This story in USA Today was interesting for several reasons.

For many, it’s always fun to show how Christianity seems to be “waning.” People aren’t going to church as much, etc.

“the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion,” the report concludes.

This is really the heart of the matter, in my view. Americans just don’t want to be labeled. There is some penchant in our lives to be trendy in some way that doesn’t SEEM to be trendy, but really is. So, the current trend is to NOT be labeled.

But this quote drives the point home:

Kosmin concluded from the 1990 data that many saw God as a “personal hobby,” and that the USA is “a greenhouse for spiritual sprouts.”

Today, he says, “religion has become more like a fashion statement, not a deep personal commitment for many.”

A hobby. That’s what Christianity has come down to in America. It’s a fashion statement more than anything to be a part of this church, or that group, or this place or that place. Following Christ? What does that mean?

So, in a sense, this survey doesn’t bother me. It reveals our soul. The problem is this: most evangelical leaders (my own denomination included) will look at something like this and blame America. We’ll blame the devil. We’ll blame the spirit of the age.

We need to find ourselves guilty.

We have watered down the message of the gospel, thinking we’re only “changing the package in which it is delivered.” We’ve dumbed people down on who Christ is in the name of “being relevant.” Discipleship and commitment and the cross of Christ have no meaning. We talk about Christ like we talk about Buddha, Krishna, the Dali Lama, or someone else. It’s “dialogue.”

Christianity is not a hobby. Jesus is not a fashion statement. He is King. He is Lord. He is Master. His word, his commands, matter. When he bids someone to come and follow, it is a bid to die to oneself, take up the cross, and follow.

He’s not about some dialogue. He’s about being the King of kings and Lord of lords. And that means in my life right now. Not when I feel like getting around to it.

Lord, we have treated you as a hobby! We have sowed the wind and reaped the whirlwind. Going to church is like going to a coffee shop these days, and we have cheapened your majesty in the process. You are the Master. You have called us the be the apprentices.

Dear Lord, offend us with your gospel once again, I pray!