Walking Away from Faith

When church leaders are asked about the growing trend of 20-somethings leaving the faith, their responses usually coalesce around lifestyle issues; that is, the lure of immorality has caused these young people to fall away.  I believe this is only a part of the story.  Yes, the Christian lifestyle can be difficult to maintain during the transition from the relative security of home to the new found freedom of college life, the workplace, and a new group of friends.  (As an aside, we often exacerbate this challenge when we have not trained our children thoroughly in the provisions of the new covenant for living the Christian life, but we will have to save that discussion for later.)

When “young leavers” cite a theological or intellectual crisis as the reason for leaving the faith, it may conveniently coincide with adopting a new lifestyle.  But to lump all departures into the lifestyle category would be to ignore the unique, complex, and often layered process that eventually led these folks to leave the faith.  Dr. Ruth Tucker has investigated this process in her book Walking Away from Faith.  She identifies five broad categories of reasons for people losing faith.  They are:

  • Scientific and philosophical issues, particularly evolution and naturalism.
  • Biblical perplexities and higher criticism.
  • Disappointment with God regarding personal and wide-scale suffering.
  • Hypocrisy and lack of caring among leaders in the church.
  • Lifestyle and perspective, including homosexuality, feminism, secularism, and pluralism.

Only one of these categories addresses lifestyle issues.  Some deal with intellectual concerns.  Some reflect the harsh realities of life in a fallen world.  But all of these issues have biblical answers.  The answers alone, however, may not be enough.  Delivering them with grace, love, and humility is paramount.  Join us for the next several posts as we take each of these concerns in order and explore where Scripture leads.

Honest Questions, Honest Answers

Several posts ago I quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the need to celebrate the mystery of our faith and not become too attached to our theological systems.  One of the things “celebrating the mystery” does for us as parents is that it enables us to pour into our children a faith that is living, authentic, and inquiring.  Much has been made recently in both the Christian and secular press about the alarming trend of young people leaving the faith.  The level of concern varies greatly from authors Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s American Grace:  How Religion Divides and Unites Us, “young Americans are dropping out of religion at an alarming rate of five to six times the historic rate” to Baylor sociologist Rodney Stark who writes, “young people have always been less likely to attend church than are older people” and often return when they marry and start a family.

I believe the life-stage argument for calm is not as strong as in previous generations due to recent upheavals in cultural expectations and family structures.  But I also believe we do not need to wring our hands and wait for the sky to fall in on the North American church.  What we need is a balanced approach to investigate the problem and constructive answers to how we encourage our young people to “keep the faith.”

One way we can address the issue of young people leaving the faith is to give our children a healthy perspective on the mystery that is the Christian faith.  When I use the word mystery am I implying we can’t know anything for sure about what we believe?  No, not at all.  The beauty of Christianity is that there is so much we can know because God has revealed it to us and we can be sure it is true.  What I mean by mystery might better be labeled humility.  Theological humility to be exact.  Theological humility is answering our young doubters with clear parameters of what we know and what we can know.  It is encouraging inquiry, rather than shutting down the conversation.  It is answering their doubts with love, humility, and grace instead of taking a judgmental, defensive position.

Author Drew Dyck interviewed scores of “young leavers” for his book Generation Ex-Christian:  Why Young Adults are Leaving the Faith and How to Bring Them Back.  He writes, “Another unsettling pattern emerged during my interviews.  Almost to a person, the leavers with whom I spoke recalled that, before leaving the faith, they were regularly shut down when they expressed doubts.  Some were ridiculed in front of peers for asking ‘insolent questions.’  Others reported receiving trite answers to vexing questions and being scolded for not accepting them.”

We need to be confident of the truth of Scripture.  We need to fully embrace the truth of the gospel message and all that comes with it.  But we do our young people a great disservice when our approach lacks humility and grace.  When our confidence becomes cockiness, when our confidence becomes judgmental, when our confidence becomes legalism, when our confidence becomes trite answers, when our confidence sweeps doubt under the rug, we might as well be ushering our young inquirers to the exit.

Over the next several posts we will take on the big questions that our young people are facing as they leave the somewhat concrete world of Bible stories and enter the more abstract world of faith, science, philosophy, and the harsh reality of a “world that lies in the grip of the evil one” (I Jn 5:19).  We will explore how we tackle the big questions with humility and grace.  And we will follow the answers wherever they lead.

We’re Back!

