Last September, the Barna Group released a study entitled, "Self-Described Christians Dominate America, but Wrestle with Four Aspects of Spiritual Depth." The study, which involved a survey "conducted by telephone" upon "a national random sample of adults (18 or older) selected from across the 48 continental states," is presented as a follow-up to George Barna's recent book, Maximum Faith. In the book, Barna cites various statistics to show that "there are several barriers to overcome before many people are likely to persevere and maximize their connection with God." In particular, there are four barriers or obstacles highlighted in the study: Commitment, Repentance, Activity, and Spiritual Community.
According to Barna, "While everyone is on a lifelong journey, the research revealed that a relatively small proportion of individuals stick with the process long enough to become the mature Christ-followers and world changers that they are meant to be." In other words, his guiding assumption is that this data reveals different maturity levels among true Christians, not necessarily different spiritual conditions (e.g. "regenerate" or "unregenerate"). What follows is a summary and analysis of Barna's findings in light of the Westminster Standards. Perhaps at some future point, we can dig into the corresponding Scripture texts, but (at least for now), I want to evaluate these statistics with the assumption that we believe our doctrinal standards to be Biblical.
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Commitment
According to Barna, 81% of self-described Christians "say that have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today." That means the other 19% believe themselves to be Christians, yet presently have no meaningful commitment to Christ! It gets worse. The survey revealed that while 79% "agreed that spirituality is very important to them," only 18% claim to be "totally committed to investing in their own spiritual development" and only 22% claim to be "totally dependent upon God."
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Repentance
Perhaps the most striking results of this survey relate to repentance. While 64% of self-described Christians claim to have "confessed their sins to God and asked for His forgiveness," only 3% claim to have "surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people." Now, just as a reminder, Westminster Shorter Catechism #87 teaches that "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience." Repentance does not require sinless perfection, but it does entail that a person has consciously devoted himself to the service of Christ as Lord over every area of life. And, according to Westminster Confession of Faith (15.3), "Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is in the act of God's free grace in Christ; yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it." In other words, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation, only 3% of the self-described American Christians in this study may be regarded as having even claimed to be true believers.
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Activity & Spiritual Commitment
With respect to engaging in religious activities, Barna observed that 39% of those polled "have participated in a combination of three 'normal' religious activities in the past week (i.e. attending church services, praying, reading the Bible)." Moreover, with respect to Spiritual Community, "only one out of every five self-identifying Christians (21%) believes that spiritual maturity requires a vital connection to a community of faith." With this in view, let me now turn your attention to some complimentary statistics relating to church attendance in America. In April of 2010, pollster Scott Rasmussen released data to show that 78% of Americans affirm a belief in the historicity of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Nevertheless, according to a study from 2004, only 26.3% of Americans claim to be Evangelical Protestants. And, to cap it off, another study from 2008 claims that only 9% of Americans regularly attend an Evangelical Protestant worship service. Now, in keeping with the Westminster Confession of Faith (25.2), we affirm that "The visible Church... is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation." In other words, those joined to Christ by faith will ordinarily be joined to (or actively seeking) a local body of Christ, for instruction, fellowship, and accountability. The Church doesn't save people, but it does preach the gospel of Christ the Savior. And those Christ saves cannot but love His bride and body, the Church. Hence, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation and ecclesiology, any self-described Christian who refuses to join a local church lacks a credible profession of faith in Christ.
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Some Thoughts
According to Barna, this study represents "several church-wide concerns that could be addressed toward helping self-identified Christians experience a more fulfilling and robust relationship with and faith in Christ." However, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation, it represents much more than that. Indeed, it means that when Jesus said "few find" the narrow gate leading to eternal life, He wasn't kidding. Now, please understand, I take no delight in making these kinds of observations, but it strikes me that many Reformed Churches need to come to grips with what mainstream evangelicalism has become: A MISSION FIELD.
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Of course, I'm not suggesting that every self-described Christian in Barna's study is an evangelical. But I am suggesting that Barna's analysis of these statistics is par for the evangelical course. In other words, most mainstream evangelicals would not view an unrepentant, un-shepherded, self-described Christian as lacking a credible profession. A belief in Christ's resurrection and a willingness to call oneself a Christian is often all it takes to be regarded as such in most American evangelical churches. But the abandonment of repentance is an implicit denial of the gospel, which teaches that true conversion consists in both justifying faith and repentance unto life. In churches that follow Barna's lead in regarding repentance as among the "final stops on the transformational journey," we can no longer expect to find the same "gospel unity" that was perhaps available in years past. Whereas Reformed Churches regard a professed engagement to trust and obey Christ in all areas of life as essential to a true profession, this is no longer the norm in the broader American church. And, if we are honest, we must confess that a gospel minus repentance is no gospel at all. Nor can an "evangelicalism" that regards commitment (Mk. 10:21), repentance (Lk. 13:3), and church membership (I Jn. 3:14) as optional upgrades to the Christian life be regarded as truly "evangelical."
