The 12th Festival of Christian Reconciliation is now live with some really interesting posts. I am excited that there are Christians out there actively working to break down the walls between us.
12th Festival of Christian Reconciliation – Now posted
Jun 29, 2008
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Southern Baptists in Decline – Where will it end?
Jun 26, 2008I have stumbled upon a very interesting ratio that can be used as a predictor for church growth or decline. That is, the ratio between attendance and membership. Obviously if a church is growing very rapidly, especially if that growth is from new converts the church will tend to have a much higher attendance to membership ratio. Conversely if a church is in decline, with not a lot of new blood coming in, the ration of attendance to membership would be significantly lower.
To see if this holds true I considered three sets of data: The attendance and membership of mainline churches in Canada, the attendance and membership of Evangelical churches in Canada, and the attendance and membership of major denominations in the United States.
My first two set of data come from Bruce Guenther by way of Canadian Christianity. Guenther is associate professor of church history and Mennonite studies at Associated Canadian Theological Seminaries and has compiled statistics on over 160 denominations.
In 1981 the Canadian Mainline churches had 2,240,991 members and attendance of 965,534, a ratio of attendance to members of 43%. In 20 years they dropped to 1,666,715 members and attendance of 723,673 in 2001 a ratio of also 43%. So for Mainline churches, an attendance to membership ratio of 43% corresponded to drop in attendance of 25% and a drop in membership of 26%. The average drop per year was roughly 1.25%.
The converse situation has happened with the Evangelical churches in Canada. In 1981 they had
974,295 members and attendance of 758,383, a ratio of attendance to members of 78%. In 2001 they had 1,341,897 members and attendance of 1,130,237. This was a ratio of 84%. The starting attendance to membership ratio of 78% has translated into a growth of 38% in members and a 49% growth in attendance. This translates into an average growth per year between 1.9% and 2.45% depending on the measurement.
I found data on a range of larger denominations here. The author drew the same conclusions that I had drawn about the relationship between growth and attendance.
I plotted the data as shown below and added a best fit line (shown in red).
So what does this show us? Read the rest of this entry »
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Does Evangelical = Republican Party?
Jun 20, 2008Here are a couple of maps that I find very interesting. The top map represents the number of evangelicals per 1000 of population as of the year 2000 as found at a quite amazing site called The Association for Religion Data Archives. (I will blog more about it another day.) The darker the red, the more evangelical the state. The bottom map represents the vote for President in 2000. Each number on the second graph denotes the number of electoral college votes from the state. Red for Republicans, blue for Democrats.
Notice the high correlation between the two maps. Of the ten most Evangelical states (based on percent of population identified as Evangelical), all ten voted Republican. Of the next ten most Evangelical states, eight voted Republican.
Conversely, of the ten least Evangelical states, eight voted Democrat. One of the two exceptions is Utah. I guess Mormons vote Republican too!
It is no wonder that people associate the Evangelical movement so closely with the Republican party.
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A Quiet Charismatic
Jun 19, 2008When it comes to spiritual gifts, I would describe myself as a quiet charismatic. Much of this has been influenced by spending most of my last 20 years with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. For those not familiar with the Alliance it can probably be best described as being halfway between Baptist and Pentecostal. Not a bad place for an Eclectic Christian to be if he wants to look at both Baptist and Pentecostal perspectives. Indeed, I have also spent a fair bit of time in Baptist and Pentecostal churches and am relatively comfortable in each type of church.
Theologically the Alliance tends to be charismatic in theology but not in practice. This pretty much describes where I am currently at in my own spiritual journey.
I found an excellent article that discusses how the Alliance has moved from being a charismatic to largely non charismatic denomination. A lot of it centers around how much we “seek” the gifts. The article can be read here. For those interested in Alliance history and thought in general, there is a great collection of articles hosted by Ambrose University.
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Alternatives to Division – #2: Using a Statement of Faith to Promote Unity
Jun 17, 2008Most Evangelical Protestant churches have a Statement of Faith or a Statement of Belief. It generally serves two purposes. One, it says here is how we are the same as other Christians, and two, here is how we are different. Here are some thoughts about how it can be used to prevent division.
1. Including a phrase to promote unity:
In 1982 the North American Baptist Conference (NABC) put together a statement that would act as a guide for the whole denomination. One of the concepts that they struggled with was “inerrancy”. Many thought that the word inerrancy no longer communicated clearly, and that inerrancy meant so many different things to people that it was not worth having it in the statement of faith. One region of the conference felt strongly otherwise, and stated that if inerrancy was not included then they could no longer be part of the NABC. In the end, the conference acquiesced to the regions request. It was felt that having unity with the region was more important that dividing over a term which most felt they could affirm, albeit with different understandings of what that word meant.
2. Being deliberately vague to promote unity.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada made a recent change in their statement of faith to promote unity. They removed the word “premillenial”. Why? I believe it was because enough Pastors and Leaders in the denomination could no longer in good faith affirm it. The denomination decided that it was more important to them to include these Pastors than it was to dogmatically insist that everyone have the same millennium view.
