Especially in America, being involved in a religious community and engaging in rituals to display religiosity have not only always been popular but are often even encouraged, especially in evangelical culture.
The problem is, however, that truly following Jesus isn’t
and never has been. That’s why He said that the gate was “narrow.”
With a recent Gallup poll indicating that, for the first
time, a minority of Americans aren’t involved in a church (or perhaps mosque or
synagogue as well — I don’t know the breakdown by affiliation), I think it’s
time that we looked at some hard truths about where the Church is today.
Since the late 1970s perhaps a majority of American
evangelicals have focused on political and cultural power to maintain social
power. The trouble is that in the process they’ve continually ignored the power
of the Holy Spirit, which is why their efforts produce only resentment toward
them and anger and bitterness among them.
That’s the backdrop of not only people leaving the Church
but a growing number of self-identifying evangelicals criticizing it — out of
love and humility, not resentment, mind you. The response has been,
unsurprisingly, anger — against the likes of Russell Moore of the Southern
Baptist Convention; Beth Moore (no relation), the Bible teacher who left the SBC;
and blogger and pastor John Pavlovitz.
This is why we’re headed for a split — between those who
really want to follow Jesus and those who simply want to play church. The
numbers might continue to drop — but He’d be OK with that, because then we’d
know for sure just who’s serious about depending on Him.
