We’re honored to present to our readers this essay by Dr. David Mills. Dr. Mills serves as Assistant Dean for Applied Ministries and Assistant Professor of Evangelism in the Roy J. Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He holds an undergraduate degree from East Texas Baptist University, and graduate degrees from both Southwestern and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminaries. Dr. Mills has pastored churches in North and South Carolina and Alabama, and has served several churches in interim pastorates, and has served the Georgia Baptist Convention as an evangelism consultant. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles. A native Texan, Dr. Mills and his wife Michelle make their home in Crowley, Texas, and have four children ranging in age from 2 to 14.
Jon Meacham’s Newsweek article “End of Christian America” has aroused considerable attention in the days surrounding Holy Week. Meacham reports on the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). He reveals that this study found that the number of self-identified Christians in America has declined by ten percentage points (86% down to 76%) since 1990. The number of non-religious persons has increased and expanded from the traditionally irreligious Northwest to the Northeast. He suspects that this may translate into less cultural and political influence for Christians.
In this article, I propose to offer questions about these notions and to recommend a perspective that I hope will enable serious Christians to navigate these new realities. Specifically, I propose to address what this means for evangelism in the present American culture.
When the Sky Falls into Place
That 76% of Americans identify themselves as Christians offers some opportunities to witnessing Christians and poses some challenges. Let us begin with the opportunities, and exploration of the opportunities will involve my annoying habit of mixing metaphors.
The Falling Sky is Common Ground
I have tracked similar surveys for several years. Most of them reveal that 78%-83% of Americans claim some Christian identity. The ARIS survey is within the range of other surveys. If form holds true, this number will be up in 2010, down in 2011, up in 2012, and down in 2013. While this may make some readers feel like a termite in a yo-yo, it heartens me to know that when I witness three out of four times I will speak with someone who agrees with me to some degree about important theological matters. We have known for some time that many Americans hold (to one degree or another) conservative views on many theological issues, leaving Europe aghast. Recent surveys reveal that 75% of Americans believe the Bible is the literal or inspired word of God, 75% of Americans believe the virgin birth, and at least 52% (perhaps as high as 62%) of Americans believe the biblical account of creation. This common ground prepares the way for an evangelistic witness, and the Holy Spirit deserves all the glory for doing His work in such an effective manner.
The Falling Sky is a Rising Tide
Additionally, the ARIS numbers may guide us in our pursuit of spiritual awakening. Authors on the history and theology of spiritual awakening have written much about spiritual decline and low spiritual temperatures, and what they have said applies to the American nation as a whole. On the pages of their works, they escort the reader to the beach. Standing on its shores, they insist that when the tide is the farthest out it begins to return to shore. It is when the day appears the darkest that the redeemed cry out for mercy and relief, and God rises to answer them from on high. (Every Christian who is serious about spiritual awakening needs to find a copy of Alvin Reid’s and Malcolm McDow’s Firefall, David Bryant’s The Hope at Hand, and/or Bob Ecklund’s Spiritual Awakening. These works make this point far better than I can).
The Falling Sky Is a Tender Conscience
Further, the 76% of Americans who identify themselves as Christian offers a modest hope for the advance of a Christian view of culture. A few years ago, demographers found and the Wall Street Journal reported that Roe v. Wade molds the current electorate. They found that liberal voters were less likely to have large families and more likely to abort their unborn children than other Americans. In addition, they found that conservative, southern, and Christian voters were more likely to have large families and less likely to abort their children. They calculated that if abortion on demand were not legal, Al Gore would have won the 2000 election by 54% and John Kerry by a similar margin in 2004. Because abortion on demand is legal, the electorate voted conservative in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Since 1973, many liberals have aborted many of those who could sustain their movement. Demographers have teased out these implications to A.D. 2020 and argued that if these demographic changes continue, the nation will affirm social conservatism in greater numbers. In fact, they argue that even California will be voting 54% conservative on the social issues.
Stop laughing.
In 2008, Californians voted in favor of Proposition 8 (marriage defined as between a man and a woman) by 52%.
I oppose identifying the Christian faith with a single political party, and I oppose government advancing the views of a favored denomination. My point here has nothing to do with voting patterns, but has everything to do with the relationship between growth in social conservatism and evangelism. While political parties are never co-terminus with God’s Kingdom, witnesses should reflect upon the connection between conscience and conversion. If this demographic scenario is accurate, what does this mean for evangelism? How could a socially conservative populace converge with Great Commission interests? It may converge at several places, but the timeliest is this-often when a person’s conscience possesses strong moral convictions, he senses his guilt quicker than an amoral person does. Stricken with guilt, the person will more likely acknowledge a need for Christ.
Working with an amoral person poses greater challenges to evangelism. The amoral, however, must still live with their consciences. Witnesses who have dealt with the amoral suffering with a guilty conscience are well aware of how they deal with guilt-they smear those who remind them of it. They manipulate conversations, images, and often the media. This makes evangelizing such persons a serious challenge.