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C.S. Lewis and the Gospel of Hope
Jun 14, 2008
Tim Melton has a great new post about C.S. Lewis (pictured at left) and the gospel of hope. He talks as Lewis did about the importance of the interplay between work and play. Tim writes:
I love C.S. Lewis. I can’t help it. About 20 years ago I read “Mere Christianity” and “Until we have Faces” and right then and there, I was hooked. The thing that I find most appealing about Lewis is the way he approaches life and spirituality. He loved to read, loved to teach, loved to debate, loved to think, and loved to study…but he also loved to imagine, loved a good story, loved to have beer with friends, loved to laugh, and loved to enjoy life. In short, Lewis saw work and play as simultaneous expressions of worship given to God. I have read very few authors, and met even fewer people, who keep as firm a grasp on this as Lewis.
I think that what Tim has written on the subject is really worth reading and I encourage you to…
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Alternatives to Division – #1: The Christian and Missionary Alliance and the Role of Women as Elders
Jun 13, 2008
This is the first in a series of posts on the theme “Alternatives to Division.” When facing discord and division in your church, what are some of the alternatives to simply dividing?
The first case study that I wanted to examine was that of the role of women as elders in the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. This is an issue that was one of the key concerns of the denomination for 1982-2000, and one on which little agreement could be found.
The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) in Canada became independent from the U.S. body in 1981. While it adopted many of the US policies as its own, it was now a separate entity and responsible for making its own policies and decisions. One of the structures that was changed was moving from a two board system in the local church to a single elders board. Under the two board system, women often served on the Executive board, but not the Elders’ board. So under the single board system women were restricted from serving in leadership positions. Read the rest of this entry »
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Christian Reconciliation
Jun 11, 2008One of most positive things that Eclectic Christian has seen on the net has been bloggers working together to promote Christian Reconciliation. Over the past year and a half there have been eleven “Christian Reconciliation Carnivals” that have had submissions from bloggers promoting various ways that Christians can understand each other better.
A call has just been made to request submissions for the 12th festival. The topic of the month is along the lines of “discerning the source of division”.
Here are the rules and regulations for making a submission.
Each “carnival” has general interest submissions, carnival topic submissions, questions and answers, as well as respectful debates about various issues. Here is a listing of the past carnivals along with the primary carnival topic.
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Why I am an Eclectic Christian – Guest Blog
Jun 7, 2008The following post is by guest blogger Mitch Sylvia, easily the most Eclectic Christian I know:
One of the great failings of the Christian Church has been its inability to achieve unity. By Christian unity I do not mean cookie-cutter Christianity where we all think alike and share the same opinions about everything. There will always be room for differences of opinion on secondary issues. By secondary issues I refer to those matters that lay outside the core doctrines of the Christian faith.
In a previous post, my friend Michael Bell has referred to the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed as a framework for defining essential Christian doctrine. As these documents attest, the Christian faith is a doctrinal faith – certain beliefs must be affirmed if one is to genuinely be called a Christian. As these creeds affirm; there are many things which unite us as Christians.
My own Christian journey has been extremely eclectic and focused on the beliefs which unite the Body of Christ. This is why I have been asked to write a guest post to chronicle a bit of my spiritual journey. Read the rest of this entry »
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Vicarious Worship
Jun 7, 2008
Eclectic Christian welcomes guest blogger Michael Powell. Mike is the associate Pastor at our church and preached on Sunday about the relationship between Christ and Worship. This was a topic which I had been interacting a lot about recently in various blogs, and a thought that an abbreviated version of what we heard on Sunday would make an excellent contribution to the topic. Here are Mike Powell’s thoughts below:
How can we be sure that the worship we offer to God is genuine, authentic, or acceptable? When I was in high school, I thought a lot about this question. Working at camp during the summer, the staff would have morning devotions every day, and our time together would include sharing from the Bible, prayer and singing. As we sat around in the staff lounge during our time of worship, I would often wonder if I was truly connecting with God. I was surrounded by others who gave off the impression that they were, for lack of better terms, “in the zone” or spiritually centred. And as I compared myself to them, I often felt that my offering of worship was inadequate – that I was missing something. When I brought this up with one of my mentors at camp, he told me that I should try not to compare myself with others, but to focus on my own offering of worship. He also said it was entirely possible that the people I deemed as “closer to God” were actually thinking the same thing about me.
In essence, no matter who we are, any worship that we offer to God is going to be broken, lacking, wanting, imperfect. We’re human and even the most sincere offering of worship may be wrought with selfishness. It’s not uncommon to engage in worship simply because it makes us feel good. Once we come to this understanding – specifically, that anything we present to the Lord as an act of worship is in and of itself unworthy – doesn’t it make you wonder? Why bother coming before God in worship day after day, week after week, if the very best that we can offer is insufficient? Should we carry on solely because we feel it’s expected? Because we’ve been taught that it’s the right thing to do? Or because we feel obligated? Moreover, if our own self-offering is imperfect, how can God – who is holy – welcome us into his presence during worship at all? Read the rest of this entry »
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Michael Bell
Joshua Hearne
Tim Melton
Joel Black
