As I'm sure many of you may have heard, the largest research study on Religion in America was released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (you can see it for yourself @ http://www.pewforum.org/).
Not surprisingly, the results show that California is extraordinarily diverse. Only 23% of those surveyed in the Golden State said that there religion is "the one true faith leading to God." The rest weren't sure, didn't care, or overwhelmingly believed that many ways could lead to God. Only 33% of Californians attend church once a week. And 34% of those surveyed believe that there Scriptures are just words written by men, not God's word.
There can be no doubt that we in California (and in the U.S. for that matter) are living in a culture that needs to be seen and treated as a Mission field. The mission field is not "over there" somewhere. It's right in your own backyard. So the question is, "What are you going to do about it?"
For an example: See Acts 17
2 comments:
I often wonder why we feel more comfortable travelling to a distant land to preach the Good News, yet hesitate to share with our family, friends, coworkers, the people we love the most. Our actions would imply that we care more for strangers than our loved ones. Why is that? Does it make you more Godly to witness in Africa? Are you more spiritual because you "save" someone in India? Obviously this is not the case, so why do we behave as though it is?
Until reviewing the results of this survey I had a much different impression of the Christian body in the United States (and even California). I thought that perhaps I lived in some odd "pocket" of society that was contrary to "the American way". I was brought up and indirectly taught that America is a Christian nation; by that I expected very different numbers in this survey.
In the past, this lie (that the U.S. is overwhelming Christian) has made me think twice about evangelism - that I might only be "preaching to the choir." But, sadly, I find the opposite to be true: that it is by far the minority of our local community that places their faith in Christ alone for salvation.
I think this survey is aligned with Sarah's comments in that we have the impression that foreign nations are (proportionally by population) in greater need of salvation - so we go there (and by "we" I mean "someone else" because I'm too afraid).
In the meantime, as suggested in the blog and Sarah's comment, maybe we just "go" where God leads us - whether that's to another country, to the next city, to the next community, to our neighbor's house, to our co-worker's desk, to our children down the hallway or to our spouse.
And, yet, even in this comes a trembling fear - what I've found to be a reminder that though I am weak, God is most certainly strong. The Good News of Jesus Christ will, go out to all nations, yet by the Holy Spirit we pray that we would lay hold of the strength our Father has set apart for us to take part in sharing this News of the one salvation afforded by Jesus Christ. And by "we" I mean "you and me who are in the body of Christ".
(1 Corinthians 1:18-31)
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