not attend our church, but they want to share in what we are doing. I see more of this in partnerships.

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

Speaking of live streaming, my church is hoping to live stream one of our services in the next few months. We thought we were almost there as high speed internet is now available in Indianola. But we discovered our church network equipment is too out of date. So we have to upgrade equipment before we can get the faster internet. That is an expense for the local church no one ever thought about a few years ago.

[Dave Roberts]

[Tim Bonney]

[linda]

View from the pew: in our last state of residence, at least, there were many strong Christians not part of local congregations. Some because of weather and roads, some for other reasons. But they were strong at evangelism, often live streamed or used youtube to access good preaching, chose the Christian music they wanted to hear, and when it came to the sacraments, did the baptizing and communion "in house" or rather "outside the church house."

Thought was Jesus did not say it had to be done under the authority of a local church or a denomination, nor certain building nor by certain people. Horse tanks work for immersion, kitchen sinks have water for infant baptism, and communion around the dinner table was common.

Maybe Colorado really was really different, or maybe Christianity is doing fine, professional input being excised a bit?

[Tim Bonney]

[Dave Roberts]

One of the smart things I am seeing in CBF is the refusal to buy or to build a headquarters building. I suspect that may be the pattern for denominational groups for the future. CBF rents the fifth floor of a bank building in Decatur, GA. It rents space across the street from a partner congregation to hold meetings for the group's governance, ministries, and missions councils and for training. I suspect that as headquarters buildings become major headaches, other denominational groups will be heading the same way. I look at our Virginia Baptist building, and half is either empty or rented to other groups. I expect that will be a pattern. Likewise, theological training is moving more and more to be on established college and university campuses rather than in free-standing centers. I wonder how long the SBC can maintain its massive seminary campuses. I worked for the maintenance department while I was a seminary student at SBTS, and I can tell you about deferred maintenance back from the 1960's and 70's having been in the steam tunnels, seen some of the patched electrical systems, and having been in the attics of major buildings to see patching that awaited a permanent fix. Fewer and fewer local Baptist associations own buildings and more function either out of unused church space or in rented offices. The days of prominent denominational buildings and of huge church physical plants are going, and we had best look to the future rather than patching the past.