Evangelism

Young Attend Church More Than Old — But Is It Enough?

Responding to news that he was either dying or dead, Mark Twain famously said, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

According to a new report from Barna Research, the same might be said regarding the previous decline of young people’s faith and church attendance.

Released Tuesday as part of the group’s ongoing “State of the Church” initiative, “Gen Z” and “Millennials” attend church more regularly than their older counterparts.

Digging into the data, Gen Zers, those born between the mid to late 1990s and early 2010s, attend church 1.9 times per month. Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, average 1.8 times per month.

In contrast, Boomers (1946-1964) and Elders (those born before 1946) attend 1.4 times per month.

David Copeland, who serves as Barna’s vice president of research, acknowledged the surprise that accompanied the findings.

“It’s typically older adults who are the most loyal churchgoers,” he said. “This data represents good news for church leaders and adds to the picture that spiritual renewal is shaping Gen Z and Millennials today.”

But is it really good news that the typical Christian is attending church only two out of every five weekends?

Scripture makes clear the importance of regular corporate worship. The writer of Hebrews urged believers to “not [give] up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

The Fourth Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8) may not specifically dictate weekly church attendance, but it does demand our attention and our obedience. As Christians, if we’re not a member of a church and regularly attending weekly services, how are we setting apart the day? How are we not neglecting the call to meet together with fellow followers of Christ?

While it’s a good thing that young people’s faith doesn’t appear as anemic as suspected, if the standard we’re comparing it to is already dangerously low, a sober-minded awareness seems in order.

We’d also be wise to ask some difficult and even uncomfortable questions.

Why are Christians going to church so infrequently? Are we allowing ourselves to be pulled away by very worldly priorities like youth sports, vacation travel, creature comforts like sleeping in and having a leisurely Sunday morning instead?

This has no bearing on a committed believer’s responsibility to participate in corporate worship, but churches themselves should be examining elements of their service and outreach. Are they doing everything they can to retain interest, especially from those who may dip in and out, who are on the fringes of Christianity? Are they challenging people enough? Are pastors prepared and interesting, addressing issues relevant to real lives in real time?

It’s always curious why sports stadiums can sell out week after week, yet rare is the church that suffers from not having enough seats for those wanting to join the worship service.

“Church attendance is as vital to a disciple as a transfusion of rich, healthy blood to a sick man,” warned D.L. Moody.

Some Christians dismiss or diminish the importance of physical church attendance. Instead, they may talk of communing with God in nature, praying alone, or spending their quiet time with the Lord in personal reading of Scripture. Those disciplines are important and supplemental, but they cannot and must not replace corporate worship. The same goes for those able to attend in person but who instead opt out for church culture.

The famed evangelist Billy Sunday once said, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.” He was right. Inner transformation, repentance, and accepting Jesus Christ as Lord of your life is what makes you a Christian.  But going to church provides us with community, connection, opportunities for service, and ideally, offers solid spiritual teaching that will help us grow in our faith and strengthen us in numerous ways that will then equip us to share the Good News with others.

Given all those personal and Kingdom benefits available at church, wouldn’t you want to attend more than 21 weeks out of a 52-week year?

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President Trump, Heaven and Our Father’s Greatest Gift

During an interview Tuesday on Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump spoke at length about Monday’s historic White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.

Sharing his burden over the rising death toll suffered on both sides in eastern Europe, President Trump then offered, with a seeming smile in his voice, another motivation for trying to help broker a peace deal.

“I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” he explained. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

For Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times, President Trump’s comments were quite shocking. From the Old Grey Lady’s White House beat writer:

This would have been a highly unusual admission from any president, but it seemed especially out of character coming from this one. The man who is regarded as a messiah by many of his own supporters — a belief he has encouraged at every turn — says now that he knows he’s no saint.

This fear of perdition raised some questions. Chief among them: Who, exactly, has been informing the president that he is “not doing well” with regard to kingdom come? Did Michael the Archangel somehow get Mr. Trump’s cellphone number?

Heaven comes up a lot in popular cultural conversation, and even with people who may not even consider themselves “religious.” There are people who mistakenly believe “all roads” lead there, and then there are those who discuss it in Hollywood-esque terms, a vague place populated with angels and harps.

It’s actually not unusual for politicians, journalists and even the general public to talk about somehow earning their way into Heaven. Ask a room full of people, many of whom might even profess belief in God, whether they’re going to Heaven when they die, and you’ll inevitably hear answers comparable to President Trump’s self-evaluation.