Greetings!  We are finally back in the saddle after a three-week hiatus.  Rhonda and I just returned from a whirlwind trip through France that was highlighted by a visit with our daughter’s family, Matthew and Annie Dorin, Danielle, and Lily.  They are in language school in Chambery France in preparation for their future assignment in French-speaking West Africa with Wycliffe Associates.

We also connected with my long time high-school friend who now lives in the Alsace region of northern France.  Tim, Katie, and Joanna gave us the royal tour of castles, cathedrals, vineyards, and German-influenced hillside villages.  All said, for a country that is slightly smaller than the state of Texas, they have us beat hands down when it comes to diversity, history, scenic vistas, and food.

To summarize our trip, here are the top ten things I learned about France and vicinity:

10)  The deer antler chandelier craze hit the castles of the Alsace about 500 years before arriving in the hill country ranch houses of Texas.

9)  In a city of multiple clock towers and splendid watch shops, the so-called “Bern Clock Tower” of Bern Switzerland failed to impress.  The clock tower in Berne Indiana beats it by a country kilometer.  The bärengraben was pretty cool though.

8)  The stars over St. Rémy-de-Provence are incredibly bright at three in the morning from the hotel balcony.  It seemed appropriate that Vincent Van Gogh painted his famous The Starry Night while institutionalized at the St. Paul Monastery and Hospital, a still-functioning mental hospital on the outskirts of the city.

7)  John Calvin’s chair is still sitting in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Geneva Switzerland.  The church has been home for a Protestant congregation since 1536.  I didn’t sit in the chair, but I did reach across the rope and touch it “Monk” style.

6)  Speaking of cathedrals, the one in Strasbourg France is magnificent.  We climbed 66 meters to the roof above the narthex and observed incredible craftsmanship and delicate stone detail, both inside and out.

5)  Roman engineers left quite a legacy throughout the South of France.  Just south of Roussillon in the Hills of the Luberon, we crossed the three-arched stone bridge of St Julien constructed between 27 BC and 14 AD.  Yes, I said BC.  Built before the invention of mortar, the bridge consists of neatly stacked, large square stones with critical keystones in the arches.  It has held up to foot traffic, horse traffic, artillery traffic, and even automobile traffic for 2000 years.  Yes, I said 2000.  The list of really old stuff in France is too long to enumerate.

4)  The French warm up when you work to communicate in their language.  We ate at several restaurants where the staff only spoke French and we loved the adventure as well as the surprises that showed up on our plates.

3)  Did I mention the food?  The French know how to prepare and present food both at home and in their restaurants.  The milieu of cheeses, fruits, breads, chocolates, sauces, and atypical meats was incredible.  (And that doesn’t even include the Nutella Ice Cream.)  My most common observation at the endless variety of food presentation was, “Who thinks of that?”  Rhonda’s reply, “The French.”

2)  Love is the #1 ingredient for healthy body life in the church whether in Colmar France, Chambery France, or Houston Texas.

1)  I am humbled and proud at the same time of the Dorin family for faithfully following the path God has laid out for them.  The are expecting child #3 around Thanksgiving.  Family worship in their small third-floor apartment in Chambery is a fragrant aroma I will not soon forget.

There it is.  Soon after we watched the Geneva skyline disappear beneath the clouds that covered this French-speaking part of Switzerland, the British Airways flight attendant asked me, “What would you like to drink?”  I realized at that moment that we had left the land of Bonjour, Merci, and Au revoir!

Did I mention the food?

Romans 7 and the Ministry of Condemnation

I believe another reason we like to see Romans 7:14-25 held up as normative for the believer is the difficulty we have with leaving the old covenant way of life behind.  The old covenant method of law and its consequences just fits our natural way of thinking.  New covenant living does not seem natural because, quite frankly, it is not natural!  It is supernatural at its core!  But it is a supernatural that is not only available to us but is, in fact, who we really are in our heart of hearts as a child of God.

What does old covenant spiritual formation – if those words should even be used together – look like?  Paul calls it a ministry of condemnation as opposed to a new covenant ministry of life.  Look with me at II Corinthians chapter 3, “But our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (II Cor 3:5-6).  The old covenant eventually ended in death for there was no resurrection power to overcome the sin that the law so clearly made us aware of.  The new covenant gives life, and according to Jesus in John 10:10, life to its abundant fullness.

Paul goes on in II Corinthians 3 to call the old covenant a ministry of death (vs 7) and a ministry of condemnation (vs 9).  “For if the ministry of condemnation (old covenant) has some glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness (new covenant) abound in glory.  For indeed, what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.  For if that which fades away (Greek word, katargeo, literally ‘brought to an end’) was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.” (II Cor 3:9-11).  The old covenant was temporary and ineffective in changing hearts and resulted in condemnation.  The new covenant is permanent, filled with resurrection power, and gives life. (ESV Study Bible Notes).

