US Christianity gets it wrong

Recent articles in the print press suggest that US Christianity is all wrong. We are making no impact. It seems we are focused on the wrong things. The Christian Paradox excerpt from (Harpers.org) The full article SojoNet: Faith, Politics, and Culture

Move over, politics. Americans are looking for personal, ecstatic experiences of God, and, according to our poll, they don’t much care what the neighbors are doing.

So says this Newsweek article In Search of the Spiritual – Newsweek Society – MSNBC.com

There has been a particular falloff in attendance by African-Americans, for whom the church is no longer the only respectable avenue of social advancement,

Even the guru of church research George Barna has changed his direction based on the limited impact that all his research provided to churches has had.

Wayne Codiero has a great story on his blog Mentoring At A Distance: Lessons from the Poor about his recent experience with leaders in the underground church in China. It speaks to the power of the the gospel among the poor and oppressed. Something that is tragically missing in North America Christianity Here’s an excerpt

When the two days were concluded, I had fallen in love with these seasoned warriors. Realizing my own inadequacy to help them in their daunting task of reaching China, I asked, “How can I pray for you? What do you want the most?”

“Pray that we become like you,” was their immediate request. “We do not have freedom of religion. We only have a few registered churches, and the rest cannot attend. We are a persecuted Church. Pray that we can soon be like you!”

“I cannot do that,” I sadly replied. “I will not pray for you in that way.”

“But why?” They pushed back on my seemingly unchristian response.

“You came here after riding thirteen hours on a train. In America, if church is more than thirty-minutes away, people will not go. It’s too far. You have been sitting on a wooden floor without air-conditioning for two days to hear the Word of the Lord. Where I come from, if you cannot sit on cushioned chairs and be in the comfort of air-conditioning, people will find better things to do. You don’t have adequate Bibles, so you memorize what you can gather. In every Christian home, we have an average of three Bibles, but we don’t read any of them.

“No, I will not pray that you become like us. But I will pray that we become like you!”

Technorati Tags: church planting, culture move, diversity, ecstatic experiences, emerging church, experiences of god, freedom of religion, george barna, george_barna, harpers, in the news, msnbc, newsweek, newsweek article, social advancement, underground church, underground_church