In 2007, LifeWay Research partnered with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research to conduct a survey of the attitudes and beliefs of Americans who had not attended a church in the last six months or longer. These people tend to fall into two categories: (1) the “unchurched”, or those who have never had any significant interaction with or membership in a church and (2) the “dechurched”, or those who have attended churches in the past but who no longer do so. The researchers asked these people a series of questions aimed at trying to understand what they believe about God and how they perceive the Church and Christians. There are two of their findings that I find particularly disturbing because they will present us with enormous challenges in the way that we share our faith and expand our community. Those surveyed were asked to respond to this statement: “The church is full of hypocrites, people who criticize others for doing the same things they do themselves.” 72% of respondents agreed (Many strongly agreed.) that this accurately describes the Church. They were also asked to respond to this statement: “I think Christianity today is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving people.” 79% of those surveyed agreed with this characterization of our faith.*
Let me try to put these numbers in a practical light and show you why we must take them seriously in our own fellowship. Imagine that I take ten random people who do not go to church from places all over Hardin County and bring them into your life over the next month and have them get to know you. As they come to realize that you are a believer and a member of Gilead Baptist Church, seven of them will initially and naturally suspect that you probably do not live up to the beliefs you hold and that your church is full of people just like you. They will expect you to criticize others for things that you routinely do yourself. Additionally, of those same ten people, eight will naturally assume that your involvement in our congregation is principally because you find some significance in the rituals and routines of your religion. They will not assume that you know God any better than they do, nor will they expect that you know how to love people any better than they do. In other words, most of those outside the Church think that we Christians talk a great deal about a God that we do not really know and preach to people that we do not really care about.
This paints a daunting picture of the environment in which we are sharing our faith and seeking to build relationships with people outside of our church. Many of the people we come into contact with simply do not see how God uses the gathered body of Christ to manifest His glory or to change lives. Gathered worship and Bible study are being increasingly viewed as unnecessary to develop meaningful relationships with God or men. One of the directors of the LifeWay study described the difficulty this way, “The belief that church attendance isn’t necessary for spiritual well-being is just as common among adults who grew up in church as it is among those who attended church less often as children. Unchurched people do not understand the connection between having a relationship with God and being with other believers in church.”** As a pastor, this troubles me greatly. I want people to see the love that we have for one another and for our God. If someone rejects the God that we love, then that is a tragedy for them; however, if they reject the assertion that we love our God, then that is a tragedy for us. Furthermore, if someone rejects the brotherhood of our gathered body, then that is a loss for them. If this same someone rejects the idea that we have any brotherhood worthy of the name, then that is a loss for us.
God has not been silent about the fact that He intends for His children to be more than a bunch of individuals that have similar beliefs. He wants us to be a growing family of transformed and transforming disciples who really belong to one another. Consider the following description of this family of God, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts … bearing with one another … forgiving each other … put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body … teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3.12-16 [ESV]) Our unchurched community needs to see this kind of family in our church. I am convinced that God’s agenda for us at Gilead is that we live up to the calling that He has given us and that one of the most important ways to do that is through small group interactions with one another. Our LIFE group ministry is intended to give our family a chance to grow in the areas of forgiving, encouraging and teaching one another. Not only is this the kind of community that God has called us to be but, as the survey data have indicated, it is also the best way to demonstrate that we are not hypocrites who care more about buildings and programs than people. Please pray with me that God would continue to bless our work to become a church that is known primarily because of the way we love God and the way we love one another.
* For analysis and summary of the data for this survey refer to http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/mainpage/0,1701,M%253D200900,00.html or http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%25253D166950%252526M%25253D200906%2C00.html
** Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research, quoted from above article.
Let me try to put these numbers in a practical light and show you why we must take them seriously in our own fellowship. Imagine that I take ten random people who do not go to church from places all over Hardin County and bring them into your life over the next month and have them get to know you. As they come to realize that you are a believer and a member of Gilead Baptist Church, seven of them will initially and naturally suspect that you probably do not live up to the beliefs you hold and that your church is full of people just like you. They will expect you to criticize others for things that you routinely do yourself. Additionally, of those same ten people, eight will naturally assume that your involvement in our congregation is principally because you find some significance in the rituals and routines of your religion. They will not assume that you know God any better than they do, nor will they expect that you know how to love people any better than they do. In other words, most of those outside the Church think that we Christians talk a great deal about a God that we do not really know and preach to people that we do not really care about.
This paints a daunting picture of the environment in which we are sharing our faith and seeking to build relationships with people outside of our church. Many of the people we come into contact with simply do not see how God uses the gathered body of Christ to manifest His glory or to change lives. Gathered worship and Bible study are being increasingly viewed as unnecessary to develop meaningful relationships with God or men. One of the directors of the LifeWay study described the difficulty this way, “The belief that church attendance isn’t necessary for spiritual well-being is just as common among adults who grew up in church as it is among those who attended church less often as children. Unchurched people do not understand the connection between having a relationship with God and being with other believers in church.”** As a pastor, this troubles me greatly. I want people to see the love that we have for one another and for our God. If someone rejects the God that we love, then that is a tragedy for them; however, if they reject the assertion that we love our God, then that is a tragedy for us. Furthermore, if someone rejects the brotherhood of our gathered body, then that is a loss for them. If this same someone rejects the idea that we have any brotherhood worthy of the name, then that is a loss for us.
God has not been silent about the fact that He intends for His children to be more than a bunch of individuals that have similar beliefs. He wants us to be a growing family of transformed and transforming disciples who really belong to one another. Consider the following description of this family of God, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts … bearing with one another … forgiving each other … put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body … teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3.12-16 [ESV]) Our unchurched community needs to see this kind of family in our church. I am convinced that God’s agenda for us at Gilead is that we live up to the calling that He has given us and that one of the most important ways to do that is through small group interactions with one another. Our LIFE group ministry is intended to give our family a chance to grow in the areas of forgiving, encouraging and teaching one another. Not only is this the kind of community that God has called us to be but, as the survey data have indicated, it is also the best way to demonstrate that we are not hypocrites who care more about buildings and programs than people. Please pray with me that God would continue to bless our work to become a church that is known primarily because of the way we love God and the way we love one another.
* For analysis and summary of the data for this survey refer to http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/mainpage/0,1701,M%253D200900,00.html or http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0%2C1703%2CA%25253D166950%252526M%25253D200906%2C00.html
** Scott McConnell, associate director of LifeWay Research, quoted from above article.
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