Floyd & Sally McClung

Last night we were in Red Hill, the community where we have been working to do relief work after the fires that swept through there. One of our teams did a gospel drama by the light of cars shining on the actors. The wind was whipping sand in our faces, but the people of Red Hill were drawn into the simple drama story portraying a father who drove out his daughters for prostituting themselves (a big problem in disadvantaged communities: very poor people do desperate things), then took them back at the urging of a man with a message of forgiveness. Several people accepted Christ.

Our teams have labored long hours in Red Hill, but they now near the end of “Phase Four” of the relief work. We are transitioning to longer term development work and to planting simple home based churches. We are dreaming about Red Hill experiencing transformation.

One man in Red Hill named Sydney was convinced there were demons or spirits under his shack home. He believed these spirits were more powerful that God. His little son work up every night screaming from bad dreams. The local sangoma (witch doctor) promised to take care of the problem for a lot of money. But one of the couples on our team offered to pray with Sydney, and since that day his son has not experienced one bad dream. Sydney has opened his heart to Jesus in a new way, and poured a concrete floor in his shack home!

One of the keys to transformation in Red Hill is servant leadership. It is the key to changing Africa. There is a desperate need for a new generation of leaders and a new expression of the church of Jesus Christ, making disciples, training servant leaders, and planting holistic church planting movements that preach good news and live good news to the poor and needy.

Thank you for standing with us to make a difference in Africa,

Spirit-filled and Spirit-led young African leaders know only too well the giants of poverty, sickness, foreign domination and failed leadership at work to destroy their great continent. They also have a vision of what God can do through them as servant leaders to turn things around in Africa. Floyd McClung, leader of All Nations in Cape Town, South Africa, invited some of the young African leaders attending CPx to share with the other students some of Africa’s beauty and pain.

In his introduction to the special session, Floyd set the tone for what followed, “I believe God planned the nations, tribes and peoples of Africa. God planned each individual and God planned each “nation” of individuals. God made Africa and Africans. How will we serve Africa, and how will we respond to the challenges of Africa?” he asked. Floyd believes that Africa, once enslaved, now needs to be served. “The beauty in Africa will be set free by people with serving hearts,” he says.

The All Nations CPx has brought young leaders together from several countries in Africa and from other continents as well, to learn what it means to be servant leaders, especially in Africa. The majority of these sixty-six men and women are from African countries where the words ’servant’ and ‘leader’ are often polar opposites.

Africans Speaking About Africa

Three of the African leaders in CPx, Bruce Chitambala and Sydney Musonda from Zambia, and Vakele Dlamini from Swaziland, opened their hearts and shared what they see are the bright spots but also the shameful realities in Africa. Bruce described the good news about Africa and the bad. Africa is the most “Christianized” continent. It is a continent of amazing natural beauty. “Her unique and colorful peoples are hospitable and gracious to strangers. Her vast natural resources can feed the world.”

However, Africa is a continent ravaged by HIV and AIDS, wars, crime and poverty. Bruce talked about his crushing loss when his favorite aunt died from complications from HIV and AIDS. Most of the African CPx’ers raised their hands to show they had lost a friend or relative to HIV/AIDS. Bruce wept as he described how his mother would cut up her dresses to make shirts for her children and how he had to sell colored iced sugar water to help buy food for the family. “And we would be described as one of the privileged few,” he said. How Does Africa Break the Cycle of Poverty?

How does Africa break out of the cycles of poverty and disease? Bruce, Sydney and Vakele agreed: “Africa’s most compelling need is servant leadership. Our leaders must learn the difference between significance in God’s eyes and success in man’s eyes. Sadly, many of our leaders are more interested in how much they can acquire than how much they can give. Africa has enough to meet the need, but not the greed, of all her peoples,” one said. Sydney explained that most African men want an education and with it, the perks of a good life, cars, money and clothes. “Naturally, a person wants to take care of oneself first,” he said. “But we must raise up young men and women with a bigger vision, who will make a difference, to go back to their countries to impact the young generation with new role models. Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Bruce and Sydney and Vakele have given up good paying jobs and careers to invest their lives to train and equip other African young leaders.

Child Headed Households in Africa

“Africa is sick, and we need a healing message,” Bruce declared. “Everyone knows about HIV and AIDS but one result of this pandemic is the massive number of child-headed households. The family, though highly esteemed, is endangered. It is plagued by poverty, ignorance and unfaithfulness among partners. We have to speak about purity and abstinence to men, since this is not the norm,” Sydney says.

Bruce shared his conviction that many Churches in Africa are weak and dependent. “Those planted by international aid agencies are often enslaved in dependency. This is why I am excited about the simple church model in which everyone learns to love one another, studies the Word of God together, and take responsibility for each other,” Bruce says.

Sydney spoke about the need to disciple believers. “If Africa is so highly Christianized why it is also so highly infected with HIV/AIDS? What is wrong?” he asked. “People need to be discipled,” he said. Bruce, Sydney and Vekela voiced their conviction that Sub-Saharan Africa has been evangelized but not discipled.

A New Kind of Leader - Courage to Be Different

All of the African leaders in CPx see themselves as part of the new thing God wants to do in Africa. “It is time to rebuild Africa,” Sydney says. Floyd McClung also believes this.

