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It's been happening for a very long time, but I think this week put the final nerve stimulating the figurative final vocal chord to rest. The Church is irrelevant in our culture. If the ending of traditional marriage happens with barely a whisper of discontent, what else is there?
Unfortunately, the Church has a troubled history in the US, being divided over slavery, divided over race issues, even into the '60s and '70s, driving off 2/3s of the baby boom generation, only to re-emerge with a "don't worry, be happy" message that somehow left out the idea that spiritual maturity should be the result of being Christian.
Millennials are now leaving the Church, probably because it is irrelevant and indistinguishable from the crumbling culture around it. Divorce rates are still the same from evangelicals to atheists. The RCC covers up for pedophile priests. Very public preachers are more interested in wealth than preaching the gospel. We even have reality TV shows about it. A church is measured solely by the number of people who come. Much of the new Church is anti-intellectual. Why would young people waste their time? We've fallen either into an Extroverted-Feeling mode of Christianity that is a mile wide and an inch deep, or into Churches that demand absolute doctrinal conformity, even when those doctrines have questionable exegesis.
In the myers-briggs temperment indicator, we can group people more or less into three categories: EF, SJ, and NT. Yes, I know there are 16 types, and even a couple of letters not represented, but the remainder relate to one of these. The church has broken off into two of these three: SJ is the traditional Church: RCC, EO, CRC types, who demand conformity to all Church doctrine, and suppress critical thought; and EF, the loud, relationally oriented Church, where everyone feels good about themselves, and anti-intellectual attitudes abound.
The NT, those in the STEAM (scientific, technology, engineering, academic and management) fields have been left out. The SJ demands that they accept but not think, the EF demands that they feel and relate. Is it any wonder these are the types who tend to be agnostic, or worse have a poor experience in church, and abandon the faith?
Worse yet, these are the leaders, the problem solvers, and the discoverers who move organizations forward in a meaningful way.
If there was ever a time to seek unity, to give up petty squabbles, to change to embrace the whole church, and then to hold ourselves to a higher standard, one that distinguishes us from the culture around us, it is now. Only in being different, in being spiritually mature, will we attract young people and get the attention of the culture around us. And that will only happen when we embrace everyone in one context, SJ, EF, and NT working TOGETHER to raise a new standard.
So, how about you? Are you uniting or dividing?
Unfortunately, the Church has a troubled history in the US, being divided over slavery, divided over race issues, even into the '60s and '70s, driving off 2/3s of the baby boom generation, only to re-emerge with a "don't worry, be happy" message that somehow left out the idea that spiritual maturity should be the result of being Christian.
Millennials are now leaving the Church, probably because it is irrelevant and indistinguishable from the crumbling culture around it. Divorce rates are still the same from evangelicals to atheists. The RCC covers up for pedophile priests. Very public preachers are more interested in wealth than preaching the gospel. We even have reality TV shows about it. A church is measured solely by the number of people who come. Much of the new Church is anti-intellectual. Why would young people waste their time? We've fallen either into an Extroverted-Feeling mode of Christianity that is a mile wide and an inch deep, or into Churches that demand absolute doctrinal conformity, even when those doctrines have questionable exegesis.
In the myers-briggs temperment indicator, we can group people more or less into three categories: EF, SJ, and NT. Yes, I know there are 16 types, and even a couple of letters not represented, but the remainder relate to one of these. The church has broken off into two of these three: SJ is the traditional Church: RCC, EO, CRC types, who demand conformity to all Church doctrine, and suppress critical thought; and EF, the loud, relationally oriented Church, where everyone feels good about themselves, and anti-intellectual attitudes abound.
The NT, those in the STEAM (scientific, technology, engineering, academic and management) fields have been left out. The SJ demands that they accept but not think, the EF demands that they feel and relate. Is it any wonder these are the types who tend to be agnostic, or worse have a poor experience in church, and abandon the faith?
Worse yet, these are the leaders, the problem solvers, and the discoverers who move organizations forward in a meaningful way.
If there was ever a time to seek unity, to give up petty squabbles, to change to embrace the whole church, and then to hold ourselves to a higher standard, one that distinguishes us from the culture around us, it is now. Only in being different, in being spiritually mature, will we attract young people and get the attention of the culture around us. And that will only happen when we embrace everyone in one context, SJ, EF, and NT working TOGETHER to raise a new standard.
So, how about you? Are you uniting or dividing?
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