Thoughts on Barna's Megathemes

One of the pastors from my church recently sent out a link to six megathemes in the church compiled by Barna.  I had a number of thoughts. 

I think we need to be careful to recognize the link between each of these six themes. Our tendency, particularly in the highly "scientific" culture in which we live, is to make observations and break things down into subsequent parts. However, we need to remember that these things are part of the same root problem.

Francis Schaeffer famously said that we need to be careful to present Christianity first as true, and only then as helpful. Unfortunately, many churches today have this entirely backward. A common theme today is that of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (a concept developed by sociologist Christian Smith), the bane of Christianity today, particularly among Christian youth. Briefly, Christianity is seen primarily as 1) a set of rules 2) that are helpful, and that 3) there is a God who is largely uninvolved in our lives. In the mindset of moralistic therapeutic deism, too many churches today are preaching a set of rules to live by while leaving the Good News out. If all churches do is tell people how to not be depressed or how to have their best life now, but don't talk about Jesus's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension as true, most people are going to stay home and watch Oprah or Dr Phil instead.

I believe that some churches do well with 1 or some of these themes, but few (if any) address them all. For example, there are some churches who place a premium on social justice and outreach without being theologically grounded. Others preach Biblically based, theologically rich sermons but do not connect those sermons to every day life.

So how do we as a church work toward combating these themes.
1) I don't think we shy away from theology or theologically complex concepts among typical church attenders, even our kids. There has been research that has demonstrated that young people leave the church in droves after high school, but that those kids who are taught the Bible and taught theologically complex issues tend to stick around. Not only that, the kids tend to enjoy coming to youth group when they are discussing issues such as apologetics, Christian ethics, or the truth of creationism (and encouraged to ask tough questions) rather than playing games and eating pizza. In fact, some kids have commented that if they want to eat pizza and play games, they might as well stay home. (I can't recall the author of this research, I apologize). People are often smarter than we give them credit for. I have had discussions with some people about "the point of systematic theology." The themes revealed in this Barna article are the point. The point is to provide an organizational structure for understanding God's word and to help people to think deeply about the truths of God's word.

People are bombarded with so many different things today that they do not know what to believe. Church is just something we do on Sunday, and has little bearing on life. Increasingly, Christians are falling into the camp that says "there are many roads that lead to God."  We have to combat this pluralistic nonsense with fervor. Much of this comes back to Schaeffer's idea that even many Christians don't (necessarily) see Christianity as the only source of eternal truth. There are dozens of good apologetics arguments supporting the existence of God, the reality of the resurrection, a created universe, etc., but most people don't know them because the a) are not being taught about these things and b) they don't even know where to begin to look. Kids go off to college thinking they know what to believe, but in Philosophy 101 (or even worse Religious studies 101), a professor asks "how could a good God allow so much suffering" and then mocks them when they don't have an answer. Six months later they have abandoned their faith and are following the culture. We need to inocculate, not protect, our children by teaching them not only Christian truth, but what others believe as well ALONG WITH the arguments against common culture. Too often, we want to avoid, but once our kids leave, they don't know how to stand in the face of serious critique.

2) Because Christians are less theologically, or shall we say Biblcally, literate, their comfort in standing for truth is significantly diminished. Themes 2, 5 and 6 are so clearly linked. Society says "be tolerant" and so we are. We allow others to define truth rather than standing on the truth of God's word. We "reinterpret" God's word or minimize it at points to fit better with culture. While we are expected to assimilate to culture, atheists are becoming "evangelical" in their zeal for spreading their version of truth. Meanwhile, we tolerant Christians sit back and allow falsehoods to march forward because a) we don't know what to say and b) we feel that it is not loving to challenge others. We tell ourselves that Christians are to be first and foremost loving, but then we sell ourselves the lie that being loving equals being tolerant rather than truthful. We will continue to face expanding religious pluralism and demands for tolerance, and we need to zealously stand for truth. We need to actively be talking with people about God, Jesus Christ, and the only hope for our salvation and to do so thoughtfully (see #1) and lovingly even though we will assuredly be called intolerant.

3) I am intrigued by the tendency of point #3, but I think part of the root is that churches today are much more likely to talk with people about managing finances than teaching them how to have a quiet time. We are much more likely to talk with people about avoiding porn than we are to teaching people how to pray diligently. Again, I think so much of this comes from our over-psychologized culture where everything is about helping me to feel better about myself rather than helping me to realize I am a sinner who is separated from God and my only hope is through the cross of Christ and the grace of God. We need to remember that our goal as Christians is not to offer a better psychology than Dr Phil, we are to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Timothy 4:2-5). Church attenders "ARE accumulating for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and ARE turning way from listening to the truth and ARE wandering off into myths". We need to remember that our message is not just better than Dr Phil, it is the only truth that matters.

4) I find it interesting that interest in community action is escalating. My observation is that Christian service is escalating without the gospel. Many Christians are helping out socially without ever talking about Christ, which is as unfortunate as talking about Christ without helping. If you look historically at the early Christian church in Rome, the Christians were caring for the sick but they stood boldly on the truth of Christ, which was grounded in the belief that Christ was first and foremost "true" rather than helpful, again to go back to Schaeffer.

Satan will do whatever he can to wreck the church, but we serve a great big God who has already written the end of the story. We need to actively work to combat these issues. We need to teach people about the truth of the cross, about our hopelessness without Christ, about salvation, about grace, about God's justice, about the whole story of redemption and about so many other big Biblical themes--EVEN AFTER we presume they are saved. I was not only saved by grace, I am sustained by it. People need skills to combat the monster that is relativism so that they can be winsome, attractive ambassadors for the Kingdom of God.

I would strongly recommend these resources:

1) Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World by John MacArthur

2) Tactics by Greg Koukl