The Church is Not Kaput

Ray Waddle, a religion column writer for the Tennessean and someone with whom I almost always disagree, has written a good thought provoking piece on technology and religion in the March 21, 2009, edition of that newspaper: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090321/NEWS06/903210338/1023.

Because statistics show that religion and the church are declining, many people predict that they are "finally" fading. After all, it's difficult for the church to compete against the technology of our day: news on the Web, networking, music, blogging, etc. Because of this, many people further predict that perhaps humanity will gloriously reinvent itself without the need for religious values.

Against the doom and gloom of such forecasts, Waddle argues that "spiritual revival is just as plausible a prediction." In our day in which "the authority of book culture and denominationalism, and truths associated with them" have eroded, they nonetheless have not disappeared. Waddle contends that wireless technology, the authority of our day upon which so many people rely and use, is ultimately going to create a yearning for revival. He says, "High-velocity, unrestrained technology intensifies individualism, which breeds exhibitionism, which breeds public triviality and fraudulence, which then will breed a new yearning for community, restraint and truth-telling — old-fashioned religious values."

I wish I'd said that.

Conclusion: The church may have declining numbers but she is hardly kaput. She will have challenges but she will not die. I've read that elsewhere. Our God reigns.