The Great Dechurching and its Implications for the Public Good
In The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Michael Graham, with Ryan Burge (who will be at our summit in November), we learn that “about 40 million adults in America today used to go to church but no longer do...For the first time in the eight decades that Gallup has tracked American religious membership, more adults in the United States do not attend church than attend church.” As the authors point out, the decline in church attendance is a sobering trend, and not just for Christians. Local congregations provide critical resources to the communities in which they operate, what some scholars have called the “halo effect” of congregations. Christian churches are outposts for the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. Yet, according to The Great Dechurching, congregational life in the United States has declined a great deal over the last twenty years.
Make no mistake, America is still a profoundly religious country, and the vast majority of religious people in America are Christians.
The relative decline of church attendance does not mean that Christianity and religion generally are becoming irrelevant (I believe a decline in religious affiliation is going to lead to an increase in the cultural and political salience of religion, but that’s a topic for another day). Nearly seventy percent of Americans identify as Christian, and about half of Americans say that religion is “very important” in their own lives.
Christianity, then, remains one of the driving forces of American life, but it is under pressure, and for the moment, in decline. What is driving this decline?
According to The Great Dechurching, sixty-eight percent of “dechurched evangelicals” said their parents played a role in their decision to stop attending church. The top five reasons they gave?
Their emphasis on culture war lost me over time (14%)
Their lack of love, joy, gentleness, kindness, and generosity (14%)
Their inability to listen (14%)
Their inability to engage with other viewpoints (13%)
Their racial attitudes or actions (13%)
What is evident is that these reasons, each of them, have profoundly social and political dimensions.
People are not leaving the church or not identifying as Christians solely through some isolated process of theological study and discernment, but as social beings in a highly political culture. They are asking questions not only involving their own personal salvation; they are asking whether God really loves the world. Does God want good for their neighbors? Is Christianity true in our public life?
I know there is a lot of cynicism right now among Christians themselves about the Christian public witness.
Reasonable Christians look at the news headlines, and at how public issues are driving some Christians to behave, and think the answer is to focus on our own house, to disentangle ourselves from public involvement.
But what we must realize is that people are looking to our public life to see if and how the way of Jesus shows up there, too. What will they find?
At the Center for Christianity and Public Life, our mission is to contend for the credibility of Christian resources in public life, for the public good. We want to be there when eyes fall upon our public life, looking for signs as to whether God loves the world.
This November, we will welcome hundreds of civic and Christian leaders to Washington, D.C. for CCPL’s inaugural summit, For the Good of the Public.
If you believe that Christian resources have something to offer our public life, if you believe spiritual formation is central to civic renewal, you should plan to be there with us. You can register for the summit, and stay tuned to this newsletter and on social media for further updates. Use the code PARTNER to get $10 off your ticket for being a newsletter subscriber!
Just last week, we announced our first speakers for the summit, including CJ Rhodes, pastor of the historic Mt Helm Baptist Church in Jackson, Mississippi, and Michael Sacasas, Associate Director of the Christian Study Center in Gainesville, Florida, author of the newsletter The Convivial Society, and one of the nation’s leading voices on the intersection of technology, society, and the human person. More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. We hope to see you there!