Why Do Christians Make the Same Mistake Over and Over

 

Yet another article appeared on the Christian site, Christianpost.com explaining what must be done to reverse the decline in numbers of Christians. It was a review of famous speakers who addressed a conference on why the decline continues.

Surely it is obvious to the point of self evident numbers of Christians with recognizable Christian beliefs is falling because fewer people, especially young people, believe the orthodox tenets of the faith. Things have happened in the culture to drive people away from these traditional tenets toward other beliefs or to no religious beliefs.

One speaker extolled the practice of parents hammering home Christian beliefs to offset what children see on their internet devices. He advised parents limit the time children spend on the devices and limit what the have access to. After doing that parents need to spend time explaining that what they themselves believe is true and what other believe is not true. 

Another solution was to hire only preachers who would preach the true religion and reject those who preach something else. Now, if preachers go to some kind of training and come away believing what they were taught one would think that to be the true faith. Apparently the speaker knows the faith much better than either the preachers of their professors. Of course, the vast number of versions of the faith make rounding up strays and putting them in a corral as impossible today as it was a thousand years ago.

There is an old adage, "You can't put a square peg in a round hole." The old fashioned way of converting people to Christianity, or holding onto those born into it, applied. Today's public has been hammered with advertising and with political propaganda. It has become more discerning. This discernment is applied to religion. When this happens people become skeptical. Lots of the skeptical people leave the faith. 

I'm waiting to read about a conference of Christians under the title, "If People Don't Believe us Anymore, What Can We Do?" Now, it could be some adjustment is already underway. The ever more popular style of church suggests this. It is long on music and short on sermon. It is run in the style of a concert, those present listen but are not engaged. Some check their phones, others drift in and out with coffee. This kind of service would be light on beliefs and heavier on having a nice time at church. The goal might be to expose concert goers to a little religion but not push it too far or expect people to absorb much. 

While this latter strategy might not turn things around, it is at least avoiding the obvious short comings of the old ways.