by Eric K. Thomsen
In recent decades, the American church has expressed much hand-wringing angst over the challenges it faces. Concerned leaders point to growing numbers of young people who have abandoned their congregations and their faith. They groan over shrinking churches, an increasingly secularized culture, and the gradual compromise of church to culture. While these concerns are valid, perhaps the most pressing theological concern for the American evangelical community is simply a lack of theological concern. This statement is not meant to be trite but terse.
As Leroy Forlines aptly describes in “A Plea for Unabridged Christianity,” the turbulent convergence of fundamentalism and liberal modernism in the past half-century has resulted in a shallow Christianity that emphasizes experience over discipleship and creates an unholy fusion of church and culture fueled by false confidence engendered by once saved, always saved theology. The resulting cheap-easy believism, as Forlines defines it, has grown only more pronounced with the onset of postmodernity, pluralism, and permissiveness.[1]
The results are both predictable and tragic: biblical illiteracy, dumbing down (if not departure from) doctrine, marketing-driven churches, and a compartmentalized lifestyle deconstructs the Christian life to a one-hour-a-week, multi-sensory, personality-driven entertainment experience. As one might expect, this shallow approach to discipleship is having a devastating effect on subsequent generations.
In an interview with Christianity Today spotlighting his 2013 book Families and Faith: How Religion Is Passed Down Across Generations, Vern Bengtson, a scholar and sociologist from the University of Southern California, reveals the “ground-breaking” discovery that children still follow in their parents’ footsteps with respect to faith and values. Bengston notes: “Despite the many societal changes that have lurched us towards greater individualism and away from a more collective family focus, over half of young adult children are following in their parents’ footsteps, in that they are affiliated with the parents’ religious tradition.”[2]
Bengston could have saved some research time by reviewing Deuteronomy 6, where Israel was commanded to make home and parents the God-ordained “incubators” for the birth of faith. Still, his research does provide valuable insight. He points out that the model of previous generations has led to a generation of religious “nones” (roughly 30% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 40 who say they have no religious affiliation). “These kids are not rebelling from their parents,” Bengston writes, “but instead following their parents’ influence in nominal religious affiliation.”[3]
When asked why some parents are successful in passing on their faith while others are not, Bengston asserts: “One fairly obvious thing . . . parents who provide consistent modeling. If the parents aren’t consistent, the kids won’t have religious role models to emulate. In other words, don’t just send your children to church, bring them!”[4]
How will the church respond when parents bring their prodigals back to church? How will they engage this troubled generation and rekindle an interest in theology? While this complex issue requires more than a brief article, I suggest five responses:
1. We must not wait for the world to return to church. The church can no longer remain on the sidelines, chiding and churning over the latest cultural slight and waiting for the world to arrive on her pews. Instead, she must get in the game and engage culture with lovingkindness. She must urge congregants to leave the safety and comfort of church walls to meet people at the point of their felt needs in order to share the Answer to their deepest needs. From ball fields to business offices, Christians must take their faith to the culture, which, surprisingly, is still ready to listen. In a nationwide survey, LifeWay Research found that 78% of respondents were open to talking about spiritual matters with a friend. That number was even higher among young adults, aged 18–29, of whom 89% said were willing to listen to a Christian share his or her beliefs.[5]
2. We must emphasize authenticity. In a recent ONE Magazine article, J. Matthew Pinson urges the Church to be genuine:
Let us be ourselves—authentic Christian families and churches confident in the Kingdom values our Lord has given us, with attitudes and priorities and ways of life alien to the kingdoms of this world, but that break in on this world even now and transform it. . . . This will mean rediscovering what it means to go against the grain of prevailing cultural winds rather than coveting cultural approval of secular society.[6]
Pinson further urges Christians to emphasize, teach, and model biblical values within the culture (biblical sexuality and gender roles in the article’s particular context) showing the world that “Christians are the people who will be most honest about sin and its consequences, but most loving and compassionate to sinners.”[7] Such straightforward authenticity is especially important to Free Will Baptists as Reformed Arminians seeking to apply biblical truth to the whole of life.
