Dumbed down Church

I’ve now got a real bee in my bonnet about this – dumbed down church doesn’t make any sense, for so many reasons.

• Scotland’s people are the best educated they ever have been – yet the church is at it’s least literate since before the WWII.
• Most radical secular atheists are repulsed by a dumbed down Christianity that puts subjective feelings over reason – particularly a faith that is happy to profess it has no basis, e.g. those who call themselves Christians, but don’t even accept the Bible to be the Word of God.
• Post moderns, hard to generalise they may be, are astonished with the true depth and – dare I use the word – complexity of the Christian faith. Complexity is perhaps wrong, intricacy is perhaps better. Post Modern Spirituality, new gnosticism, call it what you will, can only be answered by a faith that makes sense in how it addresses real problems. A clearly understood, well kept Christian spirituality fills the very void po-mo’s are looking to fill. Sadly, shallow, poorly grasped faith just adds to the smorgasbord of confused and jumbled ideas making up a fairly typical pm worldview.
• This is further exacerbated by Christians who have no theology themselves – who think theology is a professional business best left to ministers. Their faith is not a reasonable one, and the best answer they can give is a Christianity reduced to something like, “Jesus died for my sins, it’s amazing being a Christian.” You’re left wondering is this why we have an alarming number of young Christians abandoning the faith – if the faith they are taught gives them no rationale for what happens when God’s providence is difficult to bear, and actually sells them an empty chalice of sugar coated dreams?
• Historically, times of blessing have followed not a “simple faith” in terms of knowledge, but a “simple faith” in terms of it’s awed respect and godly fear in light of the massive things we’ve come to know. The Reformation – a rediscovery of Justification. The great awakening – a rediscovery of justification. Today – blank looks when you mention justification, because justification is a theological term disputed by professionals.
• Historically again, after the Westminster Assembly, kids knew the “shorter catechism”. Today, this is the benchmark for the theological understanding of our ministers (candidates nearing the end of their selection process are examined on their knowledge of the WSC) – and we, the Free Church, are probably the most demanding Scottish body of Christians in this regard. We are facing decline.
• We are consistently, in most churches, running children’s Sunday School at the same time as church services, depriving both the kids, but more importantly the teachers of half their regular bible teaching. I’m not disparaging the work of Sunday School teachers, or even the material they are using – but I do wonder about the nett effect of less teaching overall. I’m worried about preaching too, if we are inadvertantly presenting it as something older people listen to, but kids can afford to ignore.
• Most older Christians I know rely heavily on what they learned as youths – many don’t read, and going on the discussions I have and questions I’m asked, I’m not sure a culture of learning is prevalent in our church. Sermons are measured by how much superficial encouragement they give, not the equipping they provide.

I just don’t like dumbed down church.