I read in the Church Report that Tony Campolo feels the state should limit itself just to “legal unions” and the church oversee sacred weddings. I think he is right. And in essence that is what is already happening. The rate of couples living together outside marriage is staggering when compared to a few years ago. And cohabitation doesn’t protect one from the legal implications of marriage as it is thought to.
Things are different now but not so different from the 1930s. For example a larger portion of the marrying-age population is single today than in the 1950s but in 1940 the proportion of the population that was single was 30 per cent higher than in 1988. Today’s fertility rates are much lower than in the 1950s, the high point of fertility in the 20th century, but much higher than the 1930s low point.
So we aren’t as different from our past as we might think. But on the other hand we are vastly different. The American dream seems to have been anchored in the 1950s experience.
I think Campolo’s point is that the Church really ought to be about its task. We are after all presented as a sub-culture in the scriptures. A prophetic voice called to stand as a sub-cultural, nonetheless. Our standard must exceed those of the culture in general – “the world.”
We clearly aren’t doing the job of advancing our sacred call. Eighty-five percent of our kids never return to church after age 18 and 60 to 70% of our kids lose their faith after leaving high school. What’s up with that? Conversion rates in the U.S. don’t even keep up with biological growth any longer.
I think its time we stop trying to get the culture at large to behave Christian-like and be a powerful sub-culture with world-changing power. Does this mean we don’t contend for our positions? No not at all. But it does mean we had better be careful that our evangelism quotient isn’t drained by efforts we were only secondarily to be concerned with.
Converted people behave like Christ. The unconverted never will.
We know next to nothing about effective evangelism today. Only six percent of the church population even possesses the capacity to share their faith. And most of the time we fail to serve while evangelizing, opting for persuasion over loving conviction.
I say let’s marry the church’s folks and stop being the stop for a legal union. Let’s reduce the confusion over what our purpose is and whom we are called to reach. Let’s wed our own and reach the rest.
Just a note before I wind up here. We need many new churches in the U.S. We need churches with a new start. We need church plants by the truckload. I am working with a project in Virginia whose aim is to start 300 churches over six years. We want to start churches based on home groups, conventional church development and multi-site models. We need valiant personnel. If you are interested email me at dbraveheart@earthlink.net.
I am persuaded that our rate of starting new churches aimed at new target groups is vital for the future of the church. Churches that can do evangelism with great ease are needed.
Churches that are in a position of having to be part of the sub-culture are needed now more than ever. Why? Historically new churches and movements have reached more people in the past and it is the case now.
I have started five churches. Three of them failed miserably. But I am glad I tried. When you start a church you are never the first stop for most people’s church needs. You are a sub-culture. One church plant I stared grew to an aggregate of 8000 people, one a couple hundred, the others under thirty. But failure and success both have their sweet smell.
We need to get the call to our best and brightest as we once did. And the best and brightest must see us as a force to change the culture at large. Not to try and get someone else’s world together before we have our own in shape.
So I am comfortable with Campolo’s message though still processing its implications. Especially if it is a call to be a transforming force from the sub-culture of power rather than trying to get the unconverted to behave like Christians.
Doug,
I feel pretty smug when the bigshots like Tony and you begin to echo the sentiments that get us little guys (figuratively, not literally as you well know) branded as crackpots. Marriage in principle has never been the realm of the government. Marriage is a covenant between parties and God. I remember I was ripped up one side and down the other a few years back when I agreed to marry an elderly Christian couple without a license. The point being that the governments view of marriage is a legal contract to grant remedy in the event one of the parties defaults on the agreement. Christian marriage is nothing of the kind, where “till death do us part” is the understanding from the beginning and is the expectation of the witnessing community who help both parties to keep their covenant with God.
The unintended consequence of the church going down this road is that we relinquish our say in governmental decision making, and like it or not it is the Christian influence that keeps our jurisdictions pointed toward higher morals rather than defaulting to anarchy.
Another unintended consequence is that it brings polygamy out of the realm of the cults and it becomes a real issue in the mainstream church. If, for example, marriage is the realm of the church and legal unions are the realm of the state, then what is to prevent the church from starting down the path of sanctifying polygamist unions? I happen to have the unpopular belief that properly observed and applied it could be a good thing in the church and a loving thing, but that is a long discussion.
I also think that you are using statistics in a way that does not adequately reflect reality. Jesus said that we were cities set upon hills. The key sense is visual. Witnessing is a visual process more than a verbal/ audio process. When the world isn’t seeing anything of value to be drawn toward there is likely an absence of Christian/ Kingdom living rather than an absence of ability to recite the story.
Another side point is that the story, His Story, is that Keys to the Kingdom thing we keep talking about. The story is the key that opens the door called believing that leads to a life in another kingdom. I think our use of the Story almost always ends at the opening of the door and fails to lead people through it into Kingdom living.
That’s just my opinion, Doug….
PS. I am praying about coming back into the FM story. Would you write me a recommendation?
Kevin