According to the Pew Research Center's recent and extensive study of religion in public life, Christianity is continuing to decline in America. At the same time, adherents to other religions and those claiming no religious affiliation whatsoever are growing in numbers. In fact, the unaffiliated have grown to 22.8% of our population, while the number of Protestants in America have decreased to only 25.4%. This decrease includes a continuing decrease among American evangelicals, not just in liberal mainline denominations, which have been on the decline for years. Interestingly, America's declining Christian population is most pronounced among the younger generation, 35% of which are religious “nones,” young people who say that they are atheists or agnostics, or that their religion is “nothing in particular.”
In light of these statistics, one cannot help but come to the conclusion that the contemporary church's insistence on us "rethinking church" in order to reach the younger generation is actually resulting in the sinking of Christianity in our country. Not only are more young people turned off to the Christian Faith than at any other time in our history, but more and more older Americans have turned their backs on Christianity as well. The simple truth is; the more today's church compromises the truth and conforms to the culture in a futile attempt to reach the younger generation the less effective it is at doing so and the more ground we lose in our country. Catering to today's young hipsters does not convert them to Christ, but only undermines the church's influence in our culture.
It has been acutely observed that whatever you win people with is what you've really won them to. The contemporary church is adept at winning people to all kinds of things, but, unfortunately, it is most inept at winning people to Christ. It can get people to attend church services with its music, but can't get them to pledge their allegiance to the Master. It can get folks to make a "decision," but it can't make them into disciples.
When you look through all of the fluff and stuff of the contemporary church, you see the hard facts of the recent findings of the Pew Research Center's study on religion in public life. As our second president, John Adams, once opined, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." Well, the evidence is in. The question is will we face the facts and admit that we've been sold a bill of goods by the contemporary church's church growth gurus or will we prove ourselves spiritually insane? Remember Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."