For over 15 years now, anything Barna writes is something I have looked forward to reading and using in my ministry. Barna is cited in my dissertation and my first book, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian: How the Community of God transforms lives. In fact, a significant part of my self-identity as a pastor was formed after reading his book, Turnaround Churches.
But in his newest “quick read”, Barna has crossed a divide and now challenges the very people he once equipped. Introducing his fellow “Revolutionaries”, he writes:
The United States is home to an increasing number of Revolutionaries. These people are devout followers of Jesus Christ who are serious about their faith, who are constantly worshipping and interacting with God, and whose lives are centered on their belief in Christ. Some of them are aligned with a congregational church, but many of them are not. The key to understanding Revolutionaries is not what church they attend, or even if they attend. Instead it’s their complete dedication to being thoroughly Christian by viewing every moment of life through a spiritual lens and making every decision in light of biblical principles. These are individuals who are determined to glorify God every day through every thought, word and deed in their lives. (p. 8)
Frankly I love the imagery painted in this passage. In fact, I yearn to know more and more of these kinds of people. And it is very close (not exactly, but close) to what I would desire for how I would want the people of my church to be known.
Now, a charge from Barna to Revolutionaries:
To survive and thrive in the midst of the spiritual battle in which you live, seek a faith context and experience that will enhance your capacity to be Christlike. This mission demands single-minded commitment and a disregard for the criticisms of those who lack the same dedication to the cause of Christ. You answer to only one Commander in Chief, and only you will give an explanation for your choices. Do whatever you have to do to prove that you fear God, you love Him and you serve Him—yes, that you live only for Him. (p. 27)
Again, I am drawn toward this kind of language. It is the kind of challenge that I would have loved as a young Christian who wanted to be radical for Christ. But as I said in my last post, today I recognize that both the description above and the charge, while articulate, well intentioned and even inspiring, when properly understood in the way Barna intends it, is not a revolution but a retreat.
Mr. Barna is endorsing a form of discipleship that is disconnected from the Biblical history of God’s redemptive dealings with his people and is endorsing a form individualistic Christianity where every individual answers only to his or her own personal assessment of what they need spiritually. (This is a great irony to me, because nothing has been more adept of demonstrating how deceived most Christian’s are about their own spiritual development, than Mr. Barna's polls)
And if I am reading this correctly, after years of challenging the church to change and be better equipped to face a changing world, Mr. Barna has thrown in the towel and told people to simply use whatever means they consider helpful to their personal and individualistic pursuit of the Christian life. Indeed as the church is now only consider vital if an individual deems that it will "enhance (his or her) capacity for Christlikeness."
Please don’t misunderstand me. I think this book is the product of a keen mind and a deep yearning. George Barna is very good at listening to people with a finely tuned ear for both the resonant notes of true belief and the hollow clank of a faith-façade. When it comes to describing the state of the church and the desperate need for renewal for the Church to continue to be “Jesus for the whole world” (to use N.T. Wright’s phrase) I have no reason to doubt him (p. 30-36). His description of the seven passions of revolutionaries (p. 22-24) is a fine encapsulation of what true discipleship should look like in any age. And his summary point is worth writing on a post-it note and putting on a bathroom mirror to serve as a reminder to every Christian every morning:
The hallmarks of the Church that Jesus died for are clear, based on Scripture: your profession of faith in Christ must be supported by a lifestyle that provides irrefutable evidence of your complete devotion to Jesus. (p. 25)
But Mr. Barna’s means for encouraging this type of faith to come about is to succumb to a trend that is neither new or revolutionary. To make the local church just one of many options in our personal spiritual walk is not radical, at all. In fact it is not all that new. Mr. Barna himself noted the trend in a study in 1993 that I cited in my book, It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian. George Gallup and Jim Castelli wrote of the “Believers vs. Belongers” gap in their study of American church life in 1989. Indeed, according to researchers like Barna and Wade Clark Roof disconnecting church from faith was a hallmark of the BABY BOOMERs, the parents of this younger generation of Revolutionaries that Mr. Barna holds up as the harbingers of change.
Now, as I look back at Mr. Barna’s own research and his regular newsletter that comes in my email inbox, I can understand the discouragement that he must feel. Indeed it is one that I share with him and have sought to face head on because of research like his. But to his endorse ment and encouragement of discipleship that is disconnected to the local church, is to indulge the deep individualistic bias that is truly the enduring spirit of our age, to abandon the biblical notion of fellowship into the most tentative and fragile connections with people “who seem to be on the same wavelength” (p. 89) and to trust each individual to whatever they deem best.
In the following posts I will address Mr. Barna’s distinction of the Church vs. church, his understanding of fellowship and community and his assertion that the local church as found today is at best “abiblical”.
But let’s at least begin by acknowledging that whatever is happening today in the world, has been happening for at least half a generation and probably a lot longer. All that’s changed is one man is now giving up on equipping the church to face the challenge of our age.
Indulging individualism is not that revolutionary to me.
Recent Comments