Thanks to Anna (Ben) Crumback at Sointula Community Church for producing the Church of the Week!
Good Wednesday evening from Medicine Hat Alberta, where Karen and I are visiting her mom, before driving to Lethbridge early in the AM to attend and participate in the EFCC National Conference. With conference in the morning, I am sending Friday’s email on Wednesday evening – just in case :).
Please pray for a profitable and unified conference, as we seek the Lord to be better communicators of the Good News and in making disciples of Christ.
I attended the University of Lethbridge in the mid 1970’s. As a part of my studies in the Sociology of Religion, I conducted a study of the religious beliefs and practices of university students,
I wish I could have conducted a study over four years, in order to follow the same “sample” of students, but I was limited to comparing the first, second, third and fourth year students.
Results were somewhat surprising. While beliefs changed little over four years, participation in church declined significantly.
This led me to a rather major project in my Cultural Anthropology class, where I concluded that while people at the latter part of the 20th century were less likely to attend church that at the beginning, people were in fact more engaged in spiritual things – just less “traditional.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was optimism that science would answer mankind’s need. There was talk of the “evolution” of religion, from polytheism to monotheism to science. They saw religion as a “way of explaining the universe,” and as science did this, there was less need and less use for religion.
Sigmund Freud suggested in his book, “The Future of an Illusion,” that we, “leave heaven to the angels and sparrows,” and asserted that, “… our science is no illusion, but it would be an illusion to believe that what science can not provide, we can get elsewhere.”
Well Freud was wrong. Science, as helpful as it can be, fails to answer questions of meaning, purpose or knowing and gaining acceptance by an almighty, yet personal and loving God.
Things are not all that different in the 21 century. While people may not seem to have a lot of interest in the organization of a church or what the church has become as an institution, this does not mean that there is a lack of interest in spiritual things or in knowing God.
A recent study has found that the number one reason people cite for going to church is to ” feel closer to God.”
While this can be subjective, it may be worth asking, “Will a person attending our church on a Sunday AM leave with a sense that God is alive and well and active in the lives of real people today?”
While it is good to teach this – it is also good to provide living illustrations of this!
Here is a link to a recent study by “Pew Research.” Be sure to follow the links at the bottom too.
Please pray for:
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“Pastoral Approaches: The Church & Same-Sex Attraction.” Saturday, October 20 at Richmond Chinese EFC, 9AM – 4PM. This is a follow up and further resourcing of our LPD Conference presentation. All pastors and lay-leaders are welcome! Cost: $10.00 per registrant. Please register online at our LPD Website: https://www.lpd-efcc.ca/
