Recently, I read an article that revealed some alarming figures about the
decline of Christianity in England and Wales. The number of people who identify
themselves as Christians has fallen from 37.3 million in 2001 to 33 million
last year. Equally disturbing was the number of people declaring themselves to be
atheists. That number went from 6 million to 14.1 million.
This is not unique to England. I know of no one that would say that
Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds in the United States. In fact, we
see marks of decline. Jeff Iorg, president of Golden Gate Seminary suggest that
we must develop a new way of thinking called ‘culture-engagement thinking.’ Dr.
Iorg writes, “Cultural-engagement thinking is taking the gospel into existing
structures, activities and relationships among a specific group of people in
your community.” What does this mean?
To me this means that we cannot just be comfortable in the church and
wait on people to come and see all the nice things we are doing. We have to go
and tell. We have to rub shoulders with unsaved people and earn the right to be
heard. This takes time and effort.
What might this look like? Answer two questions: What do you enjoy doing?
How can you do it with non-believers? It comes down to getting where people
are, truly caring about them and building friendships. As we do this we are
praying all along for God to work and show us how to lovingly communicate the
gospel.
2013 is almost here. Does our thinking need to change?