If a socially conservative nation uses the democratic process to outlaw other sins (abortion, gay marriage, pornography, etc.), it can inadvertently keep a nation’s conscience tender towards God without breaching the wall of separation between church and state. This can aid evangelism, for a nation that affirms truth concerning life and morality is promised more truth (Matt 13:11-12). A growing social conservatism will not rescue evangelism from its present crises, but it may help.
The Falling Sky is an Open Highway
Finally, the ARIS numbers help me recall my conversion as a high school kid on the West Coast. I came to Christ through the ministry of a Southern Baptist church in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. In my little town there stood a standard Southern Baptist church filled with members who evangelized and invited lost friends to church. The pastor explained the gospel, holiness, and evangelism almost every Sunday. Soon after he arrived, I came to Jesus, and soon after, youth workers trained me to witness. I started witnessing immediately after my conversion, but their instruction directed me to much needed Bible verses. I recall that the church members witnessed so regularly that it took me eighteen months to learn that some Christians never witness. I could avoid the impression all Christians witnessed regularly; I heard laypersons in my church offer witnessing testimonies in Sunday school classes, Church Training groups, Prayer Meetings, and Sunday evening worship services. Under my pastor’s ministry, our little church grew each year. In my pastor’s first two years, our church baptized more than 60 each year, and averaged almost 40 each year for his remaining four years. In this atmosphere, I concluded that silence injures the Christian far more than witnessing.
It was in that irreligious West coast context that I became optimistic about evangelism. In my first year as a Christian, I saw more than a dozen of my irreligious friends turn to Christ. We shared the Roman’s Road plan of salvation, sprinkled it with John 3:16, John 14:6, and Ephesians 2:8-9, and watched our irreligious friends collapse into the saving embrace of the King who pursued them.
What impresses me today about those witnessing encounters is that the culture did not force me to drive through 10,000 miles of misguided religion to point friends to Christ. Other than the Catholics, few of my friends faced religious obstacles. As far back as high school, then, I concluded that the absence of any religion is far better for evangelism than the presence of deceptive religion. If an increasing number of Americans claim no religion, as ARIS asserts, then the ARIS numbers may anticipate better days for evangelism.
When the Falling Sky Collapses Like a Roof
While some positive opportunities arise with the ARIS figures, some challenges arise, too. These challenges can simultaneously advance evangelism and mold ministry.
Self-Delusion Falls
One challenge involves the authenticity of the faith of those who confess Christ. What serious Christian really believes that 76% of Americans genuinely follow Christ? Human vulnerability to self-delusion escapes many of our ability to describe. The Enemy is adroit at inspiring self-righteousness (“I do not need to be saved,” “God loves me and would never condemn me,” “My life is not that bad”). While some within this 76% genuinely follow Christ, others suppose they do only by their own flawed reckoning. A quick read of Matthew 7:13-28 alerts the reader to the fear that some person’s Christian identity extends only as far as their words. Their minimalistic view of following Christ falls far short of the New Testament. The genuine Christian displays the birth marks of which John wrote in 1 John (humility over sin, true faith in Jesus Christ alone, love for the brethren, consistent obedience to Christ’s commands, overcoming the world). That these marks surface in due time in all genuine believers has come as a surprise to many unbelievers who profess a Christian identity. Vance Havner complained about this, saying, “Most ‘Christians’ are so subnormal, that if one of them became normal, the rest would think he is abnormal.” What may appear as an odd thing to many self-identified Christians may evince, in fact, genuine saving faith.
The ARIS figures could have served us better had they probed the respondent’s confessions. Had the ARIS used 1 John as the standard by which to evaluate genuine saving faith, I suspect the findings would have startled the researchers. Had respondents measured themselves against the biblical standard, it would have surprised me if 15% of Americans met it. Baptists need to receive the ARIS numbers with theological and historical sobriety, and this should come as no surprise. Baptist’s spiritual legacy derives from those who preached to a deluded religious people (i.e. John the Baptist, Christ, Jerusalem Church, the Anabaptists).
Meacham’s article and the ARIS, then, should arouse Baptists to a new (but old) kind of evangelism. Many evangelism strategies provide helpful training, but not many instruct participants to witness to those with a false sense of security. Some address evangelism in a Roman Catholic context. This too is helpful, but what the contemporary context begs for is a training strategy that guides the witness in witnessing to deluded evangelicals/ Pentecostals/Baptists/Protestants/Unaffiliated. I address this issue early and often at the beginning of each semester with students at Southwestern. In a culture where 76% of Americans claim a Christian identity, they must know how to witness to unbelievers with a false sense of security. Paul’s words about the new creation in 2 Corinthians 5:17 have served this need well.
Incomplete “Gospels” Fall
The ARIS figures and Meacham’s article offer some hope for expanded opportunities for evangelism. The Holy Spirit has done a sufficient work in making unbelievers ready for our witness for Christ. As with most things evangelistic, the problem with evangelism then does not fall upon the world. Jesus said, “The harvest is truly plentiful” (Matt 9:37). Jesus did not hold pessimistic views of the harvest; He radiated a godly optimism about evangelism. The problem with evangelism in any age or culture has little to do with the world; most evangelism problems arise from nervous Nellies within the churches. While the harvest truly is plentiful, Jesus warned, “but the laborers are few.”
