A Wake-Up Call

This is an important year for studies on religious life in the U.S. From Kinnaman and Lyon's UnChristian, to David T. Olson's The American Church in Crisis, data is accumulating that business/ministry as usual is not a great strategy for most U.S. denominations and nondenominations.

The
new Pew study highlights the fluidity of commitment among the American
people of faith, and it raises important questions for church leaders
in at least three areas.

1. If congregations and denominations
are not connecting with people's questions, needs, and desires - people
are moving on. Old-fashioned denominational loyalty is gone. Church
leaders can complain about it, but they'd also better acknowledge it.
Now this fact could be used to advocate increased religious pandering
... a "give 'em what they want" approach that turns church leaders into
"purveyors of religious goods and services" (a damning turn of phrase
from the missional church folk) who are competing for share of the
religious market.

But it could also have a much more positive
effect: by convincing church leaders that blindly maintaining the
status quo is a losing strategy, the data can liberate them to ask
deeper questions like ... Why are churches here? What is our mission?
What is our core message? Does Christ's church have a mission, or does
Christ's mission have a church? How much can, and should, change in our
churches? What shifts in church history can guide us as we face this
sea-change in our religious environment? In other words, the new data
could challenge leaders to ask, not simply, "What do the customers
want?" but, "What does God want?" ... and not just "What do members
need from their church?" but "What does the world need our churches to
become, be, and do so that God's will can be done on earth as it is in
heaven?"

2. People are dropping out of church altogether. The
fastest-growing religious segment - especially among the young -
continues to be the unaffiliated. If the "church growth" question of
the 90's was, "How are we going to attract baby boomers to come back to
church services on Sunday?" the "church mission" question in coming
years might be, "How can our churches inspire younger generations to
live a new way of life as disciples each day of the week?"

3.
Old categories are blurring and old identities are diversifying and
fragmenting. The study highlights the simultaneous growth and
diversification of the old evangelical base, for example. As older
generations pass from the scene and the alliances they created lose
strength, who will help catalyze new movements and alliances? What will
their priorities and ethos be?

In light of the accumulating
data, it's become increasingly clear: we don't just need new answers to
old questions, but we need new questions as well.

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is board chair for Sojourners. He is in the middle of an eleven-city speaking tour you can learn about at deepshift.org.