Many changes are disconcerting, but they also offer windows of opportunity.

Several news reports based on recent polls and other analyses show that America's religious landscape is rapidly changing. One of the greatest changes involves a general shift away from church associations and toward personal religious experiences.

These changes have some very frightening aspects; they raise great concern about the foundations of faith and cause one to wonder whether America will follow Europe's secular route. On the other hand, the facts of the religious-landscape changes may provide us windows of opportunity and knowledge concerning what we need to be doing to address present-day spiritual needs.

Below are some recent discoveries:

• Nearly half (44%) of American adults are leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing, either to switch to another faith or to abandon religious affiliation altogether.
  
  
• Mainline Protestant churches are in decline, and only 51% of proclaimed Christians consider themselves Protestant, compared to about 66% in the 1960s and 1970s.
  
  
• The Catholic Church has lost more members than any other church group. Much of that is due to their leaving to become part of other denominations; and while nearly a third of Americans were raised Catholic, less than one fourth say they're now Catholic. Roughly 10% of all Americans are ex-Catholics.
  
  
• While the Catholic Church has lost great numbers of members, overall membership has remained fairly stable because of the influx of Catholic immigrants.
  
  
• Churches identified as non-denominational are growing, as are the ranks of those who claim to be religious, but describe themselves as unaffiliated.
  
  
• One quarter of young adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.
  
  
• A majority of those who are unaffiliated describe their religion as nothing in particular, but at least half of them say faith is at least somewhat important to them.
  
  
• About 16% of adults say they have no religious affiliation. This includes those who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics, or nothing in particular.
  
  
• Those moving out of religious groups outnumber--by three to one---those moving into them.
  
  
• While the Jehovah's Witnesses are among the fasting growing religious groups, their convert-retention rates are among the worst; only 37% of those raised in that denomination remain members.
  
  

The above statistics come from a study released in late February by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life; it involved interviews with more than 35,000 adults. Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who was involved in the survey planning, said "Right now there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially the traditional religious forms." Another of the researchers, John Green, told reporters that American religion appears headed for more diversity, with the likelihood the country will be "less Protestant and less Christian" in the future.

Barna's findings:

In separate research, the Barna Organization has found that a majority of adults now believe there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church. These adults identified six acceptable alternatives.

1. Engaging in faith activities at home (89% found this acceptable)
2. Involvement in a house church (75% approved)
3. Watching a religious television program (69% approved)
4. Listening to a religious radio broadcast (68%)
5. Attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity (68%)
6. Participating in a marketplace ministry (54%)

What do we conclude from these reports?

It would be easy to just throw up our hands in despair at hearing these reports. But that is not a wise, nor an acceptable response. While we can't see any totally positive news in these reports, they do suggest where Christians and local churches should be focusing their attention.

It is likely that the numerical losses the Catholic and mainline Protestant churches are suffering represent a combination of disgust at obvious hypocrisy and the failure of those groups to address spiritual needs. This opens the door for aggressive and effective evangelism.

The willingness of many to leave the so-called faith traditions in which they were raised is, in one sense, good news. It eliminates one of evangelism's great obstacles--blind adherence to a faith simply because parents and grandparents believed that way.

The drift away from church affiliation also demonstrates the need for the Lord's church to drastically ramp up its public teaching about the nature of the true church. It will also be necessary for us to renew our teaching of our own members about the church's essentiality.

The popular notion that we can practice spirituality and faith singularly and without joint interaction with other saints is making inroads in our own congregations. More public teaching about the true character of Christ's church will inform unbelievers, while simultaneously confirming the believers' faith.

The fluidity of religious conviction in America is a two-sided coin. Among our own members, it raises issues we will have to address, but it also offers evangelism opportunities that we must seize if we are to carry out the Lord's commission in the 21^st Century.

It appears that many in the religious world are beginning to open their eyes to the fact that church is not really church anymore. Some are beginning, for the first time, to see that the spiritual aspects of organizations that call themselves churches are being replaced by an emphasis on pleasing men instead of God. May God help us to spread the news that the true church is still very much alive! We must point people back to the Bible, where they can find the splendor and glory of Christ, the cross, and the church. No message is more needed, and no time is better spent than in telling the old, old story! (KMG)