Upward Trends

In the days of the early Church, the passion of believers was evident and the life of the Church was not separated from how Christians by and large lived their lives.  They were intertwined, as we see in
Acts 2, documenting what occurred after the day of Pentecost:
44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

God was very, very active in the lives of His believers - He was building His Church and growing His Church - in quantity and quality.  But, the quality of the walk was the important factor, I believe - people were devoted to walking the walk together, and as they were committed to the work of the Lord, He brought others into their midst.  We have to get the fundamentals right, and if we have the right relationship with Jesus, then it produces fruit, which He uses to draw people to Himself.

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On this Survey Thursday here in the Front Room of The Meeting House, I want to continue to share information relative to the perceived decline of Christianity.  And, as I pointed out last week, Pew Research is indicating that there may be a reduction in the Christian population, but as Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family suggests, we need to take a look at a number of factors, including faith intensity.

I would submit that the impact of the Church is not merely numerical - you could say it's related to quality, rather than just quantity.  Think about the growth of the early church: from 12 disciples, then the 70 more sent out two by two, to the 120 gathered in the Upper Room, to 3000 saved on the Day of Pentecost, God was building His Church.  There was numerical growth, certainly, but the passion of these disciples ruled the day.

The work of these early disciples is expressed in Acts 17:
5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.

We continue to possess the potential to "turn the world upside down" - it's occurring in pockets and we can certainly do better.  And, it's more than a story of quantity - quality, or passion, or intensity, as we see from the research Stanton referred to, is critical.

And, a leading voice in the polling field is also providing some insight into statistics relative to Christianity - Frank Newport.  Who?  Well, he is a Senior Scientist at the Gallup organization.  He was editor-in-chief for the Gallup Poll News for 28 years, until last year, according to the Gallup website.  He also wrote a book called, God is Alive and Well.

In a recent analysis, Newport provides some close analysis of the projected faith patterns of Millennials, writing, "...millennials as a group are less religious than they used to be, but they are not a homogenous group. Older millennials are more likely to be religious than younger millennials are. This pattern across ages is as evident now as was the case for the same age range in the recent past."

He looked at three snapshots - from 2002, 2009, and 2019 and compiled what he calls "rolling" averages for a three year period around that target year, for the purpose of stability.  He says:

...the generational pattern by which religious service attendance begins to climb with age is generally evident among those interviewed in each of the three years, although the rise with age is somewhat delayed in 2019 compared with the two previous points in time. We saw higher church attendance among those in their mid- to late twenties in 2002 and 2009. This year, heightened attendance is delayed until it begins to be evident among those in their 30s. But, and this is the key point, church attendance among millennials does begin to get higher with age as millennials reach their early 30s.

He takes issue with a recent piece in The Washington Post, writing that:

The headline in The Washington Post piece to the effect that millennials are "not going back" to church doesn't appear to be a wholly accurate depiction of what is happening. The oldest millennials are going back to church, just as people their age (and younger) went back to church in 2002 and 2009. The absolute level of self-reported church attendance is lower at each age point now than in the past, but the trajectory of attendance is following the same pattern.

Newport insists that "the generational patterns by which people return to religion as they age still appear to be evident," and states, "...what we see now suggests that predictions of the forthcoming demise of religion as we know it may be premature. Broad structural changes in society and culture may well continue to affect religiosity across all groups, but the big bulge of millennials may actually get more religious as they age."

In considering what Newport is saying, and examining the charts showing a rise over time in the percentage of people attending church weekly and a decline in the percentage of people indicating that they are religious "nones" can show us that there is a strong possibility that people will, in fact, return to church after having left in their younger years.  Now, you don't want to count on that, because someone who has strayed from the church is not necessarily guaranteed to live long enough to return - same for all of us.

The key is maintaining an intensity level in our Christian walk.  And, that is a message for people of all ages.  If we are passionate about the things of God and falling deeper in love with Him, then we can make an impact for Him - the world will be affected as the seeds of faith are cultivated and the Word of God is acted upon.  We can also develop an infectious walk that will be demonstrated to those younger people so they will perhaps not lose interest; we can be hopeful as a result of this data, but it is far better to try to be consistent in our relationship with Him.