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Now, practically speaking, all of this has implications for Reformed Churches. I'm not going to suggest what those implications may be, but I do want to ask five questions to get you thinking.
.
Repentance
Perhaps the most striking results of this survey relate to repentance. While 64% of self-described Christians claim to have "confessed their sins to God and asked for His forgiveness," only 3% claim to have "surrendered control of their life to God, submitted to His will for their life, and devoted themselves to loving and serving God and other people." Now, just as a reminder, Westminster Shorter Catechism #87 teaches that "Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience." Repentance does not require sinless perfection, but it does entail that a person has consciously devoted himself to the service of Christ as Lord over every area of life. And, according to Westminster Confession of Faith (15.3), "Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is in the act of God's free grace in Christ; yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it." In other words, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation, only 3% of the self-described American Christians in this study may be regarded as having even claimed to be true believers.
.
Activity & Spiritual Commitment
With respect to engaging in religious activities, Barna observed that 39% of those polled "have participated in a combination of three 'normal' religious activities in the past week (i.e. attending church services, praying, reading the Bible)." Moreover, with respect to Spiritual Community, "only one out of every five self-identifying Christians (21%) believes that spiritual maturity requires a vital connection to a community of faith." With this in view, let me now turn your attention to some complimentary statistics relating to church attendance in America. In April of 2010, pollster Scott Rasmussen released data to show that 78% of Americans affirm a belief in the historicity of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Nevertheless, according to a study from 2004, only 26.3% of Americans claim to be Evangelical Protestants. And, to cap it off, another study from 2008 claims that only 9% of Americans regularly attend an Evangelical Protestant worship service. Now, in keeping with the Westminster Confession of Faith (25.2), we affirm that "The visible Church... is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation." In other words, those joined to Christ by faith will ordinarily be joined to (or actively seeking) a local body of Christ, for instruction, fellowship, and accountability. The Church doesn't save people, but it does preach the gospel of Christ the Savior. And those Christ saves cannot but love His bride and body, the Church. Hence, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation and ecclesiology, any self-described Christian who refuses to join a local church lacks a credible profession of faith in Christ.
.
Some Thoughts
According to Barna, this study represents "several church-wide concerns that could be addressed toward helping self-identified Christians experience a more fulfilling and robust relationship with and faith in Christ." However, according to a Reformed understanding of salvation, it represents much more than that. Indeed, it means that when Jesus said "few find" the narrow gate leading to eternal life, He wasn't kidding. Now, please understand, I take no delight in making these kinds of observations, but it strikes me that many Reformed Churches need to come to grips with what mainstream evangelicalism has become: A MISSION FIELD.
.
Of course, I'm not suggesting that every self-described Christian in Barna's study is an evangelical. But I am suggesting that Barna's analysis of these statistics is par for the evangelical course. In other words, most mainstream evangelicals would not view an unrepentant, un-shepherded, self-described Christian as lacking a credible profession. A belief in Christ's resurrection and a willingness to call oneself a Christian is often all it takes to be regarded as such in most American evangelical churches. But the abandonment of repentance is an implicit denial of the gospel, which teaches that true conversion consists in both justifying faith and repentance unto life. In churches that follow Barna's lead in regarding repentance as among the "final stops on the transformational journey," we can no longer expect to find the same "gospel unity" that was perhaps available in years past. Whereas Reformed Churches regard a professed engagement to trust and obey Christ in all areas of life as essential to a true profession, this is no longer the norm in the broader American church. And, if we are honest, we must confess that a gospel minus repentance is no gospel at all. Nor can an "evangelicalism" that regards commitment (Mk. 10:21), repentance (Lk. 13:3), and church membership (I Jn. 3:14) as optional upgrades to the Christian life be regarded as truly "evangelical."
.
Now, practically speaking, all of this has implications for Reformed Churches. I'm not going to suggest what those implications may be, but I do want to ask five questions to get you thinking.
- As Reformed Churches, should we willingly transfer the membership of a person under our care to a church that denies repentance as essential to true conversion and/or does not provide active oversight of its members?
- To what extent (and with what urgency) should the members of mainstream evangelical Churches be encouraged to begin attending (and seek membership in) a Reformed Church?
- When a person leaves a Church that doesn't preach the gospel of repentance for one that does, should this be regarded as (in some sense) an evangelistic victory, or marginalized as mere theological improvement?
- When elders are interviewing folks for communion and/or communicant membership, should they regularly inquire into the person's understanding of things like commitment, repentance, and the role of the local church?
- Should Reformed pastors be emphasizing the necessity of repentance in their preaching and visitation ministries, recognizing that (for all they know) a good number of those surveyed by Barna could very well be members of Reformed Churches?
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