At a campaign rally last October, President Trump told the crowd, “I know my mother’s in Heaven. I’m not 100 percent sure about my father, but it’s close.”

One of the thrilling and overwhelmingly reassuring aspects of Christianity is that admission to Heaven isn’t merit based. There is no totem pole to climb, no boxes to check – no way to earn our way by being great or even good enough. Whether you make it to Heaven won’t be decided like a photo finish of a race. Close won’t be close enough.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them,” said Jesus (John 3:36). We later read in John’s Gospel another declarative promise from the Lord: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6).

As Christians, we don’t have to wring our hands in worry or frustration. We don’t have to wonder about our eternal destiny.

Believe and be saved – simple, and yet so beautifully profound.

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The Fighting Christian is Not a Contradiction

Writing in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, columnist Peggy Noonan appears convinced that President Donald Trump’s natural governing inclination is to fight:

“What we’ve seen the past six months is what we’ll see in the future. It will be fight, fight, fight, not only or primarily for a movement, program or platform, but because fighting is good and the natural state.”

“Of all his weaknesses that is one of his greatest, that he’d rather hurt himself than not fight. He’d rather hurt the country than not fight. The fight is all.”

Since 2016, President Trump’s critics on both the right and the left have made similar accusations. Are they right or wrong? Is this good news or bad news? Where you stand on those questions seems largely dependent on your opinion of Trump himself and how he is governing the country.

But as believers, how should Christians think about fighting the ongoing cultural battles?

Many like to point to the apostle Paul’s encouragement to members of the Church in Rome, when he urged them, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18).

Taken in context, Paul is relaying to believers what true Christians look like. Earlier in the letter, he writes:

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor …Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer… Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them …Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all (Romans 12:9-10, 12, 14-17).

But does that mean we can’t push back against the wickedness of the culture?

Of course not. To “abhor” or “hate” evil is to fight it, not passively watch the wicked run roughshod over the innocent. Addressing believers in Ephesus, Paul advised Christians to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:10-11).

God can orchestrate anything with our without our assistance, but passivity is more likely to invite the status quo. 

Last week it was announced that Kaiser Permanente, a healthcare provider serving nearly 13 million people across eight states, was stopping all gender mutilation surgeries for any patients under the age of 19. 

The healthcare behemoth hasn’t really had a change of heart or “seen the light” but instead is responding to pressure and executive federal action.

They’re responding to the fight.

From an internal memo written by CEO Greg Adams:

Since January, there has been significant focus by the federal government on gender-affirming care, specifically for patients under the age of 19 … In response to these federal actions, many health systems and clinicians across the country have paused or discontinued providing gender-affirming care for adolescents … After significant deliberation and consultation with internal and external experts including our physicians, we’ve made the difficult decision to pause gender-affirming surgical treatment for patients under the age of 19 in our hospitals and surgical centers.

Notice how many times (three) they used the term “gender-affirming” – a dishonest and reckless description of a destructive act that deforms and leaves young people to manage irreversible consequences. And a “difficult decision”? It’s the only right decision after the disastrous one that has led to the maiming of sexually confused children.

It was Winston Churchill who once quipped, “I like a man who grins when he fights.”

C.S. Lewis was right. “Christianity is a fighting religion.” Christians are called to be happy warriors who fight evil with good, who defend the defenseless, and who fight based on principle not on predicted or anticipated outcomes. Loving Christians fight because they hate the evil and love their neighbor. They fight and leave the outcome to the Lord.

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White House Cabinet Meeting: ‘Jesus, You are the Great Redeemer’

As he did with his first cabinet meeting, President Trump invited Scott Turner, United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to open the gathering in prayer.

The former NFL player, Secretary Turner served in the Texas State Legislature (2013-2017) and was an associate pastor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

The former church shepherd has described himself as a “purpose-driven person” who sees his life in terms of a calling rather than a career.

“All along the way, you know, I believe the Lord was preparing me,” Turner said, “I believe God is a sovereign God … I believe that from before the womb of my mother that [God] was preparing me for this moment, for this day, for such a time as this.”

In his role at HHS, Secretary Turner has vowed to “restore biological truth to the federal government.” He then added, “This means getting the government out of the way of what the Lord established from the very first day, when he created man in his own image, male and female.”