Many hindrances to evangelism arise from churches and their ministers, and although this article cannot address them all, one does deserve special attention here. If the ARIS numbers and Meacham are correct regarding the decline of self-identified Christians, some panicked ministerial soul will face the temptation to push back on pulpits and preachers, urging they become kinder and gentler (and some may need this counsel). They will hope that pastors and evangelists will “tell the world more of what we are for than what we are against.” Of course, if someone defines the terms appropriately, I might take this as sage counsel. Those who magnify Crucified Love, Redemptive Blessing, and Living Hope deserve my attention. Who among us has not quivered with delight at seeing the condemned express startled surprise at hearing of the Savior who satisfied the wrath of God? Escorting the guilty to Calvary is necessary in any age and in any culture. In truth, the blessings of the gospel are the only real positive truths this world really has.
To access the positive elements of the gospel, however, a person must use the key of humility. Without humility, there is no salvation. While we should cheer on those who preach grace, we should announce with considerable alarm that holiness bars all from it until they humble themselves before the God who opposes the proud.
Those who preach in this manner stand with the prophets. What the contemporary preacher should note here is that while the prophets denounced covenant Israel (Isaiah 1:1-31), they also addressed the sins of the unbelieving Gentile nations. Among these were Obadiah, Nahum (Nah. 1-3), Zephaniah (Zeph. 2-3), Isaiah (Isa. 13-21, 23-24, 34-37, 46-48), and Jeremiah (Jer. 46-51).
The prophets do not stand alone in including a negative tone in their ministry; they enjoy the company of Jesus Christ. While read this morning of Jesus promising words of comfort and life, I also read of His warnings. In fact, Jesus spoke often of God’s wrath, hell, judgment, and human sin. The Evangelists dedicate about a third of their Gospels to these negative subjects (Matthew 27%, Mark 37%, Luke 30%, and John 29%). I have yet to determine the percentage of the Gospel materials given to neutral and positive subjects, but this negative one-third provides abundant material to make use of in evangelism.
What is a preacher or witness to do then? Should he preach on grace? Should he preach on sin and wrath? Should he tell the world what God favors? Should he tell the world what God opposes? The answer to this question is the same answer I would offer if asked, “Does God love Texans or Oklahomans?” This may surprise a few, but the correct answer is, “Both.” Likewise, the preacher and witness must speak of grace and severity.
A word of caution is in order at this point. Christians must guard their reputations by letting their light shine before the world in service, humility, reverence, and godliness. It is naïve to suppose, however, that the world will endorse them. The world did not endorse Jesus, and a servant is not above his master. The Christian should not expect the world’s endorsement until (1) the Holy Spirit begins convicting the unbeliever, or (2) the Christian abandons the gospel (2 Tim. 3:12), a trade some have made to gain cultural approval. Therefore, they should announce both God’s severity and His mercy without any expectation of reward from the world.
Every Christian sermon should include a “John the Baptist element,” a “Calvary moment,” and a “Peter moment.” John the Baptist preached a frightening message of wrath, called for repentance, and thereby prepared Israel for salvation in Christ. Jesus came and propitiated the wrath of God at Calvary that Israel and the world might know grace. Peter preached these truths and invited hearers to respond immediately to Christ’s claims (Acts 2:14-40).
Each Christian sermon, then, must address sin to prepare hearers for salvation. Once hearers humble themselves, they can experience Calvary’s love, and what joy it is for the preacher to play matchmaker between the sinner and Calvary! “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all” (Rom. 11:32, NASB). Once the preacher has established the reality of sin and the hope of redemption, he should find a simple and direct way to invite hearers to respond in repentance and faith.
Without this balanced pulpit ministry, preachers and churches will find it difficult to cultivate unbelievers for Christ. If preachers limit the ministry of the word to those matters viewed with favor, they may find it difficult to cultivate unbelievers for salvation. The negative elements of the gospel are necessary in preaching if the lost are to know the humility necessary for salvation. By the law (80% of which is negative) comes the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:19-20). Dr. Fish stated in class one day, “You can’t be true to your calling as a preacher if you avoid the ‘thou shalt nots’ and ‘repent.’” Without a clear and cogent understanding of God’s hate for sin and the coming judgment, how can anyone make sense of the cross and resurrection? It is most appropriate, then, for the preacher to preach against abortion, homosexuality, gluttony, lust, gossip, bitterness, covetousness, and other sins. Expository preaching will help the preacher maintain this balanced ministry better than any other approach to preaching.
I fear that it is ignorance of these truths that enables 76% of Americans to claim a Christian identity without fear and trembling. At least the demons believe and tremble. I do not see much trembling these days, but it happens frequently in the kingdom of hell. The crying need of the hour, then, is a biblically defined evangelism. Let us labor so that if the number of self-identified Christians continues to decline, the number of biblically faithful witnesses will not.
