by The Rev. Canon Porter C. Taylor
This is not simply a book about numbers. Rather, the research contained within these covers is recognition that the façade of Christendom has crumbled and that Christianity in America is truly one option among many (equal) choices. Further, it is an important reminder that conventional methods for mission and ministry are one-dimensional in the face of spiritual plurality. Raw statistics will not be the “answer” for your church plant or existing parish; one cannot simply read a book like this and find solutions to significant (image) problems. This book should be used as a challenge or launching pad into exegeting your context. Sociologists and theologians have agreed for some time that the post-modern church finds itself in a position similar to the pre-Constantine Church—and this may be a good thing! Barna and Kinnaman focus their attention on the churchless: the unchurched and dechurched population of America. This group is growing quickly and it will affect the way the church does ministry. The authors suggest that leaving the church does not mean leaving the faith. How many dechurched people have you heard exclaim, “I’m so tired of the church!” Or, “I’m fine with Jesus but it’s His church that bothers me.” Many people are “going it alone” because the church is not meeting their felt, stated and often unstated needs. These comments reverberate inside and outside of church walls, as spirituality seems more appealing than Christianity. Here are some raw statistics for you: 51% of the American population is barely churched, dechurched or purely unchurched.[4] There are 18 million unchurched people who claim to be “born again.”[5] Only 3 of 10 young adults will attend church faithfully from childhood to adulthood and almost 2 of 10 will leave the faith completely. Barna and Kinnaman highlight six main reasons for this exodus: Churches seem “restrictive and overprotective and antagonistic to science”; “churches are judgmental and rigid about sexuality; unfriendly to those who doubt”; “Christianity as practiced is too shallow; the exclusivity of Christianity is a turnoff.”[6] While the authors do a good job of offering basic ideas of how to reach the unchurched, dechurched and churchless, this book is much better as a resource to understand “with whom am I connecting?” You cannot begin to connect well, authentically or effectively until you understand the Other, the person sitting across the table from you; that is, you need to know their values, their beliefs, their hurts/hang-ups/hold-outs and habits. That’s the true gem in this book. I have a hypothesis: Despite the statistics stating that regular church attendees answer questions correctly at a higher rate than the unchurched, I believe that regular church attendance does not equal strong discipleship and formation. I am willing to bet that what is believed or perceived inside the church is strikingly similar to outside. Issues about sexuality, tolerance, rigidity, equality and wayward religious beliefs are as prevalent amongst the “faithful” as they are the “exiles, nomads and prodigals.”[7] I believe that this book about those who are without churches should catalyze us in two directions: First, reengaging with those who have left the church or who have never been. Second, to begin catechizing and discipling our parishes with greater fervor and passion because it can easily be said that the spiritual trends outside of the church are found inside as well. What does this mean for church planting and parish ministry in C4SO or in the Anglican Church in North America? It means that the local priest or lay leader must become a student of culture and societal changes. It means that a one-size-fits-all approach to evangelism and reengaging the dechurched will not work. It means that we are called to be authentic rather than relevant. Bottom line: This is a very important book—one that you should purchase and read quickly. However, of greater significance is the way that the church uses and responds to this book. The choice is before you: Neglect, capitulate or adapt. Neglect the research and continue the trends; capitulate to a consumer-based culture desiring consumer-based churches; adapt missional strategies based on the available research. Adaptation as contextual exegesis is the only real choice at this crossroads and it is my prayer that you will reengage with culture from the standpoint of authenticity and humble confidence in the triune God. Recommendation from Bishop Hunter: A key guiding value for C4SO is the notion that we “engineer churches from the mission field backwards, not from our tradition out.” That is to say, like Jesus we interact with our mission field on terms they understand. This requires critical and discerning work to be done to understand one’s context, one’s time and place. Thankfully, God has given us talented people like George Barna and David Kinnaman to help us. David’s Un-Christian and You Lost Me are outstanding examples of understanding the hearts and minds of young people. Now, with Churchless, George and David give us a window into the fastest-growing segment of “spiritual” people: those who want to be spiritual but have given up on church. I commend it to you as a tool to exegete your community. [1] George Barna, Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale Momentum, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2014). [2] Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). [3] I use this term loosely as it will become evident in the next paragraph that Christendom is really a façade. Outside of the Holy Roman Empire there is great danger in using this term. It communicates far more than it should. [4] Churchless. Chart opposite pg 1 labeled “The rise of churchless in America” [5] Ibid, 84. [6] Ibid, 97-102. [7] Ibid, 90. From Kinnaman’s book You Lost Me.
The statistics gathered, researched and shared by George Barna and David Kinnaman in Churchless