You don't have to have a crystal ball to have seen the latest news coming. The latest research declares that Christianity and its denominations are shrinking and those that identify themselves as non believers is quickly growing. You may say that it's the end of religion, but that's not the case. Religions such as Islam, Mormonism, and Wicca are on the rise in the states.
So Christians have to answer the question, why these religions are growing and Christianity is not? I mean, from the outside looking in they all look pretty silly. Wicca involves things such as writing down spells and letting the rain wash over them to rid yourself of bad spirits. Mormonism involves believing that the historical Jesus somehow teleported to America to hang out with the native americans, and some crazy guy found buried golden plates with a divining rod. And Islam involves... well, you know. And then Christianity believes in some sort of zombie Jesus, just sans eating brains. They all involve things that seem to not make sense in a post enlightenment society. But Christianity seems to be the one dying.
As I mentioned before, this shouldn't be a surprise. If you've read anything over the past decade, all indications show that we follow in the path of Europe when it comes to religion. Christianity in America is headed in one direction with no signs of slowing. The cultural shift already has led us to expect churches to begin shutting down at a faster pace in the coming years. But throw in a bad economy and we will see things go from bad to worse in fast forward. Churches that attempt to adjust incrementally will be paralyzed then die, while those who revamp entirely may come through changed. Churches are going to be forced to ask the questions regarding property and buildings. They'll have to weigh the options of which to lay off first, the lawn care folks or the ministry staff. The combination of the economy and continued culture shift will quicken an otherwise slow death of many congregations.
I think the most interesting area to watch will be newer suburban churches that have sprung up around the metropolis areas. I was reading some cat the other day that was arguing that a deep recession will kill many suburbs and that the inner city will be the place where things survive. I haven't seen much evidence to corroborate this, but I do find it interesting. What I'm curious about is how these young churches hold up under the strain of a drop in giving. Many newer suburban churches began under the mantra of "if you build it they will come." So typically they took out giant loans once they had a starter congregation and moved into these facilities. They became the envy of traditional churches as they quickly filled their new facilities up. However, a lot of these groups haven't paid off their loans yet, and so it will be interesting to see how these attractional ministries behave once they feel the pinch. Many older congregations can hold on for dear life for years because people make huge sacrifices in order to keep the doors of their old church open. These congregations have such a faithful group because they grew up there, got married there, remember their parents there, and so they have a lot invested in the structure. But what about these new structures where folks are showing up because of the programs or childcare? Will people bend over backwards to save it when they arrived there after shopping around for what suited them best? I expect some churches to get really creative and figure out ways to keep things rolling in. Whatever happens, it will be interesting and I think we'll learn some stuff along the way.
Edit: My brother passed this article along that came out yesterday that echos what I was saying:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0310/p09s01-coop.html
Comments (9)
I just sat through a youth ministry conference where a guy was talking about this. He had spent some time in europe studying their religious landscape and the nature of the few, small thriving churches their.
He came back to the states really broken. He pleaded with God, "God, does this have to happen here?"
God responded, "No, it doesn't. It doesn't have to happen if you remember ME."
And that is the problem, churches can happen and "grow" without anyone "knowing" God. Intimately and closely knowing Him.
Communities and individuals alike.
adam
ps. love your blog.
True enough. But then again, those same studies showed that the United States was 76% Christian. That's still a supermajority. Not half bad...particularly by European standards. And I'm not so sure about the impacts of poverty or economic hardship on folks willingness to commit to Christianity. Shoot, look at East Africa. Growth there is explosive.
Again, I feel the need to point out that the LDS church is a Christian church. The basic tenant of being a Christian being that you are a person who believes in Jesus Christ as the Savior makes it a Christian faith. The number of people who think we are not is similar to the number of Catholics who think they aren't Christian. The LDS church continues to grow around the world and in the US.
i think your observation about wicca, mormonism, & islam is misguided. even if they're growing at a rapid pace, they're still not reaching substantial numbers. similarly, there are companies with revenue growth of 1200% per year but you wouldn't have ever heard of them because they're still tiny businesses even with all that growth.
organized religion is becoming increasingly irrelevant and that article is the best explanation i've seen, especially the second point under "why."
@btbneedsanap - Christianity is defined by 2000 years of orthodoxy. Jesus as Savior is not what orthodoxy is defined by. (The earliest creed is Jesus is Lord by the way, and LDS don't really buy the true meaning of that.) But you can't claim orthodoxy when even your definition of Jesus is entirely skewed. The only folks that consider LDS Christian are the LDS. And I don't understand how or why they do make these claims. Why do you want to claim Christianity while at the same time trying to convert Christians? Why claim Christianity when Smith was all about a new true religion? It makes no sense. It's either hypocrisy or a lack of intellectual honesty.
Are there no denominations inside Christianity? We don't claim to be a completely different religion from everyone else, because that's not true. Do some Christian denominations not sometimes convert other Christians? Every church views certain things differently, or else there would only be one denomination, and one religion. The fact that we convert Christians isn't really an argument, since every church does.
@btbneedsanap - The fact that we convert Christians isn't really an argument, since every church does.
Perhaps you could make that argument across broad lines (say between Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox) where partisans don't see the others as the true church. But even here there isn't anything hard-and-fast. Not even hard-line Baptist try to convert other conservative Protestants. The entire notion of such conversions is, however, that there is something fundamentally deficient, unorthodox, and non-Christian about the other. Moreover, I noted that you did not even address FreeThinker777's first point, the that LDS Church falls outside the orthodoxy of received tradition and doctrine.
@jimm_wetherbee - Allow me to preface this by saying that I know I'm not going to change anyone's mind on this.
The LDS church doesn't convert other Christians because there is something fundamentally non-Christian about them. FreeThinker777 is correct, Joseph Smith did claim to found a new religion, and we believe that we are different from other churches. We do not, however, believe that "Christianity" is the religion. Christianity is a broad range of churches, denomonations, etc., and this seems to be the point of argument. Christians are different from other religions, in that we seperate ourselves into many denomonations. I didn't dodge the question intending to change the subject. We differ in a few fundamental ideas of doctrine, which is why we don't agree on this.@btbneedsanap - Christians are different from other religions, in that we seperate ourselves into many denomonations.
That certainly is not a distinction of Christianity. Almost all the major world religions exhibit a great deal of diversity of sects. You also seem to be having some issues with semantics. Christians aren't religions at all, they are individuals who adhere to a specific religion. Of course you may have meant to say that Christians are different from religious adherents in that they separate themselves into denominations. Saying that, however, does not say what Christianity is, let alone that it is not a religion.
Now, you may wish to say that Christianity is a family of religions (One could even invoke Wittgenstein here). But, when one starts to parse out the nature of God, Christ, divinity, salvation, and such, it becomes clear that the Church of Latter Day Saints departs from orthodox Christianity to such an extent that it bears about the same relationship to it as Christianity does to Judaism or Buddhism to Hinduism.