We Have an Image Problem

This morning I started my day off meeting a friend at Chick-fil-a for breakfast. He was caught in traffic and running late so I grabbed the USA Today that was available and scanned through the Sports page. After seeing that the Braves lost AGAIN and the Falcons might as well forfeit this Sunday's game against the Eagles; I looked through the Front Page section and noticed an article on page 2 that really caught my attention.

"More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs"

The article is based on comments and research done by George Barna that surveyed American adults in 1991 and again in 2011 on matters of religion and faith. The results are interesting...and sad.

The 2 most interesting results published are:
1) Those who have NOT attended church in the past 6 months rose from 24% in 1991 to 37% in 2011.
2) Those who HAVE accepted Jesus as their Savior and expect to go to Heaven rose from 35% in 1991 to 40% in 2011

Now, let me get this straight: The number of "unchurched" people in the US ROSE by 13% while those who claim Jesus and are Saved ROSE by 5%.

This information makes me ask a series of questions to which I am not sure I know the answer. Maybe you can help me out:
- How can more people be saved when fewer people are in the church?
- Why are fewer people being reached by the church while more people are accepting Christ as their Savior?
- If the church is irrelevant to 37% of our population, is it the fault of the American Church or is it a natural and expected cultural occurance?
- Should the church "try" to be more culturally relevant?
- Can people be followers of Jesus and "saved" if they are not part of the church?

These questions really make me want to examine the way we traditionally function and behave as The Church. As I mentioned in my previous post, I STRONGLY believe that the church is STILL the body of Christ and the way He has and aways will intend to reach the world with the message of Salvation. I read 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and see that we are all called to be a part of the body and were created to fit into the body with our own talents and gifts to make it stronger. The problem is that from the outside, so many people don't see the church as "the body". They see it as a dysfunctional family that fights and tears each other apart then looks into the rest of the world and calls them things like "lost" and "sinners". They see a group of people who have created their own "church language" and project an image that says "I might have problems, but I'll never let anyone here see them!" The world sees things like this, but it just isn't how Jesus intended "His body" to work (I know, more church language!).

All of these questions and thoughts are things I am wrestling with on a personal level. I want to show people who are not in the church that we really do have something special here. We are not perfect people and we don't want to act like we are. You don't have to talk a certain way and use certain words to fit in here. You don't have to dress a certain way to be accepted. You can ask tough questions without being told to "just have faith". You can have major problems in your life and receive love instead of judgement (and maybe a little help too!). You can have doubts about God and even get angry with Him. That is part of who we are!

Don't get me wrong...I don't think for a second that churches project these images to the world on purpose. I think it just gets easy for us to transform from being the body of Christ into a social club of common beliefs and it doesn't take long until we expect everyone to conform to our ways or else they just won't fit in.

Look...I'm not trying to "bash" the church. I just want to see us open our eyes to the facts. In 20 years, 13% fewer people go to church yet 5% more say they have accepted Jesus as their Savior. Whether we want to admit it our not, we have an image problem. We have to quit blaming the culture and figure out how to reach the culture. We need to put our traditions and practices on the line and examine whether they are keeping us from the real mission or not.

I certainly don't have all the answers, but I sure am willing to ask the questions and see where that leads me!!!