Many scholars are saying that today we are living in a Post-Christian America, and I am beginning to believe them. Just look at some of the facts. The CDC estimates that since Roe v. Wade in 1973, there have been nearly fifty million legal abortions in the United States. Just to put that number in context: Under Hitler, the concentration camps alone killed around three million. Under Stalin's regime in the USSR, the lowest credible estimate has the number of unnatural deaths bordering on twenty million. Think about that for a moment. We have killed more of the unborn than Hitler and Stalin combined, and that is just one example of the horrors the "Christian" nation of America has allowed. Divorce rates have risen and the number of illegitimate births also is on the rise. Marriage, the sanctity of life, and the proper respect for sex are three things fundamental to the way Christians understand our walk in this world. Allowing, in a democratic society, for these statistics to be a reality give a strong indication that we are on our way to a non-Christian America, if we are not there already.
My question is this: how have we gotten to this point? When looking at the numbers, the number of churches is up, but the number of people attending a church service each weekend is down. That seems to be slightly counter-intuitive. If we have more churches, shouldn't more people be showing up on Sunday morning? But that is not the case, and to be honest, Christians-it is our own fault.
Allow me to tell a brief story. I was out of town for a family member's wedding. On the fifteen minute drive from the hotel to the wedding chapel, it struck me that there were a lot of different churches lining the sides of the road. I remember counting nearly twenty different churches along the stretch of road we were driving. It was not as if this was a densely populated urban area. We were in suburbia. As we pulled into the parking lot for the wedding, I began to be perturbed by that high number of churches. It gave me pause that a community could not come together to worship God. Instead, they had to find their own clique, their own brand of Christianity.
There is something fundamentally wrong with this understanding of the Church. Division strikes at the heart of Christianity. Unity is fundamentally essential to the life of the Church. Christ tells his disciples that "all men will know that [they] are [His] disciples, if [they] have love for one another" (John 13:35). Later, while praying in the garden before His arrest, Jesus prays that His followers "may all be one" (John 17:21). This is not just a friendliness or a general togetherness. We are called to perfect oneness as a body in the same way that Jesus and the Father are one: "that they may be one as You and I are one" (John 17:22).
Not only does disunity contradict our call to a Christian community, it also contradicts our call to missions and evangelism. Divided groups do not get anything done. It is groups united behind a clear and common goal that make the most impact on the world around them. Yet, non-believers are getting different versions of the Gospel when they interact with different sects of Christianity. If we are serious about reaching the world for the cause of Christ, we cannot continue to send confusing, contradictory messages, but must instead come to a united understanding of what we as Christians stand for.
A renewed commitment to Christian unity must be had. We can no longer pursue individualistic views of the Church. Too many people view the Church as a place where they can get their private spiritual needs met, and when they are not, new churches pop up or members float between different churches. For unity to recapture the church, a paradigm shift is needed. The Church must again realize its identity as a manifestation of the love of God in the here and now. As such, we are to "bear all things" in "all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another… being diligent to preserve the unity of the Sprit in the bond of peace" (1 Corinthians 13:7, Ephesians 4:2-3).
To be perfectly honest, I see a need here but am struggling to identify the best method for bringing the Church back together. If we are going to be relevant in today's world, we must be educated, articulate, and unified. If we aren't, then a post-Christian world will become a concrete reality.
For the Lamb's reward.
