The shift from spiritual to secular is a slow process as society moves from being guided and governed by biblical principles to being guided and governed by personal and self-interests. In a secular society, initial indifference toward God and religion ultimately becomes hostility toward God and religion.
How can the church reach and develop the secular person? If we reach them but fail to develop them as true disciples with kingdom values, character, and lifestyle, then the influence of the church's message and ministries is diluted and impotent.
What are the issues and changes that as leaders and churches we need to be aware of if we are going to be effective in reaching and developing people? Let's examine the effects of secularization upon evangelism and the discipling in the church.
Impact of Secularization Upon Evangelism
Secularization changes the people the church is reaching and it affects Christians as witnesses.
To understand the people we are trying to reach, we must first realize there is a declining reverence for God and Christian principles. People often don't even know Christian principles and values and if they do, they don't regard them in their lives or communities. The idea of moral absolutes is lost in our society as individual rights and choices are primary values. Right becomes what I want to do or believe to be right. Wrong becomes anything I don't agree with or that isn't in my best interest.
As the message of tolerance is proclaimed, the message of moral absolutes is lost. Consequently, God is seen as just one among many gods and Christian principles are seen as archaic and irrelevant.
As the gap widens between the values, attitudes, and lifestyles of society and those communicated in God's Word, Christianity is increasingly under attack. Christians and the church are seen as out-of-touch and irrelevant. The church is less likely to be seen as a positive element in a community. Today there are communities that have banned the building of new churches. They won't allow churches to buy property or to build larger facilities. A Brookings Institute study authored by James Reichley concluded, "A society that excludes religion totally from its public life, that seems to regard religion as something from which public life must be protected, is bound to foster the impression that religion is either irrelevant or harmful" (James Reichley, Conclusions from a Brookings Institute study, quoted in North American Scene, Christianity Today, 2-7-86, p. 59).
A second issue is that the core social institution, the family, is being destroyed. Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied.
Marriage loses its sacredness; it is frequently broken by divorce.
Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.
Feminist movements abound.
Public disrespect for parents and authority in general increased.
Juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion accelerate.
People with traditional marriages refuse to accept family responsibilities.
Desire for and acceptance of adultery grow.
Interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex-related crimes increase.
This sounds much like America's condition today. The family structure and values are being destroyed. Divorce is seen as a healthy option rather than a destructive choice. As for divorce, one expert said she sees it as a "safety valve" for families. "It makes for better family life," she said. "There's no merit in holding families together just for the sake of it. For this reason, divorce improves the quality of marriages" ( Tulsa World, August 21, 1977, AP). Twisted thinking about marriage and family abound but this is what people we are trying to reach are thinking.
Third, more emotional, psychological and social problems exist within our society. These appear to be related directly to the loss of a national Christian conscience and the destruction and warping of the nuclear family unit. "Depression (or melancholia, as it was once known) has…come so much into public attention that some are calling our era the age of melancholy, in contrast to the age of anxiety that followed World War II. Depression has been considered as by far the commonest psychiatric symptom, and one which is found both as a temporary condition in a normal person who has suffered a great persona disappointment and as the deep suicidal depression of a psychotic" (Collins, Gary, R., Christian Counseling, Word Books, 1980, pp. 84-85).
The disregard for God and His principles leads to the kind of problems that people are facing personally.
[quote author=“MAN”]The shift from spiritual to secular is a slow process as society moves from being guided and governed by biblical principles to being guided and governed by personal and self-interests. In a secular society, initial indifference toward God and religion ultimately becomes hostility toward God and religion.
How can the church reach and develop the secular person? If we reach them but fail to develop them as true disciples with kingdom values, character, and lifestyle, then the influence of the church’s message and ministries is diluted and impotent.
What are the issues and changes that as leaders and churches we need to be aware of if we are going to be effective in reaching and developing people? Let’s examine the effects of secularization upon evangelism and the discipling in the church.
Impact of Secularization Upon Evangelism
Secularization changes the people the church is reaching and it affects Christians as witnesses.
To understand the people we are trying to reach, we must first realize there is a declining reverence for God and Christian principles. People often don’t even know Christian principles and values and if they do, they don’t regard them in their lives or communities. The idea of moral absolutes is lost in our society as individual rights and choices are primary values. Right becomes what I want to do or believe to be right. Wrong becomes anything I don’t agree with or that isn’t in my best interest.
As the message of tolerance is proclaimed, the message of moral absolutes is lost. Consequently, God is seen as just one among many gods and Christian principles are seen as archaic and irrelevant.
