Researchers
for years have been telling us that church attendance is on the decline. In 2007, 17% of the US population was in a
church on any given Sunday, according to The
American Church Research Project. If
current trends continue, that number will fall to 14.2% in 2020 and just 10.5%
in 2050.
Essentially
what this means is more and more people are seeing the pursuit of God and faith
as irrelevant or, at best, just one more option. People see themselves as spiritual but that
spirituality is a self-created belief system largely shaped and influenced by
popular culture. Those in their teens,
twenties and thirties are abandoning the church in droves. They often times are
seeing it as hypocritical, hate-filled, intolerant, irrelevant and
unreasonable. And, unfortunately, they
can easily find ammunition for their shotgun generalizations because there are
plenty of people who call themselves people of faith who are hypocritical,
hate-filled, intolerant, irrelevant and unreasonable.
Maybe you
are reading this and your internal “Amen” meter is off the scale right
now. You would say, “Yeah, this is
me. Christianity and the church just
don’t matter much in the world. They
aren’t asking the right questions and their answers don’t make sense. I’m out!”
There is
also another problem. It isn’t just with
those who claim to be God’s people being hypocrites. Many people have a problem with God as
well. Frankly, God has been rather
disappointing to them. The God they
think they see in the Bible is sort of mean in their eyes. God also is really bad at living up to our
expectations. How our marriages turn
out, our kids turn out, our jobs turn out and our friendships turn out are
regularly laid at the feet of God to blame him when something goes wrong. (But I’ve noticed he never gets credit when
they are going right!) And then don’t
even get people started on the evil in this world. When a natural disaster strikes, God is to
blame. When a mentally unstable person
grabs a gun, knife, baseball bat or some other weapon and wreaks havoc God is
held responsible. “What kind of God
would let that happen?!”
Don’t get
me wrong. I don’t think these questions
are illegitimate or unfair. I think they
are very, very important. They all
represent turning points in our life.
They are turning points of deeper pursuit of God or turning away from
God. And that is totally our choice.
I believe
God is worth pursuing. I believe what I
can see in the world around me points to something greater, something purer,
something that cares for creation. From
the truth and beauty found in cellular biology to the overwhelming complexity
and majesty of astrophysics and everything in between, there is a cosmic shout
of “I am here! I care! I can be found!”
If, in the
past, at your turning point you chose to walk away, I hope you will reconsider
and take the risk to look for God once again.
I’ve heard he rewards those who seek him.
Please join
me on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings for our series of talks, “A
Reasonable Faith?” We’re going
to wrestle with the tough questions head-on.
You might be surprised in what you find.
Because you’re worth it.
Peace and Grace,
David
PS - You can also download these talks from our website at www.coldspringschurch.net.
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