Under Secretary Turner’s watch, any federally funded shelter must offer services according to a person’s biology not their identity and imagination.

On Tuesday, in the aftermath of the horrific flash flooding in Texas, here is how the secretary prayed in the Cabinet room:

Father, we’re humbled by your grace. We’re humbled by your mercy. Lord God, we surrender to you.

Jesus, you are the great Redeemer. And Lord, we thank you. I thank you for every man and woman around this table.

Thank you for the President, Father, and his leadership. Lord God, as we think about the families in Texas, Lord God, we don’t understand. We don’t know how to explain it.

We don’t know why, but we know who. We know who to trust. Father, we thank you that you are God Almighty, that you are all-powerful.

And Lord God, we lift up the families that are mourning, that are grieving, those families that are hurting. Lord God, we pray for a peace that surpasses all understanding. And your scripture says that Jesus, you said, “I’ll give you a peace, not the peace of the world, but the peace I give.”

And we pray, God, that you would give them a peace that in the midst of tragedy, that they don’t even understand how they can be in comfort. And Lord God, we pray that as we work together as a cabinet, as a President, Vice President in this administration, Father God, that you would give us all the tools that we need, Father God, to show up and to support and help to rebuild and to restore. The Bible says in Isaiah that we are “the restorers of the breach and the repairers of the street.”

Father God, as we roll up our sleeves and pray for these people, God, we just pray right now for your favor and grace. Thank you for the first responders and those that are working on the ground right now. Lord, we pray for miracle upon miracle.

And Lord Jesus, those that are still there that are alive, Father, we pray you would help us to find them, Lord God, and bring them back to their families. We love you. We honor you.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

That a government official would pray so boldly and unapologetically in Jesus’ name inside the White House should encourage every Christian believer regardless of their party.

Lord, please hear our prayers.

IRS: Pastors and Politicians Don’t Lose First Amendment Rights in Pulpit

It turns out, pastors or candidates for office are allowed to talk politics from the pulpit.

That’s a ruling that came out Monday from the Internal Revenue Service in a joint motion that seeks to settle a lawsuit filed by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and two churches in Texas.

From the IRS filing:

When a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation, through its customary channels of communication on matters of faith in connection with religious services, concerning electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither “participate[s]” nor “intervene[s]” in a “political campaign,” within the ordinary meaning of those words. To “participate” in a political campaign is “to take part” in the political campaign, and to “intervene” in a political campaign is “to interfere with the outcome or course” of the political campaign.

Bona fide communications internal to a house of worship, between the house of worship and its congregation, in connection with religious services, do neither of those things, any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates. Thus, communications from a house of worship to its congregation in connection with religious services through its usual channels of communication on matters of faith do not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment as properly interpreted.

The Johnson Amendment, which was added to the tax code in 1954, prohibits 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations and churches from campaigning on behalf of a political candidate. Back in 2017, President Trump signed an executive order limiting the amendment’s enforcement.

The lawsuit filed by the NRB and two Baptist churches suggested the tax code was discriminatory towards churches and that the IRS “operates in a manner that disfavors conservative organizations and conservative, religious organizations” when it comes to applying and enforcing the law.

Earlier this spring, Focus on the Family joined fifteen other organizations in supporting the Free Speech Fairness Act, legislation that would basically enshrine into law the essence of what the IRS filed on Monday.

Despite claims to the contrary from its critics, the bill wouldn’t unleash a reckless free-for-all, but would instead allow non-profit organizations and their representatives to comment on candidates or political matters so long as what’s being said is germane to the organization’s purpose.

Responding to Monday’s IRS decision, Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, and Chief Counsel for First Liberty, stated: 

First Amendment rights don’t end when a pastor, church member or even a political candidate steps on the platform of a church. The IRS weaponized the Johnson Amendment to silence churches and pastors for decades. This is great news for religious organizations, churches, and religious liberty.

The IRS announcement is commonsense. It’s been outrageous that organizations have been muzzled or intimidated into silence, especially when candidates advocate or hold to positions that are contrary to God’s Word.

Pastors who have steered clear of addressing moral issues out of fear that it might be perceived as political should now readjust and reconsider what they say from the pulpit. In fact, ministers have an obligation to share God’s truth and shouldn’t be afraid to proclaim and defend it in the pulpit. Surprisingly but thankfully, the IRS now agrees.

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