As the gap widens between the values, attitudes, and lifestyles of society and those communicated in God’s Word, Christianity is increasingly under attack. Christians and the church are seen as out-of-touch and irrelevant. The church is less likely to be seen as a positive element in a community. Today there are communities that have banned the building of new churches. They won’t allow churches to buy property or to build larger facilities. A Brookings Institute study authored by James Reichley concluded, “A society that excludes religion totally from its public life, that seems to regard religion as something from which public life must be protected, is bound to foster the impression that religion is either irrelevant or harmful” (James Reichley, Conclusions from a Brookings Institute study, quoted in North American Scene, Christianity Today, 2-7-86, p. 59).
A second issue is that the core social institution, the family, is being destroyed. Sociologist and historian Carle Zimmerman, in his 1947 book Family and Civilization, compared the disintegration of various cultures with the parallel decline of family life in those cultures. Eight specific patterns of domestic behavior typified the downward spiral of each culture Zimmerman studied.
Marriage loses its sacredness; it is frequently broken by divorce.
Traditional meaning of the marriage ceremony is lost.
Feminist movements abound.
Public disrespect for parents and authority in general increased.
Juvenile delinquency, promiscuity, and rebellion accelerate.
People with traditional marriages refuse to accept family responsibilities.
Desire for and acceptance of adultery grow.
Interest in and spread of sexual perversions and sex-related crimes increase.
This sounds much like America’s condition today. The family structure and values are being destroyed. Divorce is seen as a healthy option rather than a destructive choice. As for divorce, one expert said she sees it as a “safety valve” for families. “It makes for better family life,” she said. “There’s no merit in holding families together just for the sake of it. For this reason, divorce improves the quality of marriages” ( Tulsa World, August 21, 1977, AP). Twisted thinking about marriage and family abound but this is what people we are trying to reach are thinking.
Third, more emotional, psychological and social problems exist within our society. These appear to be related directly to the loss of a national Christian conscience and the destruction and warping of the nuclear family unit. “Depression (or melancholia, as it was once known) has…come so much into public attention that some are calling our era the age of melancholy, in contrast to the age of anxiety that followed World War II. Depression has been considered as by far the commonest psychiatric symptom, and one which is found both as a temporary condition in a normal person who has suffered a great persona disappointment and as the deep suicidal depression of a psychotic” (Collins, Gary, R., Christian Counseling, Word Books, 1980, pp. 84-85).
The disregard for God and His principles leads to the kind of problems that people are facing personally.
Man, what a beautifully written piece of bullshit. I hope rationality finds you someday.
Firstly, welcome to our friendly little corner of the web. I’m sure you’ll find most of us open to some engaging intellectual sparring. And quick to call bullshit when we see it.
OK, enough niceties. I want to pick up one line from you lengthy diatribe, thus:
“As the message of tolerance is proclaimed, the message of moral absolutes is lost. Consequently, God is seen as just one among many gods and Christian principles are seen as archaic and irrelevant.”
A few thoughts:
1. In another of your posts today (on how Harris is ‘full of it’), you decry Harris’s purported ethical realism, whereby you claim he supports the idea that there are some universal moral absolutes waiting to be discovered. If this is not so, as you suggest, then how can the message of moral absolutes be lost? You’ll need to be more internally consistent to survive on this site.
2. There are, at last count, over 100 gods currently in circulation among members of the human race. Since nearly all of them, and especially the one you claim adherence to, claim to be the only true god, then at least 99% of all gods must be false by definition. So it is simply a fact of life that your god is one of many. Given the odds of 1/100, how confident are you that you have made the right choice? You’re gambling your life away here.
3. If you reject the idea that Chirstian principles could be archaic and outdated, then you are implicitly suggesting that the human race can never make any progress beyond the moral environment that existed 2,000 years ago. I bet that if you subjected yourself to thorough self-examination, you would find that you could not live your life according to 2,000 year old moral principles. The simple fact is that our culture has moved on and new moral tools are needed to deal with the ensuing changes.
Third, more emotional, psychological and social problems exist within our society. These appear to be related directly to the loss of a national Christian conscience and the destruction and warping of the nuclear family unit. “Depression (or melancholia, as it was once known) has…come so much into public attention that some are calling our era the age of melancholy, in contrast to the age of anxiety that followed World War II. Depression has been considered as by far the commonest psychiatric symptom, and one which is found both as a temporary condition in a normal person who has suffered a great persona disappointment and as the deep suicidal depression of a psychotic” (Collins, Gary, R., Christian Counseling, Word Books, 1980, pp. 84-85)
Two points,
1. “Depression” is a relatively new term, and diagnosis. To compare it to the past and say people are more depressed now than they were before, its irrelevant, because depression wasn’t defined as well in previous generations. I would hazard a guess durning the Dark Ages, or even the Roman empire, many people were depressed.
