Why Christianity is Dying While Spirituality is Thriving... These had been the obsessions of Jesus while here on earth. I regard these few churches as glimmers of hope scattered here and there. For decades now, the church has sought to survive on a doctrine of salvation that depended on the shedding of innocent blood to appease an obsessively angry God so as to rescue humanity from what would otherwise result in their conscious and eternal torment in hell. The others will die a slow and agonizingly painful death. For all the causes above, and a host of other people, spirituality is thriving both inside and outside these new and emerging expressions of the Christian faith. These Christians no longer really feel the enemy is liberalism, even "secular humanism," as it is frequently labeled in the declining and dying branches inside Christianity. This new, emerging church is created up of folks who are desperately seeking methods of understanding, and in several situations, rewriting Christian theology. These "Nones" have all but given up on organized religion and now simply regard themselves as spiritual but not religious. There is inside this new emergence an affinity for these matters of social and individual justice, compassion, spiritual wholeness and unity inside and amongst all folks and faiths. It is not what Jesus taught. Moreover, these have offered up the church's war with science and psychology, picking as an alternative to embrace the truths science teaches us, not only about the origins of the universe, but about the complexities of the human thoughts, human improvement and sexuality. four. Or, to put it more accurately, the Christian church is dying even though the Christian faith, in also couple of places still, seems to be slowly, but gratefully, morphing into one thing new. And better. Admittedly, there are a couple of churches that are developing in the U.S. Waging war against gays, lesbians and these within the transgender neighborhood is like attempting to defend slavery. For me, and a expanding number of other progressive-minded Christians, that is a result in for hope. Author's Bio: Award-Winning Author, Speaker, Believed Leader, Spiritual Teacher Coaching Executives, Company, Community and Religious Leaders, Faith-Primarily based Organizations, and folks just like you, in... The Art of Leadership The Laws of Accomplishment The Life You Live The Legacy You Leave
. Further, I see this new evolving Christianity becoming birthed in the hearts of sincere and devoted Christ-followers who are open to what other religions can teach us about spirituality, too. Together, these Christians seek spiritual awareness -- spiritual enlightenment -- and they seek the very good of all people, too, even these who embrace no religion.
five. The reality is, even so, I travel all more than this country coaching religious leaders and consulting with congregations of each and every stripe imaginable. Additionally, these Christians no longer believe gays will destroy the institution of marriage when heterosexuals have successfully achieved that all by themselves. And when church leaders are honest, and a lot of of them are not, they will acknowledge that they are drawing most of their growth from the disaffected, disavowed and disillusioned who have left or leaving other churches. It is crazy theology. To the contrary, what I'm seeing is a new and refreshing emergence inside the Christian religion itself. It needs to be rewritten. They revere the Bible with out making a god of it. To these blinded by illusion, however, the handful of churches that are growing has produced some feel driven to object, particularly if they come about to be component of such a church, by saying, "The church is doing quite well, thank
you!" The truth is, it is not. Probably, as at no other time in Christian history, except maybe the 1st handful of decades following the death of Jesus, the church nowadays is slowly becoming, but in also handful of locations as yet, something that I suspect Jesus himself may really recognize. They have exchanged the insanity of the dying church that insists "We're correct! You are wrong," for the sane "We're in and you are, as well" approach to human and religious solidarity. Some are evangelical others are Catholic, even though most of their growth is largely the consequence of the influx of Hispanics who are, almost universally, Roman Catholic. They would regard, for instance, Desmond Tutu's statement "God is not a Christian," as the truth. Ultimately, but I could go on and on in my observations, this emerging new Christianity no longer interprets Christian "hope" as some "pie-i-the-sky" future paradise that they alone will take pleasure in, along with these who agree with their theology, their eschatology and their exclusivist beliefs. Typical: Your rating: None Typical: five (1 vote) I published this report 1st with the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mcswain/christianity-is-dying-spirit... The title of this post alone will place some branches of the Christian church instantly on the defense. Unable to locate it in significantly of the madness they've chosen to leave behind, they turn to these swiftly expanding churches, many of which have grow to be "mega" churches as a outcome of this phenomenon, in a kind of last ditch effort to locate one thing that resembles spiritual sanity. Regrettably, nevertheless, what many of them quickly locate even in several of these growing churches is just a polished-up and effectively-rehearsed, as well as properly-performed, version of the same madness they left. If you have been to interview these who are leaving and going to these handful of developing churches, as I have, you would learn that for a lot of of them, they feel spiritually disconnected and displaced, even though nonetheless desiring to know and to really feel a important spiritual life. Rather worshipping the Bible as a kind of "Constitution," as Brian Mclaren dubs it in "A New Type of Christianity," they interpret the Bible for what it is: an inspired book, capable of delivering inspiration, wisdom and spiritual path, not a textbook on science or morality or answer-book preachers may well use for "Stump the Preacher" speak-shows. three. Admittedly, they see dangers in any extreme notions, regardless of whether in liberal theology or humanistic philosophy, but they have awakened to the realization that the church has met the "genuine" enemy -- and the actual enemy is the church itself. And there is 1 overarching conclusion to which I've come: Christianity is dying. So, what does this new emergence inside the Christian religion look like? 1. And as a consequence, it is much more pagan than it is Christian. 2. Prior to long, scores of them wind up leaving even these and then join the ranks of these persons known nowadays as "Nones" -- who are, by the way, now a single in every single 5 Americans. These new churches have a healthier view of their sacred text known as the Bible. While affirming that "God was in Christ reconciling the globe to himself" (two Corinthians 5:19), and cherishing that belief inside their own faith confessions, these Christians would embrace and, in reality, do embrace the spiritual insights that might come from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and scores of other
spiritual traditions. No, these Christians would view "hope" the way Jesus their leader viewed it the way the prophets of old viewed it the way the entire biblical narrative views it: as a vision of the world wherein peace and justice and lots for everyone exists in the here and now a world that reflects "God's will on earth just as it is in heaven" (Matthew six:ten) a planet where all individuals are treated equally, cared for, respected, fed and nurtured for the superb creations of God that they are a globe exactly where all people regardless of colour, sex, race, religion, political celebration, nationality or sexual orientation have a voice and a location a planet where people and nations, as the Prophet Isaiah put it, "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks where nation no longer takes up sword against nation exactly where war is no longer learned" (Isaiah 2:1-five). It is this kind of church that will emerge and thrive. It is to these and for these I often create and blog. So, what do I mean by the statement, "the Christian faith appears to be morphing into one thing new?" I do not mean by this a new religion