Post-Christian

We are called to be servants of Christ to the communities to which He has called us - we can testify
by word and deed to the presence of the hope-giver. Romans 15 says:
4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, this passage tells us that we are to understand who gives real, lasting, authentic hope - our Lord Jesus Christ.  And, we are encouraged to be unified in our approach toward one another...the church working as one can be a powerful force in our world today.  We can develop a heart to serve, through which we underscore what Christ has done for us, laying down His life so that we can know Him ourselves and to invite others to see and experience what He has done.

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In Psalm 39, we see a contrast between the hopelessness that is contained in this world to the hope we can experience in Christ:
6 Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them.
7 "And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You...

Yesterday, I touched on the importance of churches responding to change in their communities.  And, we can seek to be used in the location to which God has called us.

For years, the Barna Group has partnered with the American Bible Society to develop its list of "Bible-Minded Cities," designed to indicate how the top 100 media markets "interact" with the Bible, as the summary indicates.  Chattanooga, TN is the city at the top of the list for 2017, with the Birmingham market in the number 2 position.

Now, Barna has released a list of the most "Post-Christian Cities." This appears to go further than just how people relate to and with the Bible.  According to the survey summary:

Barna has developed a metric to measure the changing religious landscape of American culture. We call this the “post-Christian” metric. To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria...

These criteria, "identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week."

These are questions which are designed to "get beyond how people loosely identify themselves (affiliation) and to the core of what people actually believe and how they behave as a result of their belief (practice)."

Of the top 10 (which could really be considered the "bottom 10") on the post-Christian scale, eight are found in the Northeast United States, with the Portland-Auburn, Maine area topping the list, with a score of 57% relative to the post-Christian criteria. Rounding out the top 5 are: Boston, MA-Manchester, NH, with 56%, Providence, RI-New Bedford, MA, at 53%, Burlington, VT-Plattsburgh, NY, also with 53%, and Hartford-New Haven, CT, at 52%. New York City is next, with 51, followed by San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA, and Seattle-Tacoma, WA, both with 50%.

At the bottom of the list is Shreveport, LA, with 12%.  The top Bible-minded city, Chattanooga, is 96th.  The Birmingham market is 94th.

The opening paragraph of the summary contends:

Rates of church attendance, religious affiliation, belief in God, prayer and Bible-reading have all been dropping for decades. By consequence, the role of religion in public life has been slowly diminishing, and the church no longer functions with the cultural authority it held in times past.

One thing that stands out is the church's cultural authority.  We are not merely to be regarded as buildings on a street corner or in a shopping center.  The local church is more than an entity, it is a group of people designed to function for a specific purpose, and that involves being a light to the community to which God has called it.  When you consider the decline in religious practice to which the summary referred, you can see that it is incumbent on the church to step up and reclaim that moral position in society. 

We can do that by recognizing the signs of decline, and respond to these changes by not trying to blend in to culture or compromising the message, but seek to live with distinction.  Our differences should be contagious and the Spirit of God has given us the capacity to reflect Him in the everyday.

The Lord is our source of hope, and Jesus represents to a world that seems to be determined to depart from His ways a path to comfort and assurance; He is the One to Whom people can turn to experience repair of brokenness and renewal of purpose.  Churches in the community can represent depots of hope, a place where people can find answers to their most desperate and disturbing questions, and where they can interact with people who have a relationship with the hope-giver.