2. While I can agree with you we do have emotional ect social problems, I don’t agree with the word “more”... More than what? more than when? Is it possible that the problem is that Christianity itself has failed to evolve to meet the spiritual needs of the new generation of man? And instead of evolving, fearing change, it holds fast to outdated codes and principles and tries to drag society back to a previous and outgrown intellectual, emotional and spiritual level? Maybe the world could use more spirituality, more compassion, but maybe its the fault of the religions that fail to wake up and evolve to keep up.
I am not a Christian and never was, I am a atheist and I had read Sam Harris’ book and thought that I would take a look at like minded folks on this forum. What I found was disappointing, I thought religions were elitist and arrogant, you guys really do take the cake though on being hate filled and pissed off.
I wanted to see what made the non-religious different.
So I posted extreme Christian Fundamentalist literature to see what reactions I would get from members on this forum. I made sure that the literature was not hate filled or bashing. I wanted to see what arguments would be made, seeing how I did not agree with the Christian literature I posted.
What I found was backbiting and intellectual arrogance, not that I was surprised. It’s sad to see that people can be so easily baited, and to make fools of themselves. I wonder, in real life to you usually let people press your buttons so easily? If someone was trying to see how progressive and rational you all are…well lets just say that they would not be impressed.
[quote author=“Anonymous”]I am not a Christian and never was, I am a atheist and I had read Sam Harris’ book and thought that I would take a look at like minded folks on this forum. What I found was disappointing, I thought religions were elitist and arrogant, you guys really do take the cake though on being hate filled and pissed off.
I wanted to see what made the non-religious different.
So I posted extreme Christian Fundamentalist literature to see what reactions I would get from members on this forum. I made sure that the literature was not hate filled or bashing. I wanted to see what arguments would be made, seeing how I did not agree with the Christian literature I posted.
What I found was backbiting and intellectual arrogance, not that I was surprised. It’s sad to see that people can be so easily baited, and to make fools of themselves. I wonder, in real life to you usually let people press your buttons so easily? If someone was trying to see how progressive and rational you all are…well lets just say that they would not be impressed.
[quote author=“ShieldAxe”][quote author=“Anonymous”]I am not a Christian and never was, I am a atheist and I had read Sam Harris’ book and thought that I would take a look at like minded folks on this forum. What I found was disappointing, I thought religions were elitist and arrogant, you guys really do take the cake though on being hate filled and pissed off.
I wanted to see what made the non-religious different.
So I posted extreme Christian Fundamentalist literature to see what reactions I would get from members on this forum. I made sure that the literature was not hate filled or bashing. I wanted to see what arguments would be made, seeing how I did not agree with the Christian literature I posted.
What I found was backbiting and intellectual arrogance, not that I was surprised. It’s sad to see that people can be so easily baited, and to make fools of themselves. I wonder, in real life to you usually let people press your buttons so easily? If someone was trying to see how progressive and rational you all are…well lets just say that they would not be impressed.
Are we supposed to buy this?
Yes, for three easy payments of $39.99. Usually, you pay fifteen times as much for such crock reasoning, but it’s being made a one times infinite special offer, now! Do not just buy it, feel saddened so comply to the hoax, and self-righteous huckster behind it.
I feel good ‘cos I orignially welcomed you to the site, so now I’m going to crap on you.
I don’t care where you plagarize from, frankly, but I will insist that whatever you post makes sense. If you don’t like someone pointing out the flaws in your thinking, then don’t play around on intelligent websites. And everybody knows that christian literature is all happy-clappy and loving, so you’re not likely to find anything offensive in it to plagarize.The fact that members of this site think it is a steaming pile of horseshit and tell you so should not surprise you.
Now stop playing juvenile games and start thinking for yourself.
For all those who are interested, I did a Google search of the first sentence in MAN’s little piece, and found this .
I would be interested to know, MAN, or whatever your name really is, what possible motivation you might have in posting a ridiculous piece of nonsense on a board like this. Why exactly would you, a self-proclaimed atheist, engage in “atheist baiting”? What kind of pleasure or satisfaction would you have in denigrating the very group with which you identify.
If you do not agree with the literature you posted (without sourcing it at all, but that’s another issue), why not simply outline your disagreements and provide a counterargument? In short, why not provide the arguments yourself, instead of expecting those already posting here to do so (especially when many of us are simply tired of dealing with the circular-argument runaround that we encounter almost every time we face literature of this ilk)?
I find it amazing(not to mention pathetic) that this idiot MAN keeps
posting despite the fact that the jig is up on his sorry ass. I really
must consult my Diagnostic and Stastical manual of Mental Disorders, IV and try to ascertain the possible motivations of this
joker.
