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One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 4/9/2009 10:02 AM (GMT -6)

The End of Christian America

The percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points in the past two decades. How that statistic explains who we are now—and what, as a nation, we are about to become.

By Jon Meacham | NEWSWEEK

Published Apr 4, 2009

From the magazine issue dated Apr 13, 2009

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am. God is my life."

"God in Christ by His Spirit empowers, enables, energizes and enacts all Christian behavior and ministry as the dynamic expression of the life of Jesus Christ. Christianity is Christ. Christian living is the life and character of Jesus Christ lived out through the Christian." -James Fowler

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 4/9/2009 12:55 PM (GMT -6)

Yep.

They say that when a person dies, his hair and nails continue to grow for some time. The person is dead and in the grave, but he has a 'semblance' of life. A lot of our religious behavior and church growth is just so much hair and nail growth on a corpse.

But I have to ask mySELF this first.

T

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 4/9/2009 12:57 PM (GMT -6)

Interesting...

"Frank Schaeffer has distanced himself from many of his father's (American Evangelical Theologian Francis Schaeffer!) Calvinist views and converted to the Greek Orthodox church in 1990 which he says "embraces paradox and mystery."

Frank has a book...2007

"Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back"

Hmmm...

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am. God is my life."

One Love
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888

Posted 4/9/2009 12:59 PM (GMT -6)

Tom:
They say that when a person dies, his hair and nails continue to grow for some time. The person is dead and in the grave, but he has a 'semblance' of life. A lot of our religious behavior and church growth is just so much hair and nail growth on a corpse.

Powerful description. Too bad it's so accurate, right?

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

"I love, therefore I am in I Am. God is my life."

Tom
Registered Member

Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 10353

Posted 4/9/2009 1:39 PM (GMT -6)

I think if I were ever to want to pioneer a "church," I'd seriously enact a post-Christian way to BE and DO the church, i.e., no buildings, no incorporation, etc. Pretend all those benefits were illegal. I mean, they might be some day. How will we be the church THEN? I'd just be that church NOW. Run it as a finely tuned network of cells, good communication, core values, practical good works, discipleship, etc.

T

Sahid
Megistered Rember

Date Joined Jun 2004
Total Posts : 2013

Posted 4/9/2009 6:42 PM (GMT -6)

T: I think if I were ever to want to pioneer a "church," I'd seriously enact a post-Christian way to BE and DO the church, i.e., no buildings, no incorporation, etc. Pretend all those benefits were illegal. I mean, they might be some day. How will we be the church THEN? I'd just be that church NOW. Run it as a finely tuned network of cells, good communication, core values, practical good works, discipleship, etc.

Z: Sounds right. My church is spending an ungodly amount of money on a children's building right now. We used to be small; we all knew each other. Now we have everyone segmented into their own buildings. Ekklesia used to mean assembly or gathering. Now it's a method of segregation.

might-be-don
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 2001
Total Posts : 830

Posted 4/10/2009 11:12 AM (GMT -6)

Remember why I opted out 4 years ago?

peace, don

^{The world's perfect, wouldn't change a thing.}

Similitude
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 4968

Posted 4/10/2009 5:45 PM (GMT -6)

I hear ya, Don. If you're like me, this site meets a lot of the needs that a local church would have provided had they been something other than social clubs or socities where business men/women can stay well-connected. I know of no church in my area where I could even be welcome. My best friend goes to a church where the pastor likes a lot of Greg's writings--even on open theism. But he told my friend to keep that hush lest the other church members find out. I was thinking, as he was telling me that, how pathetic.

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