Christianity Today has come out with an interesting national survey on Christianity in the United States. (Many thanks to Kansas City Papa for pointing this out to me.) You can read the full article here.
There are two (among many) interesting points in the survey that I would like to highlight:
1. Many Christians no longer find the church a relevant or necessary place for spiritual growth.
2. The church seems to be in the midst of an unprecedented time of biblical illiteracy. This article places the blame on pastors who fail to teach the Scriptures adequately if at all.
I wonder how these two points are related? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In other words, do Christians find church irrelevant and unnecessary for spiritual growth because when they go to church they find no spiritual sustenance? Or, are pastors trying so hard to make the Scriptures 'relevant' that they fail to actually engage people with its message? In other words, is the biblical illiteracy among congregants leading pastors to 'dumb down' the message with the result of never actually engaging with its content?
I also wonder what the implications are for those involved in theological education. Are we adequately preparing our pastors for this new generation of Christians? And if the house church movement continues to grow (as this article suggests), how can we train Christians to faithfully read, apply and teach the Bible?
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