Geoge Barna's Latest Assesment of the State of Evangelical Christianity

Christianity Today ^ | 7/26/2002 | Tim Stafford

[don-o]

Lots of questions, but few answers.

And you point is.....?

[Illbay]

...evangelicalism is not coming to end, but rather is going a through a change.

IMO, it is simply doing what all the other churches have done, Catholic and Protestant: Adjusting itself to appeal to the greatest number.

Please understand that I have been living in the "Bible Belt" pretty much my entire life, and I see from the outside. That whole movement has become "bread and circuses," because the concept of the "megachurch" led inevitably to the realization that they had to keep doing more and more "spectacular" things to keep up the growth level.

You can see the services of any given "megachurch" here in the Houston are, for example, on Sundays, with many of them replayed during the week.

Most of their sermons are long on rhetoric and short on any real substance, because they can't delve into substance; they might offend someone.

It is not a coincidence that instances of marital infidelity and divorce are highest among evangelical Christians. They are people who live for excitement and stimulation, speaking in the aggregate.

[don-o]

you have freepmail

[sonrise57]

Got it and responded. I'm listening.

[don-o]

Please understand that I have been living in the "Bible Belt" pretty much my entire life, and I see from the outside.

YOu are LDS, yes?

I think that newbies on the theads need to be clear on that.

[drstevej]

Once a person responds to preaching and is baptized isn't it logical that he be added to a local church? The local church is to equip new believers (teaching them to observe all that He has commanded).

Seems to be the New Testament pattern...

***I am very evangelical..but I have no interst in growing a church for any man or demonination. ***

That was my precise point.

Small churches can compromise the gospel as well as larger churches. Smaller isn't necessarily more godly. Right?

Are we not saying the same thing...

[Illbay]

Yes, but I am someone who has lived with "evangelicals" all my life. In fact, since I'm not all caught up in this myth that there is a unified "church" out there in the protestant world, I feel ESPECIALLY able to comment.

[Illbay]

Maybe if you'd follow the thread of discussion, you wouldn't need me to catch you up.

[don-o]

Oh, I have followed it quite well

And you are, LDS, yes?

There are Christians on the thread who should know this.

[RnMomof7]

I thought we agreed on the false evangelization ..if you are looking for a fight please look elsewhere

[RnMomof7]

I would expect that the church would grow when the gospel is presented .But the object should not be church growth..it should be preaching the gospel to the unsaved and the maturing and equipping of the body

There is no biblical precedent for inviting the unsaved INTO the church to be saved.

They went out and preaced then brought the converted into the church

The end result of turning from the biblical pattern is you never have a body that can chew meat cause all they get fed is milk . You get a church full of spiritual cripples that do not know the word..and that can not go out and teach and preach...

[RnMomof7]

I have the feeling your observations will be dismisssed because you are LDS. I will not dismiss them. I think your observations are revelant and parallel my own..

[RnMomof7]

Steve to me it is purpose..if the purpose of any program or a seeker friendly sermon is to grow the numbers I have a BIG problem

If the purpose is ministry to others and preaching the gospel .I say Amen..

[drstevej]

We are agreed.

[sonrise57]

I agree with you on this.

[P-Marlowe]

Every time someone tries a new marketing formula for Church Growth it is likely that the effort is going to fail. The problem is that if such a marketing formula works, then the credit is given to the formula.

The secret to church growth is simple. If your church follows this formula, then whatever method you use to bring people to the Lord will work. It's guaranteed. That formula is:

Act 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

BTW the Lord is not looking for "leaders" to run his church. He is looking for followers.

[retoocs]

Personally I agree with Barna on the complacency of the church as a whole in America. I am a 46 year old pastor at an 87 year old congregational church. I have been its pastor for the last 1 1/2 years and I have witnessed first hand the spiritual shallowness of a people who are 70 to 90 years old, acquiescing to the liberal left of Christianity (if there really is such a thing as a liberal left Christian). It all falls back on the leaders. We have leaders (pastors-teachers) who have totally abandoned Christian doctrine and treat Scripture as if it were not all the very Word of God. Where Barna separates leaders from teachers, I put them both in the same category. I don't think you can have a good "leader" in a church if he is not also a good "teacher" of the Word. The two go hand in hand. It takes a steadfast, solid, uncompromising teacher to be able to lead the people down the right path Biblically, yet as he "Leads" there are always those who don't want to follow, regardless of the fact that he is teaching the Word accurately. The problem lies not only with effective leadership, although one must try his best to succeed at that, the problem lies in the heart of the people who for the most part are complacent in their Christianity, largely due (in my opinion) that they are more horizontally focused, rather than vertically focused.
Many Christians want Christ on their own terms without having to give up their time, talents, or money. The old saying is so true, "5% of the people in the church do 95% of the work." Granted there are those who do good things that are unseen, but those same people ought to be more "Body of Christ minded" rather than going about their Christianity with a "lone ranger" mentality. I know there are churches that are going great guns and the majority of the people are focusing on being a genuine disciple of Christ, but as for the majority of the country . . . I say Christians who really are Christians need to be reading the Word every day and living out what they read. God's Word says, "By their fruits you shall know them." If I wanted genuine fruit I'd have to go grocery shopping at the churches that do not compromise the Word of God and do not acquiesce to political correctness, which are few and far between. We have far too many pastors who for the sake of "unity" are compromisers and affable glad-handers in the community. Jesus was the opposite of that.