The End (and New Beginning) of the Christian World

I am writing this blog because I believe we are approaching the end times.  I do not mean the End Times, even though we must always concede that the end of the world is always nearer than it was yesterday. No, the "times" that we can be sure is fast approaching is the end of the so-called  "Christian" era in Western civilization. Christianity is thriving in other parts of the globe to be sure,  but in America and in Europe, where Christianity has been the dominant religion for centuries, it is undergoing a staggering decline of influence and numbers. Church attendance in America is down 1% to 3% each year according to the best estimates.[1] The Barna Group reports that four out of five young people will leave the church by the age of twenty-three.[2] 83% of clergy now believe that the church is losing influence in our culture.[3] The overall statistics paint a grim picture of the future of Christian institutions

Traditional Christian approaches to spreading the faith, which have relied heavily on mass media and big programs, have lost their effectiveness in a post-Christian age. The world has already heard us in the Western world, but has stopped listening. They have seen us and are not impressed. The church has been weighed in the balance of public opinion and has been found wanting.

We may blame a lot of things for this decline---secularist and atheistic misrepresentations of the faith,  sexual promiscuities, or dark conspiracies--but the cause lies more within ourselves. Christianity has lost its preeminent place in society mainly because it had already lost its preeminent place in in the hearts of those who practice it.  When the church becomes popular in any culture, it takes on that culture's gods.  Professional Christianity becomes just one more career path to worldly power, while the mission of Christ is lost.

Christians were cultural pariahs for the first three centuries of our existence.  The early church was a  persecuted, slandered and misunderstood minority.  Even so, the quality of the early Christians drew others to Christ.  In spite of their terrible and unjustified reputation,  the church survived and even grew. The Christian church grew because the Christians acted like Christ. They did not just preach the Gospel--they lived it. Like Jesus, the Word was made flesh in them, and the people around them noticed. They did not just preach--their lives were sermons.

In times of moral darkness, the light of the Gospel does not shine through the windows of the churches, but through the quiet witness of lives  transformed by Spirit into the image of Christ..  

Darkness is falling over the institutional churches in America. The Bible belt has buckled and the bastions of Christian culture have crumbled.  But we do not have to despair.  As the individual churcs fail, it falls on individual Christians to bear the Christian witness to the world.  We cannot hold back the coming darkness, but we can light the stars. The church still has a vital role in bearing witness to the world through faithful ones who live as imitations of Christ. 

In the next few weeks, I will be posting on this blog an approach to helping us all become more like Jesus. 

First we will examine the general concept of faith and how it functions in our lives.  Then we will look at how the early church built, and how the church build, contrasting with the approach of the modern church.  Then, we will suggest an approach at how we may do a better job of building a deeper, more lasting faith, so that we as modern Christians can better represent Christ in the world.

I hope along the way you will join me in this discussion.  Write and let me know; what you think.  Each week I will suggest a question hopefully will encourage you to write.


Let me know what you think:
Do  you think we are seeing a decline in Christian faith in the west?  What do you think is the biggest cause of this decline? 

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[1] Ted Olson, theamericanchurch.org

[2] Drew Dyck, Generation Ex-Christian (Chicago: Moody, 2010), 17. 

[3] Dickerson John S. (2013-01-15). Great Evangelical Recession, The: 6 Factors That Will Crash the American Church...and How to Prepare . Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. quoted in the Great Evangelical Recession, (kindle edition)