The carrot and stick motivation of many fundamentalist evangelical churches may play a part in the rise of conservative churches and the decline of more liberal ones. However, I think there is something more fundamental at work. If you look at the comments of especially the younger generation today that rejects Christianity outright, their attitude is that Christians are judgmental, smugly self righteous, and out of touch with the needs of ordinary human beings. They view the Christian faith as one of oppression because of its emphasis on condemnation and sending people to hell. When you are trying to attract members voluntarily, trying to scare them to death or telling them how pitiful they are, is never an effective recruitment tool.
I think what is more likely going on is what Dennis Bennett called the “Santa Claus effect”. About 20 years ago an insignificant little book called the Prayer of Jabez: Breaking through to the Blessed Life, became very popular among the various groups that I ministered with. Drawn from 1 Chronicles 4:9–10, it relates the story of Jabez who was more honorable than his brothers and asked God for special blessings, which he received. Bruce Wilkinson, who authored the book, suggested that if true believers repeated the prayer every day, their lives would be blessed with material wealth. It became an international bestseller and topped the New York Times best seller list, ultimately selling more than 9 million copies. It was quite the phenomenon. But what was the appeal of a story of a rather insignificant Old Testament figure that very few had even heard of before the book was published? The answer is quite simple. The prayer of Jabez began to be viewed as a kind of magical incantation guaranteeing earthly wealth to the people who were faithful enough to diligently repeat it every day. It is the same thing that draws people to the preachers of the “prosperity gospel” and causes people to buy lotto tickets. Most are looking for the easy way to make their life better, happier and more prosperous.
Dennis Bennett called this the “Santa Clause effect” in his book The Trinity of Man, because he understood that too many “Christians“ were drawn to the faith because of the expectation of the miraculous things that God would do for them, whether it was making them wealthy or providing a miracle to cure a disease. They did not worship God because they understood Him and His nature and were attracted to his love, but solely because of what God could do for them. It was the expectation of current reward in the temporal realm which drew the people in and kept them loyal. Given that all Pentecostal and Evangelical pastors believe in miracles and 90% of their congregations do as well, it is fairly easy to see why these groups are thriving. In a troubled and divisive world, God will always ride to the rescue and protect the true believers. They are looking for an easy answer to their lives and the safety and security of the indomitable power which will protect them from all external evils and give them prosperity. The idea is very intoxicating, but has little to do with the true gospel message. It is more about greed and self interest than about sacrificial faith. And there lies the rub.
True Christianity is attractive, but it is hard. It requires moving beyond ourselves to get a glimpse of the divine and let it transform our lives and perceptions. Often it requires sacrifice. We understand that God guarantees us a full life, but not necessarily a materially prosperous one. We may be beset on all sides by those who attack us and reject our message. Jesus uses his own life as the example and says in essence, Come follow me and I will give you life, life abundantly. In the next breath he says, by the way it’s going to be really difficult. Much harder than your current life. What I love the world hates and what the world loves I hate. If I were in marketing and advising the declining churches, this is hardly the sales pitch that I would propose to rebuild the numbers.
The success of the evangelical and fundamentalist churches is easy to understand in my opinion. Their message is simple, positive and requires no thought. Just blindly and uncritically follow the instructions and everything will be OK. The meaning of the gospel gets lost in the legalism of the words. Can it be turned around? I’m not sure. Having a strong faith, I know that God will not let the church die or become a gross caricature of what it should be. He has a plan and it is beyond my pay grade to know what it is. I just have to trust that the eternal truths which caused the example of Jesus to be life transforming for billions will continue to shine brightly in this dark world. It may be that the traditional church has to die and be reborn anew to allow the real Gospel to shine again. In the meantime, I hope that the self righteous literalists do not so poison the faith that Christians become more of a pariah than they already are in the minds of many. The current trends are not healthy and ultimately unsustainable over time.
