Isabel Fattel of The Atlantic reports on why so many people in America have left the church. While the more dramatic factors of abuse and political idolatry are briefly mentioned (and must be taken seriously!), there is a much larger and more boring reason—a reason that suggests more about Americans than the nature of church itself. That reason is career advancement:
The Great Dechurching, a forthcoming book analyzing surveys of more than 7,000 Americans conducted by two political scientists, attempts to figure out why so many Americans have left churches in recent years. The authors find that religious abuse and corruption do play roles in pushing attendees away, but that a much larger share of the people surveyed indicated that they left the church “for more banal reasons,” as Meador puts it:
‘The book suggests that the defining problem driving out most people who leave is … just how American life works in the 21st century. Contemporary America simply isn’t set up to promote mutuality, care, or common life. Rather, it is designed to maximize individual accomplishment as defined by professional and financial success. Such a system leaves precious little time or energy for forms of community that don’t contribute to one’s own professional life or, as one ages, the professional prospects of one’s children.‘
At its core, the issue is not just church attendance, Meador argues, but rather what American society has become:
‘The problem in front of us is not that we have a healthy, sustainable society that doesn’t have room for church. The problem is that many Americans have adopted a way of life that has left us lonely, anxious, and uncertain of how to live in community with other people.‘
[…]
Meador, for his part, arrived at an ambitious way for churches to bring Americans back into the fold after reading The Great Dechurching. Maybe churches could better serve their members by asking more of them, he argues:
‘A vibrant, life-giving church requires more, not less, time and energy from its members. It asks people to prioritize one another over our career, to prioritize prayer and time reading scripture over accomplishment … Churches could model better, truer sorts of communities, ones in which the hungry are fed, the weak are lifted up, and the proud are cast down.‘
If Scripture itself is any indication, then Meador’s suggestion is not merely ambitious, it is the calling of all Christians. Here are just a few relevant passages that demonstrate why:
- John 13:12-15: “When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”
- Mark 10:42-45: “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Matthew 16:25-27: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Following Jesus indeed is costly, but not for no reason. Look deeper into the gospels, and you will see Jesus telling a profound story about freedom and joy. It’s one of those ancient truths that is so easy to miss precisely because it is so paradoxical. Forgetting yourself, loving God, loving your neighbors: that is where true meaning, freedom, and joy are to be found.
Kristus umiva noge, by Giovanni Stefano Danedi. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Richard Rabil, Jr. 