3. We must foster multi-generational discipleship. The church must do everything possible to reinstate the biblical model of discipleship in the home. This aim will not prove easy in a culture defined by shattered families, busy lives, financial shortfalls, and outsourced parenting (daycare, athletic teams, youth groups, and so on). Still, we must not give up; we must identify parents as partners in ministry and equip them to guide their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).
Neither should we overlook the power of grandparents in this discipleship process. In his study, Bengtson asserts that, “due to increased life expectancy, grandparents today can and want to have a greater religious influence in the lives of their grandchildren. . . . Sometimes, there is a ‘skipped generation’ effect, where grandchildren emulate the faith of a grandparent instead of a parent’s example.”[8] Whether parents, single parents, grandparents, stepparents, adoptive parents, or legal guardians, the church must do its part to equip all families to carry out a biblical model of generational discipleship in the home.
4. We must embrace informed simplicity. As we engage the scripturally illiterate, we must do so with grace and patience, preaching and teaching with power yet simplicity. This goal is not easy but will require much preparation to present thorough yet accessible doctrinal instruction that will capture attention, inform theology, and guide new believers to apply what they learn to every area of their lives. What a challenge to do so without overwhelming or discouraging them!
Forlines points to Hebrews 5:12–14 (KJV), where the writer chides his readers for not growing beyond the “milk of the Word” to ingest “solid food.” Although the writer rebuked these people for their immaturity and dullness of hearing, he refused to let that deter him from moving into deeper matters and taking his readers along with him. He urged in 6:1: “Let us go on to perfection” [Greek teleiotes, maturity].[9]
5. Finally, we must find unity in our love for doctrine. While millennia-old theological debates aren’t likely to cease anytime soon, the church must unite around her love for doctrine and stress the importance of a complete—not abridged, as Forlines would put it—understanding of Christ and His Church. Matt Pinson urges, “We need to teach what we sincerely believe is the whole counsel of God. . . . It is possible to maintain strong, doctrinal convictions and, at the same time, be characterized by charity and humility. This is the scriptural balance we must seek.”[10]
In short, it is time for the hand wringing to stop. Instead, we must extend our hands and hearts to a generation that desperately needs the people of God to regain a serious concern for discipleship.
About the Writer: Eric K. Thomsen is managing Editor of ONE Magazine and worship leader at Bethel Free Will Baptist Church near Ashland City, Tennessee. He enjoys hiking, classic literature, and a high-energy game of Dutch Blitz. Contact Eric: eric@nafwb.org.
[1]F. Leroy Forlines, “A Plea for Unabridged Christianity,” Integrity: A Journal of Theological Integrity, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 85–95.
[2]Amy Ziettlow, “Religion Runs in the Family,” Christianity Today, September 13, 2013; http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/religion-runs-in-family.html; accessed April 12, 2016; Internet.
[3]Ibid.
[4]Ibid.
[5]David Roach, “LifeWay Research Finds Americans Open to Outreach from Churches,” Lifeway, March 23, 2009; http://www.lifeway.com/Article/LifeWay-Research-finds-Americans-open-to-outreach-from-churches; accessed January 15, 2019; Internet.
[6]J. Matthew Pinson, “Bucking the Benedict Option,” ONE Magazine; http://onemag.org/benedict_option.htm; accessed January 16, 2019; Internet.
[7]Ibid.
[8]Ziettlow.
[9]Forlines, 100.
[10]J. Matthew Pinson, “In Defense of Doctrine,” ONE Magazine; http://www.onemag.org/defense.htm; accessed April 14, 2016; Internet.
April 22, 2020
This article by Eric Thomsen was right on target for where the churches are today, and I was so glad to see the reinforcement of his conviction, through the documentation of other authorities on the subject.
I do appreciate the society’s forum and enjoy reading every article that it produces.
Thank you kindly for thinking outside the box. But for an old codger like me, who is now 82 years of age, I do still remember things before the box, but still remember, nor have I forgotten, the foundation we are from.