Startling Change in Church Attendance

9/2/25 Barna Reports:

"The headline: Millennials and Gen Z Christians are attending church more frequently than before and much more often than are older generations. The typical Gen Z churchgoer now attends 1.9 weekends per month, while Millennial churchgoers average 1.8 times—a steady upward shift since the lows seen during the pandemic."

As much as some people want to see America collapsing into atheism or nihilism the data suggests otherwise.   As one of my sisters observed some years ago, college is where Christian kids go wild, and wild kids go Christian.   Obviously, like most generalizations, there are lots of kids who do not fit either stereotype.  

I do think that kids growing up in agnodtic/atheist and broken homes are more likely to seek meaning in spiritual ways.

Cool Kids Change Their Pronouns

 Really cool kids change their nouns.  8/16/24 Telegraph:

Church of England dropping word ‘church’ to be more ‘modern’

Maude Royden-Shaw (not Disraeli) called the Church? of England "the Conservative Party at prayer." 

It is not even that anymore.  It is not even a church anymore.  Suggest a more appropriate noun.

Feeding the 5000

 You are doubtless aware of this story from Matthew 14:13-21:

13 When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

15 As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food.”

16 Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.”

17 “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered.

18 “Bring them here to me,” he said. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 20 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 21 The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Of course the New Testament contains other miracles: healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, curing lepers, the lame and the deaf.

Why am I bringing this up?  Our pastor a couple weeks back preached how Matthew 3:1-2:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 

Many Christians believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is not at the end of the age, but that Christians are obligated to bring it into effect here and now.  Does this seem odd to you?  

How recently did famine carry away millions of people per year?   Feeding the 5000 is nothing compared to the last two centuries.

How many victims of polio do we still have walking with a limp (at best)?  How many lepers are still slowly being disfigured?  How many severely ill people recover from heart attacks and lead productive, joyful lives?  (Okay, I am going in tomorrow for a pulmonary function test to, I hope, resolve my shortwindedness.)  Think of all the surgeries performed before anesthesia and antisepsis.  Think of replacing a defective aortic valve.  Is that not a miracle 2000 years ago?  We do not have holy men going around healing the sick; we have systems of healthcare that alleviate suffering instead.  (I am ignoring frauds like Benny Hinn.)

As many of you already know, poverty worldwide has fallen substantially over the last couple decades.  The Judaeo-Christian legacy in the West has created a prosperity and reduced individual misery on a scale unimaginable in Jesus' time.

It has not all been progress.  Slavery was a great evil of the Western world.  When enough consciences were pricked by evangelists the West did not simply abolish slavery in the West (sometimes at enormous costs in lives and capital) but actively suppressed slavery elsewhere.   War is bad--unless you are a Jew or Gypsy in Europe or Chinese in the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The situation is not perfect, but Christians are obligated to make it so.

You May Remember This Courageous Woman

11/11/23 Unheard:

"In 2002, I discovered a 1927 lecture by Bertrand Russell entitled “Why I am Not a Christian”. It did not cross my mind, as I read it, that one day, nearly a century after he delivered it to the South London branch of the National Secular Society, I would be compelled to write an essay with precisely the opposite title."

Has Anyone Seen A "Jesus Walking With Trump" Meme?

I have heard of it, but I cannot find it.  I would like to think every Christian is walking with Jesus, some better than others, as we grow spiritually.  But just because you approve of his Supreme Court nominees (and one recent decision has disappointed me greatly, by one of his appointees), do not equate them.  Trump has an ugly history (as do most Christians).  I am told that some Christians have become rather cozy with the "Jesus sent us Trump" idea, although I confess that I do not know anyone who claims that.

Every person comes into our lives for a reason, sometimes for our benefit, sometimes to our detriment.  Does God direct every such encounter?  Not necessarily, but good, even if it is a lesson to us or to others, can come out of those unfortunate encounters. 

Shortly before I was born again, I dated a young Christian gal who was a cousin of my friend Jeff Callahan.  I was trying to take the relationship in a sinful direction.  Fortunately, she had her head on straight, and nothing untoward happened.  But she did get me to go to Westchester First Church of the Nazarene Church with her one Sunday;  I was so impressed with the youth pastor that when I realized how lost I was, I went to Santa Monica Church of the Nazarene which started me on my spiritual journey.  I also met my wife of forty years there.

Was I a positive influence on Ms. Callahan?  Perhaps as a low-risk warning, but the overall encounter was certainly a net positive for me.

Seeker-Friendly Church

I am profoundly skeptical of the whole seeker-friendly church marketing strategy (and that is what it is), but we saw an especially tragic example on a church in Alamogordo.  "What do we have to do to get you in here?"    The cynical response is, "Free meth!" The correct response is, "Preach the gospel.  Use words if necessary."  The example your members show will attract far more members then your social media presence.

