Grade-schoolers wearing cross necklaces, sleep-deprived college students witnessing to their coeds over a carb loaded lunch, and a flip-flop wearing forty something telling her neighbor that she believes marriage is between a man a women are not usual images that Christians associate with extremism. We picture guys with long beards blown themselves up and crazy white dudes driving cars into monuments.
But most Americans are just as likely to associate the first group of images with ‘extremism’ as they are later ones. According to the Barna Group, most Americans label their neighbors who uphold traditional marriage, believe Jesus is the only way to heaven, and who publicly share their faith to be extreme. (p.11, 42). Now while we may not like the term ‘extremist,’ most Christians would agree that America’s culture has shifted away from its Christian heritage. Sixty-five percent of evangelicals feel misunderstood, and sixty percent believe they are already being persecuted for their faith. What happened and why are Christians viewed as extremist?
Seeking to answer these questions and to chart a way forward through Babylon, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons published the book, Good Faith back in 2016. After combing through ridiculous amounts of data, the authors discovered that most Americans view people like you an me who sit in a church-pew most Sundays to be irrelevant and extreme.
The modern stance towards Christendom in some instances is the result of poor education. People simply do not know what the church does for society. Almost half of Americans believe that a majority of charitable work happens outside the church (p.29).
However in many cases the perception that Christianity is dangerous can be traced back to a new religion, the religion of self. Americans today find Christianity extreme because the new moral code declares you to be the source of all truth. Eighty-nine percent of Americans believe people should not criticize other’s life choices (p.58). “And according to that moral code, any competing morality – say, a religion – that seeks to constrain someone’s pursuit of personal fulfilment must itself be constrained” (p.59). Christians are no longer interacting with a secular world. They are interacting with the world of Ireligion.
After showing their readers the current dispositions of our American culture, the authors turn their attention to helping Christians navigate their way through the new culture landscape. They show that Christians can meaningfully engage those who disagree with them by affirming the truth of the Bible.
While the culture believes the Bible is outdated, the book is actually the very thing are culture needs. And if we are willing to humbly step forward and love our neighbors, the gospel can and will still go forward as we tackle issues ranging from homosexuality to racism. And as the authors tackle these various topics, they bring many insightful stats and personal stories that help everyone better understand the Biblical solutions to today’s problems.
In an encouraging note, the authors also promote the local church and expository preaching. Instead of encouraging people to abandon the church to save the gospel, they are encouraging people to dive back into the church so that the gospel can go forward.
If you have a heart to better understand your neighbors, to reach the lost, and to influence the world for Christ, you will want to grab a copy of Good Faith. To date, Good Faith is the best resource for understanding how the world outside our churches thinks. If you have a couple of hours and heart for seeing the gospel expand in the United States, read Good Faith.
It turns out our brains like ‘likes’. When someone likes our photos, videos, or blogs, the reward center in our brain get a boost. Serotonin levels go up; we feel good; and then, we begin to engage in patterns and start doing things that keep those likes coming.
The way to prevent future Viki’s is not to fight back against the smart phone. Rather, we need to challenge the theological framework that is driving the culture of self. We need to share the beauty of Christ. We need to help our youth to see that a life motivated from within leads not to happiness but to misery, enslavement, and death. And in some cases as Viki has shown that death may not be far away.
We do often talk about birthrates at church. Well at least not in those terms. We discuss delaying conception until after we accomplish some life goal; we discuss how 1 or 2 kids is our ideal family size; and, we discuss why modern society no longer needs a family to have 12 kids. We examine birthrates through the lens of modern convenience and societal success. And as a result, evangelicals increasingly prize smaller and smaller families. At last check, the birthrate for Southern Baptist couples sits at 1.96, appreciably below the replacement birth rate of 2.1.
actively involved in church. We will assume that our Last Baptist church is a really godly church and will go with the higher number, predicting that 40% of the kids stay involved. The next generation is now comprised of 39 people. Thankfully, studies by
Admittedly, no church goes through such a simple, straight forward process as Last Baptist Church. People move off, join other churches, and new members come through conversion. There are a whole host of variables at play.
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