Is the Church Shrinking?

A recent article posted on the BBC’s website reviews a scientific paper about the trend away from religious affiliation. To read the paper go here. In their research, the paper’s authors put forth the hypothesis that sophisticated mathematical tools can be used to analyze social phenomena, among which is the trend away from religious affiliation in Europe.


No one I know would say that the church in Europe is healthy; most would recognize that European church attendance and affiliation have declined markedly, and nowhere more so than in our new home country, the Czech Republic. I have no argument with the BBC or with the original scientific study in their statement of these facts. My problem lies with the conclusion they draw from the facts. To quote from the paper, “The model indicates that in these societies the perceived utility of religious non-affiliation is greater than that of adhering to a religion, and therefore predicts continued growth of non-affiliation, tending toward the disappearance of religion.”

My problem with their conclusion is simply this: the growth of God’s kingdom is not dependent upon regional or even worldwide trends, but on God himself. In the second chapter of the book of Daniel, the story of King Nebuchanezzar’s dream is told. The king demands of his wise men that they tell him what the content of his dream was before they give him their interpretation of the dream. No man is able to know the mind of another, so all the wise men fail and fall under the king’s threat of death. God reveals to Daniel that he has given the king a sweeping vision of future history. The most significant aspect of Daniel’s God-given understanding is found in verses 34 & 35: "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel later interprets this “stone that becomes a mountain” as the indestructible kingdom of God (see vs. 44, 45).

It is true that the observable growth of God’s kingdom has historically appeared to be in doubt – sometimes over wide regions and through significant periods of time. But the long term prospects and the final results are not in doubt at all. Although the present prospects for growth here do indeed look bleak, there will one day be a number that no man can number shouting with great joy before the throne of God. We are sure that there will be Czechs among those who shout that day.

How Pickpockets Change Your Priorities

Last week on the final day of our vacation, a pickpocket got my wallet. It was a classic rip-off: I was tired, distracted by trying to validate some bus tickets, and in an area with high tourist traffic. There were at least two, maybe three guys that pretended to be getting on the bus at the same moment I was; they crowded around me so closely that I could hardly move and in an instant, my wallet was gone. I didn’t notice until several bus stops later.


We were rocked back on our heels – dazed by the sudden change in our situation. The money we had gotten from an ATM to pay for our hotel was gone; all the credit cards were gone along with my driver’s license and all the myriad of stuff that gets into a wallet over 10 years. We had to make new plans, find some more cash for the hotel, call the banks, and rethink the remainder of our day.

There are some pretty obvious lessons that grow out of an event like this: don’t travel with a wallet in your pocket; watch out in big cities where lots of tourists are found; be more aware of your surroundings, etc….. While these practical lessons are good to consider, there were some other thoughts that came later, after the panic and sense of being violated had subsided a bit. Why do I imagine that I am in control of things, even the things that I call “mine”? Why do I try so hard to manipulate people and events so that things turn out the way I like them? Why do I worry so much about everything? When I give myself to worry, or when I manipulate the people and events around me I am saying to God: “I don’t trust you to take care of these things. You probably won’t handle them the way I want them handled. So, I’ll just do it myself, thanks.”

So, God let me “take care of things” that day. In doing so, he helped me understand that he is far more trustworthy than I am. Maybe, just maybe, I can turn over to him some of the stuff I fret about so often. Maybe I can start putting my trust where it really belongs, and not in myself.

Here Comes the Sun!

After several weeks with little to no sun, we experienced a sunny Saturday. We were so desperate to see the sun that we bundled up and headed across the street to the park to enjoy a few moments of direct sunlight. It was the first time in months that we have needed sunglasses. Of course, it was all of 30 degrees outside so our outing did not last long, but it did lift our spirits.


We enjoyed another sunny day today. The temperature went all the way up to maybe 22 or 23. Burrr-r-r-r-r that’s cold for us Alabama folks! With our big “duck puffy” coats it is not too bad.

Sandpaper

Have you ever wondered why God sent a certain person into your life?  Did you try to make sense out of the struggle you had to relate to him, only to discover that you really could not craft a satisfactory explanation? Have you met someone who just didn’t fit comfortably with the rest of your life?  Most of us have had these seemingly disconnected, confusing encounters.  You try to make these people fit some familiar pattern to help you understand them, but they don’t really match any of your existing categories.  Instead, they grate against you, challenging your assumptions, pushing you into uncomfortable territory.


Our life in the Czech Republic has brought some of these uncomfortable, ill-fitting sorts of encounters to us. We have met people that make us uncomfortable.  One is a blind man who lives in a town about 45 minutes away from Zlín.  He is a believer, but has no home church in his town.  He lives with only his guide dog for a companion.  His mother is in a state institution and no longer recognizes him when he visits her.  Yet, he tells us that he relishes the solitude, even the loneliness, because he is with God in those times.  This does not “compute”.

We have met several people here who seem eager to spend time with us, in spite of the spiritual gulf between us.  They are very comfortable hanging around with us, and we’re very grateful for these non-believing Czech friends.  The uncomfortable part is that many of them are kinder, more generous, and more willing to sacrifice for others than we are. Ouch!

Last month a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to our door offering us their literature and an English Bible.  We let them in and spoke to them briefly in our living room.  After a few minutes of conversation about why it is crucial to our salvation that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, we offered to pray for them.  Their strained faces and nervous body language made it clear that they were uncomfortable even with that.  As they departed, we wished for God to bless them, as in our hearts we mourned over their blindness. Most sources to which we have access claim that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have between 15,000 and 30,000 followers here; that makes them one of the largest religious groups in this country.  How has this cult made such an impact here when good evangelical churches are struggling on so many levels?

We don’t have good answers to the questions these encounters raise.  We don’t always like the issues or feelings that they raise in our hearts.  But we believe that our God is shaping us with these sandpaper events – for our good, to reflect him better.