This is News?

Breitbart:

In his ongoing campaign against the commercialization of the Christian feast of the Nativity, Pope Francis is calling on Christians to liberate Christmas, saying it has been taken “hostage” by worldliness.

“Let us free Christmas from the worldliness that has taken it hostage!” the pope said in a tweet Friday. “The true spirit of Christmas is the beauty of being loved by God”:

I admit that I am shocked to agree with the Red Pope. 

Hard to Top This as Revisionism Gone Wild

12/8/17 Daily Wire:

Ever the innovator, Pope Francis suggested during a television interview on Wednesday an update the Lord’s Prayer, the "Our Father" given by Christ to his Apostles. The pontiff rejects the common translation of the final verse, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” as a poor translation because it implies that God rather than Satan leads people into temptation.

A Gratifying Story of Reclamation

3/9/17 Christianity Today:

A former porn star has shared how she found God, left the industry and became a Christian pastor.

Crystal Bassette from Clay, New York, was formerly known as porn star Nadia Hilton, starring in more than 100 explicit videos over a decade. She eventually left the adult film scene when she prayed to God, was 'saved' and went on to pastor a church, according to the Daily Mail.

'It's definitely the ultimate change. It's going from one extreme to the next. I had to get away from this whole life,' Crystal said.

At 16 years old, Crystal became pregnant with her eldest son Justin. To provide for him, she moved to Hollywood, California, to become a model and dancer. Years later, she was offered $30,000 as an adult film actress. Her first porn shoot however, left her emotionally and mentally scarred.

'I remember after the scene, I sat in the shower for about two hours crying,' Crystal said. 'Then I stopped after that shoot and didn't go back for about one month.

Every Christian has a sinful past for which they need to seek God's forgiveness. Her husband and her will be pastoring a church with a very appropriate name: New Beginnings.  I've long thought Reclamation would also make a fine name for a church. Unsurprisingly, the Daily Mail article was much more salacious; it is Britain after all.

How the Democrats Screwed the Pooch

David Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy points out how Democratic obsession with crushing Christianity to satisfy the identity politics crowd sank Clinton:

To what can we attribute Trump’s success? The most logical answer is that religious traditionalists felt that their religious liberty was under assault from liberals, and they therefore had to hold their noses and vote for Trump. ...

Megan McArdle of Bloomberg similarly pointed out, “Over the last few years, as controversies have erupted over the rights of cake bakers and pizza places to refuse to cater gay weddings, the rights of nuns to refuse to provide insurance that covers birth control, the rights of Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions, and the rights of Christian schools to teach (and require students and teachers to practice) traditional Christian morality, some Christians have begun to feel that their communities are under existential threat.”

Let’s focus on one of these incidents, the time the solicitor general of the United States acknowledged that religious institutions that oppose as a matter of internal policy same-sex marriage may lose their tax exemptions. At oral argument in the Obergefell same-sex marriage case, there was the following colloquy:

Justice Samuel Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax­exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating. So would the same apply to a university or a college if it opposed same­ sex marriage?

Soliticitor General Verrilli: You know, I ­, I don’t think I can answer that question without knowing more specifics, but it’s certainly going to be an issue. ­ I don’t deny that. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is ­­it is going to be an issue.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

You may be aware of this marvelously concise description by Julius Caesar of the Battle of Zela, often reused, or referenced by others: from the heroic King Jan of Poland V"enimus, Vidimus, Deus vicit" ("We came, We saw, God conquered") after the Battle of Vienna to the really asinine: Hilary Clinton "We came, we saw, he died." (after Gaddafi's death).

It struck me that the Reader's Digest version of the Gospels can be fit into this model: Veni, et resurrexit, vici (I came; I resurrected, I conquered.)

Anglican Church Getting Ready to Split?

8/28/16 Telegraph:

A group of parishes is preparing what could be the first step towards a formal split in the Church of England over issues such as homosexuality, with the creation of a new “shadow synod” vowing to uphold traditional teaching.

Representatives of almost a dozen congregations in the Home Counties are due to gather in a church hall in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, later this week for the first session of what they say could eventually develop into an alternative Anglican church in England.

Organisers, drawn from the conservative evangelical wing of Anglicanism, say they have no immediate plans to break away - but are setting up the “embryonic” structures that could be used to do so if the established church moves further in what they see as a liberal direction.

I've never been terribly impressed with the Anglican Church's commitment to Biblical Christianity, and as the worldwide Anglican Church has to choose between the Bible and today's latest fad, I suspect these rebels are going to find common organization with the many Third World Anglican churches that are scratching their heads at the home nation church.