Paul finishes the chapter with, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (II Cor 3:18).  We are being transformed into the image of God that was distorted in us at the fall.  One aspect of the restored image is a moral character that resembles God Himself.

May I encourage you to examine your own ministry?  Is it a ministry of condemnation or a ministry of life?  I am speaking to myself here as much as anyone.  We are so prone to see the sin in people and think, “This is the real you.”  It doesn’t matter how much good we have observed, when we see the worst, we think “this is who you really are” and label people accordingly.  How much more should we, as ministers of the new covenant, see people at their best and say, “This is the real you.”  The sin is the anomaly.  I am convinced that we have let the ministry of condemnation hold way too much sway in our Christian message.  It tears down believers and keeps the unsaved totally disinterested in our message.  The ministry of the new covenant offers rescue for sinners, builds up believers, gives life, and spurs our fellow saints on to new heights.  Won’t you join me as a minister of the new covenant?

“But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve (minster in the here and now) in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” (Rom 7:6).

Romans 7 and the New Nature

Maybe we and the teachers we follow keep coming back to Romans 7:14-25 because it seems an apt description of our own Christian experience.  How many of us feel the weight of desperation articulated in this passage and think it normal for the Christian life?  When we identify this kind of struggle with sin as normal, we make a grave mistake regarding all that became new at our conversion.

A key issue to keep in front of us is the fact that the Christian life is lived by faith, not by sight.  The Christian life is lived by faith, not by feelings.  The Christian life is lived by faith, not by Satan’s lies.  We may feel like Romans 7:14-25 is our Christian destiny, but to believe it is true is to fall into Satan’s trap.  Two titles among the many ascribed to Satan are “deceiver” (Rev 12:9) and “accuser of the brethren” (Rev 12:10).

Satan makes his living among Christians by accusing them of their sin, while diminishing the power of our identification with Christ in His death.  He uses our daily experience as exhibit A that we will fall to sin’s power.  He takes us back to an old covenant way of thinking that maybe we aren’t “good enough” or aren’t “working hard enough” to receive God’s promise of a life set free from the power of sin.  But Satan’s accusations are not true.  Remember, Satan is the “deceiver,” the “father of lies,” and Christ Himself proclaimed that if Satan’s mouth is moving, he is lying since it is his very nature to lie and deceive. (Jn 8:44).

Can I encourage you?  Do not believe Satan’s lies regarding the power of sin in the believer’s life.  Sin’s power was removed by the cross, by the death of our old nature with Christ.  Whether you feel it or not, believe it by faith.  This is the message of Romans chapter 6.  “Reckon (an accounting term) yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:11).  Because our old self was “crucified with Christ” (Rom 6:6), God is asking us to go to the accounting ledger and by faith, not by experience, remove our name from the “sinner by nature” column and place it in the “dead to sin” column.  Accountants don’t fill out spreadsheets based on feelings, they fill them out based on facts.

A healthy tree automatically produces its natural fruit.  A healthy believer produces the fruit of the Spirit naturally, may I even say, almost automatically.  The fruit of the Spirit is our default mode.  Our problem is not the “work” required to attain the fruit that should be happening naturally.  It is the hindrances we put up that keep the natural fruit from springing forth.  And one of the hindrances is simply not believing all that God promised in our new birth.

Can I encourage you to, by faith, believe that:

  • You are holy and beloved. (Col 3:12)
  • The seed of God lives in you. (I Jn 3:9)
  • You have a new heart. (Ez 26:36)  Your old deceptively wicked heart has been removed.
  • Your new self is created in the likeness of God; in righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:24)
  • He who has died with Christ has ceased from sin. (I Pet 4:1)
  • The time for sin is in your past. (I Pet 4:3)
  • God’s divine power has granted to you everything pertaining to life and godliness. (II Pet 1:3)
  • You share the divine nature. (II Pet 1:4)
  • You have a moral resemblance to Christ. (I Jn 2:29)
  • You are a new creation. (II Cor 5:17)
  • Holiness is your new default mode.  (All of the above and more)

John Stott was a great Bible teacher of the late twentieth century.  He recently passed away at age 90.  Among his many well known quotes is:  “Sin and the child of God are incompatible.  They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony.”  The theme of many tributes to Rev. Stott upon his passing is that he didn’t just write it, he lived it.  May we also live by faith in the promises of God, one of the most compelling of which is the promise of a life set free.