Nearly 800 British churches have closed in the last six years, but charismatic churches are rapidly taking their place. Hillsong Church London and more than 5,000 churches have been started in Great Britain since 1980. God is moving in a nation whose culture was withering.
Cross the Atlantic, and America’s Southern governors continually face increased pressure to compromise on religious liberty or lose business for their states. Heroin and substance abuse is increasing government spending, colleges spend millions on sexual misconduct cases. Does America need moral and spiritual renewal?
Americans are five times less likely to pray now as compared to the early 1980s, and twice as many said they do not believe in God according to research led by psychology professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. The biggest decline is among 18-29 year olds, the so-called millennials. The study reveals a sharp decline in religious affiliation and practice, but a startling uptick relative to belief in the afterlife. Examining a sample of over 50,000 American adults since 1972, by 2014, American adults were less likely to pray, believe in God, identify as religious, attend religious services, or believe the Bible was the word of God than they were in previous decades. The same trends exist relative to prayer as well. Since 2004, fifty percent more Americans say they never pray (fifteen percent in 2014, up from ten percent). Among millennials, nearly twice as many said they never prayed in 2014 (twenty-four percent) compared to 2004 (thirteen percent).
This decline in beliefs of the church has coincided with a decline in religious affiliation and service attendance to the church. In the early 1970s, six percent reported not affiliating with any religion, whereas in 2014 that number is at twenty-one percent. Those who said they never attend any religious service is now at twenty-six percent, compared to eleven percent in the early 1970s.
Do we have trouble in our lives? Absolutely! Do we know the One who is in control? You betcha! Our world continues to change, which is good. What started in a garden will end in a city. Obviously, there is work to be done. The size of our problem may be troubling, but the numbers are not the problem.
These numbers represent people. People may have problems, but people are never problems. They bear the image of God, whom God determined was worthy of the death of his son.
We are each like sheep that have gone astray. Some of us have come back because of his grace; others still just don’t know any better because they are in need of His special grace. They are each yearning for heaven, so why don’t we try to bring that little bit of heaven to them?
