Christians Today In the United States
The Christian Church across all denominations today is leaching members. According to the Gallup Poll taken in 2024: “On any given weekend, about three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services, down from 42% two decades ago. Church attendance will likely continue to decline in the future, given younger Americans’ weaker attachments to religion.”[1] 30% of Christian protestants, 23% of Catholics, attend services every week.[2]
Christian churches of all different denominations compete with each other, each claiming that it has the right beliefs and the others don’t. The attitude about other Christians is very much “My way or the highway!” But who says that we’re all supposed to worship as the Baptists or the Methodists or Catholics or any other denomination does? Each person on this earth was created by God to fulfill a certain purpose and all he or she has to do is to follow God’s leading to that purpose. But, as Paul wrote,
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service , but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
“Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues….
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made of one part but of many.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-10, 12-14)
If Christian denominations are fighting about who is Christian and who’s not, that’s a long way from the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7)in which Jesus proclaimed that being angry with a brother or sister is “subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:22). Then “settle matters quickly with your adversary(Matthew 5:25)” and on and on. We are to settle matters with our fellow human beings, so that we can live in love with them.
“Do not resist an evil person.” 5:39 “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. “
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged (Matthew 7:1) or ignore the plank in your own eye as you call out the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3).
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7-8).
“Enter through the narrow gate “(Matthew 7:13) with the behaviors the Sermon on the Mount describes the false prophets: “by their fruit you will recognize them(Matthew 7:20.)”
Only those who “do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter the kingdom of God.” If you hear “these words of mine and put them into practice [it] is like a wise man who built his house on the rock (Matthew 7:24).”
If we would just follow these words of Jesus, we would not be tempted to judge or hold onto our anger about another denomination or polish our own image for all to see or ignore the plank in our own eye. All this is in the Ten Commandments, but we are not to follow them as surface rules. They are to be reflected in every area of our lives and so that we can gradually move further and further away from ego gratification into the true nature of faithfulness to God.[3]
Materialism and our dependence on the goods we buy to bring us happiness is a big part of the problem with faithfulness to God these days. In the 1980s I was teaching a Sunday School class on the church during the Roman era and I read that the Roman empire collapsed because of the materialism that corrupted the Senate and then the empire. I’ve been watching the growth of materialism since then in the United States. I remember the statistics I read then. In the 1960s and 1970s: CEO’s earned 20%, then 30% more than the average workers. In the 1980s, as companies went from being local companies to international ones, the CEOs started competing with one another to see who could earn the most money. Today, the average pay of the CEOs compared to that of the average worker is “nearly” 300 times more.[4] In the 1980s we started building larger, more luxurious homes and since then our citizenry has been captivated by whatever was on their list to buy for themselves. And as soon as one material thing was purchased, satisfaction only lasted at the most a day or two, then it was on the next item on the list.
This materialism takes us more and more into the world’s order of things, so that we care less and less about the needs of our neighbors and our own real needs, as opposed to the material things we want to have so that we can compete with the people around us.
Let’s go back to the competition between churches today as to who has the right faith in God. Surely, if we’re following Jesus, we are not judgmental of other ways of worshiping God. Hopefully, we are loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. That we are helping those in need and seeking through prayer, our purpose in life as God defines it. We are all human beings, not perfect ever, but set on true faithfulness to God as the intention of our lives. If that is so, then we are constantly open to what God is asking of us, what He is showing us to be our next step, that we can recognize His voice in us, and that we follow that voice as well as we can.
[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declined-religious-groups.aspx, 3.25.24
[2] Ibid
[3] I’ve just sent off a book to an editor entitled, “A Study Guide to True Faithfulness to God, focusing on Surrender, Gratitude, and Obedience.” It should be published this fall.