Into the Fray

We are members of the body of Christ, and we have been called by His name - we belong to Him.
Colossians chapter 1 says:
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

As members of the body, part of the local church and the Church as a whole, we can be part of a God-ordained entity that provides an opportunity to grow in the Lord and to encourage others in their spiritual growth.  We can be part of a unit that ministers in our local communities and contributes to the security of our local institutions.  God has strategically placed the local church so that His will might be carried out and that people may see His presence through His people.

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When we believe upon Jesus as our Savior, we are brought into His body and included in the glorious operation of the body of Christ. 1st Corinthians 12 states:
(24) But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it,
25 that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

A headline called attention to what it called a "fraying" social fabric, and a U.S. Senator commissioned a survey to measure our social interaction, and the Church has a chance to jump into the fray and bring healing.

The headline was from Philanthropy Daily, and it said: "America's social fabric is fraying: results from Congressional report."  Early in the article, it included this statement:

...as Washington Post economics columnist Robert J. Samuelson notes, the real news—the stuff that affects your life—takes place outside the White House. “The nation’s future,” he writes, “hangs on larger economic and social trends that no president can shape.”

The comment was regarding a Joint Economic Committee report on, as the article says, "the amount of time that people spend with others, either in families, at work, in a church or synagogue, or in the community."  But Senator Mike Lee told The Atlantic that he felt that the report didn't address much about the "civil society" in our nation.  So, he commissioned a survey.  Scott Winship and his associates produced a study called, What We Do Together: The State of Associational Life in America. It covered four areas of American life: families, religions, being with other people, and work.  The Philanthropy Daily article appeared in 2017.

Here is a sampling of some of the findings:

The Census Bureau reports that the percentage of Americans who lived with a spouse fell from 71 percent in 1973 to 50 percent in 2016. Although the divorce rate rose only slightly, from 15 per 1,000 married women in 1970 to 18 per 1,000 married women in 2010, part of the reason for this small increase is that the population got older and older people are less likely to divorce than younger ones.

But, as two demographers pointed out, "if the percentage of married women of different ages had been the same in 1970 as it was in 2010," the "adjusted divorce rate" in 1970 would have been 10 per thousand married women - that makes the increase more distinct.

In the area of religion, the number of people who were "raised in a religion" declined 7 points since the early 1970's - from 98 to 91.  But, consistent with other polling, "the percentage of Americans who say they have no religious preference has risen from five percent in the early 1970's to between 18-22 percent today."

With regard to social interaction, as the article states, "We’re less likely to spend time with neighbors than in the past. The General Social Survey says the percentage of Americans who spend several evenings a month with neighbors fell from 30 percent in 1974 to 16 percent in 2016. We’re also less likely to trust others."  Even though trust has fallen overall, the level of trust in local government and friends has stayed pretty much the same since the 70's.

And, concerning the workforce, there are more women in the workforce, which means there are fewer volunteering. Fewer men are working, but they aren't volunteering, either - in fact, in a shocking stat from 2016, reported by Mark Aguilar and his colleagues: "they’re spending their days at home playing video games, particularly as the costs of games and computers has steadily fallen."

The authors of the "social capital" study say: "We may be materially richer than in the past,” and added, “But with atrophied social capabilities, with a diminished sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves, and with less security in our family life, we are much poorer for doing less together.”

So, where does that leave us in the Church?  Well, for one thing, we recognize that the Church can provide a sense of "something greater than ourselves," specifically Someone greater than ourselves.  Those of us who call upon the name of Christ belong to Him, we are called by His name, and we can look beyond this world for satisfaction.  We can bring the resources of His world into our own and allow His love and presence to infiltrate our relationships and our activities.

We know that through Christ, we can experience stability for ourselves and have the potential for stabilizing, rewarding relationships.  The world can be an insecure place, but we can look to the Lord for the security that we need.

Finally, the Church facilitates doing things together.  We were created for fellowship with God and with other people, and through the opportunities afforded us by the local church, we can be connected to the body of Christ and be part of the expression of His love.