What's Happening to the Church in America?

The Pew Research center released a survey today (October 9, 2012) with the title “None’s on the Rise.” The subtitle reads, “One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation.” It is a startling survey that speaks about the decline of the church and “religion” in the overall life of Americans. You can read the article for yourself at http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffiliated/nones-on-the-rise.aspx. Below, I have highlighted the ten most astounding things I took away from this survey.

1. “One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.”
2. “A third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation (32%), compared with just one-in-ten who are 65 and older (9%).”
3. “Overwhelmingly, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.”
4. “15.3% of U.S. adults answered a question about their current religion by saying they were atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”
5. “The new Pew Research Center/Religion & Ethics News Weekly survey finds that about three-quarters of unaffiliated adults were raised with some affiliation (74%).”
6. “The number of Americans who currently say religion is very important in their lives (58%)… is far higher than in Britain (17%), France (13%), Germany (21%) or Spain (22%).”
7. “By 2012, 29% of U.S. adults indicated they seldom or never attend religious services.”
8. “The percentage of Americans who say the Bible should be taken literally has fallen [to] an average of about 38%.”
9. “Two-thirds of Americans, including 63% of the religiously unaffiliated, say religion as a whole is losing its influence on American life.”
10. “88% of religiously unaffiliated Americans are not actively seeking to find a church or other religious group to join.”

The apostle Paul said to the church at Rome that it is high time for us to awake out of sleep. My prayer is that God will awaken the church because we are slowly losing ground to the forces of evil. There is too much at stake for us to slumber while these perilous times are upon us. It’s time for us to wake up and to shake the sleep from our eyes and realize there is a spiritual war that is raging all around us. It’s time that we awake from our apathy, repent of our hypocrisy, and re-fire on our duty to win the lost at any cost. Jeff Steele said it best in his song when he said, “It’s time for the army of God to arise and say we want America back!”

A Lesson on the Uncertainty of Life

This week has been a constant reminder of the brevity and uncertainty of life. Monday afternoon I spoke with a pastor’s wife on the phone as I called to check on her and her husband. To my dismay, I found out just four days later that same woman’s health had taken a turn for the worse on Wednesday and she passed away on Thursday morning. I'm sure when this pastor woke up Wednesday morning he was thinking mostly about the message he was going to deliver Wednesday night to his church only to have his world turned upside down in a matter of 24 hours. Now he is a widower planning his wife's funeral. Life changes quickly.

Once again today I was taught the lesson of how quickly life changes as I got a call this morning on my way home from lunch to tell me of a man in our church that had been found dead by his wife. That may not come as a shock to you but it did to me because no less than three days ago I was shaking hands with him at our midweek prayer service. Now death has taken him into eternity. Last night the biggest thing his wife had on her mind was wondering if she would make it to the church in time this morning for the church-wide cleanup that was scheduled; but now she is a widow planning her husband's funeral. Life changes in a moment.

Moses said in Psalm 90, So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. Solomon said, Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I'm reminded today of how quickly life can change. No one is immune to bad things coming into their life. No one is good enough to exempt them from disaster. No one is promised tomorrow. In light of that, I'm determining today to do several things and by the grace of God I will not be deterred.

1. I will dedicate myself to accomplishing those things that really matter and leaving behind the things that really don't. There are some things in life that really don't matter, but sadly we spend most of our time focusing and worrying on how to accomplish those things to the neglect of the things that really do matter. Life is too short to worry about those things that don't matter. How do you determine what really matters? Here is the litmus test I use: “Is it worth losing everything in order to gain this one thing?” If it passes that test then it is something that really matters.

2. I will dedicate myself to investing in the people in my life that really matter. Have you ever found yourself trying to impress certain people only to feel like a failure because you can’t seem to gain their acceptance? It is a sad story, but we spend the majority of our efforts attempting to win over people that really don't matter while we overlook those people that really do matter. I wonder how many children have been neglected by a father who was trying to win the favor of his boss? Or how many people have neglected their spouse because they wanted to win the favor of a friend? I have often said this, “I refuse to be upset because of the one who doesn’t like me when I can focus of the other people who do like me.” I refuse to waste anymore of my life trying to please people. 

3. I am determined to make a difference for good. In everything that I do I want to do it with the purpose of making a difference. Every word I speak to my son or my wife I want to do it with the intention of making a difference in them for good. Every ministry God allows me to undertake I want to do it with the purpose of making a difference for good. Every message that I preach I want to do it with a determination to make a difference for good.

Life is too uncertain and precious to waste today. The prayer of my heart is that of the psalmist when he said, Awaken my heart, O God. Let me see what I ought to be doing and forgetting those things I shouldn't be doing.