If Christians Sell Jesus Harder Will Its Numbers Get Better
Since forever Christianity has been sold as a "transactional deal." When you buy a car, you expect a certain level of performance and service. In Christianity, a deal is made where the believers make promises and in return are promised a package that includes death prevention. Because of this transaction some refer to it as a "transactional faith." Since the early 2,000's this deal has not been selling as well. Now there are ideas on how to boost sales. And, there are skeptics putting the knife into the new sales ideas.
The new transaction idea is, first, to lighten up on the gay issue. Instead of preaching about the sin let members and society figure it out for themselves. Second, the transaction should take place in the context of friendship. Christians who are a person's friend, this idea promotes, are more likely to believe they are getting a good deal in the transaction.
As with so much in Christianity everything goes back to a business transaction. If the customer thinks he/she got their money's worth the first time they will buy a product a second time. Customers who don't get their money's worth boycott the product.
People work more hours than they did a couple of decades ago. This makes their time more valuable. At the same time more skepticism has developed over the product they purchase in church. The price has gone up, the perceived product quality has gone down.
Making the church into a social club where religion might be discussed buy all are welcome to decide Theology for themselves is already being done in some places. The dress casual bring a beer experiment is well under way. A variation is the concert style service, lots of live music and a short, light sermon.
There may be a way out there somewhere to reverse the downward slide in denomination numbers. It seems to me the package Christianity sells needs to be something other than defeating death and finding moral truth. These two products have not been delivered.
Jon, “There may be a way out there somewhere to reverse the downward slide in denomination numbers.”
ReplyDeleteThere is a way to increase denomination numbers. What if you had to declare a certain religious faith, sincere or not, and certify your membership in its denomination to get a job with a company holding government contracts? Well the machete of religious freedom is a swingin’, hacking out new domains for discrimination:
“IN THE run-up to a festive season shaping up to be like no other, the Trump administration, according to “Slate”(1), this week gave the green light to federal contractors to discriminate against racial and religious minorities, women, and especially LGBTQ people in the name of protecting ‘religious liberty.’”(2)
Jon, your fear of the nefarious use of religious freedom as a weapon to legitimize discrimination for the purpose of advancing the conservative religious social and cultural agenda is coming to fruition.
(1) https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/12/eugene-scalia-discrimination-religion.html
(2) https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thefreethinker/2020/12/santa-trumps-parting-gift-to-his-christian-fan-base-is-a-real-doozy/