Despite interacting with various types of reconciliation in everyday life, reconciliation between self and God is a quite offensive idea in our modern culture. However, the idea that our culture in the 21st century is unique is a misconception. Church leaders all across the United States lament the rise of “nones” and the decline in church attendance. It is no secret that our society and culture are increasingly becoming secular.
In response, churches have resorted to new tactics to attract people to church. One of the most common responses in the church is within the Sunday service itself, which has become entertainment-driven if only it can bring more people in attendance. One website I read encouraged churches to find new ways to entice people to get out of bed and come to church. If I did not know any better, it would seem that possessing a right relationship with God is insufficient to draw us into church.
Unfortunately, all these tactics are not working. They are not working because of the focus on the tactics themselves, rather than on restoring fellowship with Christ. While specific churches may report higher attendance, many churches are generally reporting lower attendance, and churches are closing at a rapid rate. Even worse, in just the last 20 years, statisticians such as George Barna have tracked sharp declines in a Biblical understanding of God. This means that, even if church attendance is increasing, adherence to the core principles of the Bible is decreasing.
But why? Why is the church experiencing a sharp decline? Quite simply, I believe, history repeats itself. Human nature has not stumbled upon anything new which has not already revealed itself in history. Chief among the contributors to church decline today are pluralism and complacency.
Pluralism reveals itself in common objections from “nones” to organized religion, namely, that religion is divisive, and they are now open-minded. “Religion” is too exclusive. Instead, our moral default is to allow inconsistent or competing ideologies to coexist. This ties back to our narcissism or self-righteousness. We tend to justify that which we believe to be good. If what we believe to be good is inconsistent with organized religion, we either want them to coexist, or we reject that which we see as incompatible to what we view as good. That path to “good” holds more intrinsic value than God.
Pluralism enables false teaching, heresy, compromise, and reduced adherence to a Biblical understanding of God.
Complacency is quite deadly to belief for similar reasons as pluralism. Complacency often arises through prosperity. While our ancestors could not have survived without a strong dependency on the Lord, we’re getting along just fine with our wealth and self-made sustainability.
In complacency, we forget that it is our God-given talents coupled with God’s mercies which enable prosperity.
Such was the state of the culture in the late 1600s and early 1700s leading up to the Great Awakening. If we review major events in history, we would find that the story is similar at various periods of time. Religious adherence increases and decreases in cycles throughout the generations. We’re not facing a particularly new challenge today.
“[P]eople’s behavior is not driven primarily by what they know and believe but by what they love and imagine as good [perceived intrinsic value]. This is not to say that beliefs are unimportant, but that what gives shape to human action is primarily one’s imagination and enduring dispositions (habits) rather than mere assent to doctrine.” https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/misunderstanding-the-rise-of-the-nones/
The thrust of the churchlifejournal.nd.edu article is that Christian principles were largely not taught in the home when children were young. Therefore, faith was more easily abandoned as the children matured and were exposed to contrary influences.
Pluralism and complacency are each separately inconsistent with Biblical principles. The problem is that humanity is capable of easily justifying inconsistent philosophical and moral ideals.
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