A Growing Interest in Jesus

Yesterday I listened to Dan Kimball speak at the CONVERGE Alpha Conference in Chicago. Dan wrote the recent book, They like Jesus, but not the church. He gave us a GOOD NEWS/ BAD NEWS scenario about Christianity and the state of the church in the USA, especially among young people (ages 20-35).

The Good news: There's a growing interest in Jesus, especially among young people.

The Bad news: There's a growing disinterest in Christianity and the organized church, especially among young people.

Earlier in the day Nicky Gumbel, author of the Alpha Course talked about a 22 year old woman who attended his most recent Alpha course in London. In one of their conversations she told him that she had never known, met, or interacted with a Christian. Nor had she ever been to a church service or stepped inside a church building, including for weddings or funerals. Ever.

Thirty years ago it would have been difficult to go through 22 years of life without ever having encountered a Christian or the Christian culture in the U.K. It’s not difficult anymore. And that’s the point of the story. Does this 22 year-old signal the “Tipping Point” of the waning influence of the Church upon our life and in our society?

Now, we might be tempted to dismiss this story as an aberration. If, for no other reason, because, of course, that’s London. Right? But—and here’s the rub—we in the U.S. are moving down the very same road. We’re just 10-15 years behind our English friends. Because I don’t sense that the movement toward secularization in the U.S. is slowing down or retreating. Do you? If anything, its rate of speed is ever increasing.

Nicky went on to observe that British culture is moving out even further on the spectrum of secularism, from a post-modern Christian culture, where truth is regarded as relative, (and Christianity is tolerated), to a culture where Christianity is not even tolerated anymore as one among many religions, but is increasingly becoming the focus of direct attacks by atheists and others hostile to Christianity as being "dangerous, untrue, and even abusive," and therefore ought to be banned altogether.

It seems like an oxymoron doesn't it? A growing interest in Jesus... accompanied by a waning influence of "the Church" on society? On some level deep down inside of me this makes sense, but it sure doesn’t look or feel like Kansas anymore.