Good morning everybody! I wanted to start a periodical section in the blog called "After the Sermon..musings". It will contain more of my thoughts and notes that didn't make yesterday's sermon. When we create sermons we have so many ideas, so much more research and other great stories that we don't get to share because of time limitations and flow considerations with the rest of the sermon. So what I want to do with this blog is to provide supplemental thoughts and research to last Sunday's talk, which you can find here.
Yesterday, we talked about Daniel and the growing pressure on him to compromise his beliefs and to assimilate to the larger Babylonian culture. Fast forward to today and we face a similar culture where there is a growing amount of societal pressure for Christians to conform. In their fascinating book, Faith For Exiles (2019, Baker Books)- David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock provide ample research to show where the church (18-29 year olds) is at today in a more secular context. In the book, they identify 4 categories that describe people who grew up Christian.
What is interesting is that many people who grew up in the church still identify as 'Christian' and some still attend church. Though they attend church, many of their views are not necessarily rooted in scripture or quite frankly not very Christian. Let's take a look at their views on the Resurrection, which is considered a central staple of the Christian Faith.
Yesterday, we talked about Daniel and the growing pressure on him to compromise his beliefs and to assimilate to the larger Babylonian culture. Fast forward to today and we face a similar culture where there is a growing amount of societal pressure for Christians to conform. In their fascinating book, Faith For Exiles (2019, Baker Books)- David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock provide ample research to show where the church (18-29 year olds) is at today in a more secular context. In the book, they identify 4 categories that describe people who grew up Christian.
What is interesting is that many people who grew up in the church still identify as 'Christian' and some still attend church. Though they attend church, many of their views are not necessarily rooted in scripture or quite frankly not very Christian. Let's take a look at their views on the Resurrection, which is considered a central staple of the Christian Faith.
With "habitual" church goers, only 56% believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and 44% do not believe that he did (or maybe they have doubts?). For Nomads, the number drops to 43% that believe in a Resurrection. If these stats are true, then we cannot assume that everyone in our pews has a Christian worldview or believes core doctrines such as the Resurrection. We must continue teaching and convincing not just unbelievers but Christians as well.
Please note: all graphs come from Faith for Exiles (2019, Baker Books) by David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock
Other Musings
Yesterday, we also talked about Daniel's ability to build bridges and how necessary it is to establish genuine friendships with people that don't believe like us. I also believe it is important to define terms- to find clarity on the terms we use so that we don't talk past each other. I was reminded of the importance of this by a great tweet by Timothy Keller in which he tweeted:
"Describe the God you don't believe in, maybe I don't believe in that God either"
So often we use the word 'God' or 'religion' but we mean different things by them. I think for the sake of clarity it is important for the Christian to find out what other people mean by 'God' and maybe to our shock we might find in common that we don't believe in that 'God' either! Who knows, maybe it can become a bridge?
Anyways, please let me know what you think or if you have any questions. Or you know I can just talk to myself on here hahahaha like I said, this is all therapeutic for me :)
David
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