March 24, 1999

EDITORIAL:
Can we put bounce in the flatline?
___You don't have to go to medical school to know what "flatlining" means. Watch almost any medical drama, and you're bound to hear "flatline" as a synonym for death. When your electronic heart monitor produces a flat line, you're gone from this world.
___Religion researcher George Barna didn't use the term in his report, but his latest research shows the Christian church in America flatlined last year. The Christian faith didn't exactly expire, but a number of measurements of national religious health show a flat line--no growth.
___"One of the bastions of personal stability--religion--appears to be one of the few elements in American culture that is experiencing no significant change," Barna noted. For example:
___ 85 percent of Americans call themselves "Christian," a figure that has not changed in this decade.
___ 40 percent of U.S. adults meet Barna's criteria of being born-again. (They've made a personal commitment to Christ that still is important to them and believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus as their Savior.) This number hasn't changed in five years.
___ Only 7 percent of Americans are evangelicals. (They're born-again Christians who also say their faith is vital to them; feel they have a responsibility to witness; believe Satan exists; think salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believe Jesus lived a sinless life; describe God as the all-knowing, all-powerful perfect deity who created the universe and rules it today.) That percentage has not changed in six years.
___ 41 percent of Americans attend church in a typical week, a number that has "remained fixed over time."
___ Sunday school attendance dropped slightly to 19 percent of U.S. adults, down from 23 percent the two previous years.
___ About one-quarter of adults volunteer free time to participate in church functions, a percentage that has "remained stable."
___ Around one-third of adults read the Bible outside of church services in a typical week, also a figure that has not changed.
___ Half of adults donate money to a church in a typical month, with average annual contributions flat at $300.
___Obviously, Christ's kingdom in America is not dying. The statistics have not dropped to zero. But flatline numbers representing a range of congregational functions present a pitiful prognosis. Even Texas Baptists, whose "vital signs" improved last year, cannot afford to be smug. As long as the populations of the nation and the state are growing faster than our churches, the cause of Christ is losing ground.
___"The Christian church has stagnated, largely due to its comfort with routines and rituals that are neither challenging nor relevant for millions of people," Barna observed.
___Unfortunately, comfortable routines and soft-worn rituals are the twin security blankets of most churches. When the world churns with change, nothing is quite so comforting as the way we've always done church.
___But the church wasn't called to be comfortable. We were commanded to go into the world, touch sinful lives, lead them to spiritual salvation and guide them to growth. Jesus didn't say anything about music or video or drama or the length of sermons. He just said, "Go ... baptize ... make disciples."
___In light of that mandate, an argument about worship music is as irrelevant as an emergency room argument about the color of floor tile while a patient lies dying.
___How's your church doing at reaching your community? Of course, sheer numbers never tell the whole story. But when you look around, you can tell how you're doing. If your church isn't making an impact and making new Christians, take a long, hard look at your ministry--worship, Bible study, outreach, community missions. If they're not relevant, people won't come. If people won't come, they can't be saved. If people aren't saved, they'll spend eternity in hell--no matter how comfortable we were in church.
___Evaluate your church.
___If you aren't making a difference in people's lives, change.
___ --Marv Knox

E-mail the editor at marvknox@flash.net

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