In another conversation with a staff member
I noted that I struggled with incorporating what I have learned in life lessons
and experiences into my thinking without becoming a cynic. How do I think, act
and speak honestly without sounding too negative. But (And isn’t there always a
but?) when it comes to the church in North America and Europe, how can one be
honest and sound any other way than negative. For years it has been reported
the 40% of the American population attends church on a weekend. Some pollsters
doubted that number. They felt that those asked weren’t being totally honest. So,
they decided to count heads for a couple of weekends. They yielded a number of
20.9% of Americans were in church on a weekend. Even those pathetic numbers
look good compared to 15% of French citizens, 10% of UK citizens, and 7.5% of
Australian citizens. Canada also checks in at around 10%.
On the other hand, Christianity is growing
at an astounding rate in 3rd world countries. Because they are
difficult to tally and publish, there are no clear percentages of population
attendance in developing countries. But the research is clear that Church is
exploding with growth in the 3rd world. For the purpose of this
short blog, I will not delve into the “why” of that growth, but just note it.
If the decline of the church in developed
countries continues and the growth of the church continues in developing
countries continues, it seems to me that those letters my staff member was talking
about will be postmarked Africa, South America, or China. Not the good old USA.
That should give us pause to rethink how and why we do church as we do.
Copyright © 2013,
William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment