Much has been written in recent months on several topics that I feel are important:
- The decline of the church
- The rise of the none & done
- The decline of Driscoll
- The emergent church movement
- The trend of trolling for truth
- Gay marriage and the church response
- Racism and the church response
- and more
Not that my voice is important or meaningful – I just decided that I should add some thoughts to the conversations that are going on. I don’t have a lot of time these days, but feel we are at a tipping point in culture and that some alternative viewpoints may be helpful. The discussions on the topic of the decline of the church and the rise on the Nones has been intriguing to me. Evangelical have been saying it’s not us it’s them (them = mainline church) implying the decline is only among certain churches not church in general. But those in church, even the biggest mega-churches, know they are experiencing declining numbers, income, and interest in the programs and services they offer. IMHO the decline is not a shift in style – it is a substantial shift in epistemology and the decline will continue to grow. The its turtles all the way down response to questions of theology/philosophy/hermeneutics/understanding is at the core of the decline. In the future I’m going to expand my thoughts on this. I will post in the near future some thoughts on what I believe is the cause of this tipping point: The Death of Truth and the Commodification of Christ
- The enlightenment project and the shift in the concept of truth
- The elevation of human reason
- The new god of empiricism
- The embrace of absolutism
- The shift in first order assumptions
- Co-opting theology to the new first order assumptions
- The death of truth
- The reduction of God
- The Commodification of Christ
- Omni-competence of human reason and the elevation of mankind
- The reduction of the Bible
- The embrace of Maslovian motivation
- The elevation of human needs
- Positioning Christ as the ultimate to human needs
- The church new position as service provider
- The branded church
- The franchised church
- The decline of church
I haven’t posted in three years. I realize no one reads my blog ~ so this is a message in a bottle. I do hope someone finds this.