“This is the one of the main reasons we moved to Africa. God wants something new to be birthed in Africa,” he says. “We sense God birthing something new through CPx in the hearts of these young leaders. God is longing for His people in Africa to break free from hierarchical models of leadership. God is longing for African leaders to break free of the old ways of dominance and control, and to unleash the potential of Africa to bless the rest of the world. We are dreaming and working toward holistic church planting movements all over the continent. God will not be satisfied until Africa is ready to come to the party!” he says.

“What is God’s response to these huge challenges? Do we continue to do church the way we have in the past? Will old ways of thinking solve the old problems we face?” he asked. “Perhaps the old problems have been caused by the old ways of thinking about church and the kingdom of God. My heart is exploding with longing to empower the bright young leaders of Africa who see the problems of Africa and are open to change,” he says.

What about Women in Africa?

It takes a special bravery for an African woman to speak up, but Vakele Dlamini is willing to be that kind of woman. “We have experienced love and acceptance on all fronts here,” she told her fellow CPx’ers. “We are free to share our brokenness, our same struggles.” As a woman in Africa, there are many struggles. “Women are almost non-exsistant,” Vakele says. “We are raised to listen to men, respect our culture and traditions, and be silent. Men are customarily allowed several wives and mistresses, and a woman, out of fear, must submit to this,” Vekela says. She said this practice contributes to the rapid spread of HIV and AIDS. Even for women in churches, this is a “huge difficulty,” Vakele says. “Like many women, I do not know where to find my place.” Vakele believes the African men and women at CPx hold the key. “Guys like ours need to embrace change, and target other men to help them change,” she says.

I want to tell you what God has been doing here in Cape Town, especially in CPx and Red Hill.

We have 70 outstanding students enrolled for six months IN CPx, our leadership training program. Actually, they are not students in the normal sense of that word. All of them are leaders with varying degrees of experience. They come from 15 countries, 43 of them are Africans.

Every single student feels called to be involved in some way long term to make a difference in Africa or the Middle East. It has been a big faith challenge for us to hold this school. It takes a lot of money to rent housing, provide good teachers, organize transportation, feed, and do set up for so many students. We don’t have permanent facilities so we have had to work hard to find temporary housing.

The students are fantastic! And we are very encouraged by the fact that more than half of the student fees have come in through the a few sponsors, but mainly through the students themselves working and sacrificing to cover their own fees. We still need a big release of finance. I would appreciate your prayers as we need another R250,000 to pay for the remaining housing, food, and tuition costs. Tuition, board and room for one student costs about R10,000.

It is a worthy investment. These are emerging leaders that will change nations. God is using CPx to impact their character through teaching on servant leadership, their understanding about simple church and church planting movements, and their skills to be more effective leaders. We are empowering them to advance God’s kingdom in every sphere of life. Quite a few of them feel called to the Muslim world. All of them are learning how to do church in a holistic way.

Regarding the work we are doing on Red Hill (wild fires burned down the shack homes of 78 families a few weeks ago and we have gotten deeply involved), a lot of progress has been made. We have completed “Phase one” of our relief efforts. That involved helping everyone who lost their home to rebuild at least a one room simple home. We have been able to help several families rebuild a complete “beautiful shack” which costs about R20,000 plus labour. We are trying to hire local guys from Red Hill to provide jobs and job skills through the project.

We are busy now making sure everyone has windows built into to their home, and new galvanized metal sheets for roof and walls. Next we will try to make sure everyone has concrete floors. We are hiring guys who live in Red Hill to build beds and cupboards. We begin skills classes this Saturday teaching carpentry and other skills. We are studying how to turn this into along term sustainable endeavor.

We are also very focused right now on visiting every home in Red Hill to make sure everyone has a personal presentation of the good news of Jesus and what he has done for them. Without the transformation of a person’s heart, they will not have the spiritual and moral strength they need to overcome addiction to alcohol, drugs and abusive relationships in their families.

About ten days ago we held a big celebration on Red Hill with pap and chicken and lots of music and dancing and celebrating. It was the first time since the fire destroyed the homes of the people that they had time to rejoice and be happy. We presented new soccer uniforms to the “Red Hill Attackers” soccer team because their uniforms were all destroyed in the fire. Since then we have held two football tournaments with our CPx guys and teams from Ocean View. This has brought a lot of life to the men.

Would you pray about helping us meet the big financial challenges we face right now? By investing in a scholarship for one of our students, you are investing in the people of Red Hill. Our students are involved daily in people’s lives in that community. We will be grateful for anything God leads you to do. And please pray for a spiritual breakthrough on Red Hill. The spiritual atmosphere is changing - but we are longing to see a huge breakthrough that results in a new church born there. It will be a light on the Red Hill!

Yours for the lost,

Floyd

PS If you would like to help sponsor a student leader in CPx or help provide a “beautiful shack” for the people of Red Hill, you can send your donation to:

All Nations account.
Account number: 072 110 619
Standard Bank
Fish Hoek branch - # 77 Main Rd., Fish Hoek, South Africa
Branch code: 03600980
Tel number of the bank: +27-21-748 1817

Please make sure you include in the reference either Red Hill or CPx as you make the deposit. Thank you!

Dear Friends,

The relief work in Red Hill continues. As you read this we are completing the task of getting all of the 72 families in the two burnt our settlement camps into a shelter so they are out of the wind and rain. The people did a lot of work themselves but we supplied about R100,000 of building materials, including wooden posts, zinc sheets for roof and siding, and windows and doors and frames for the windows and doors. This initial effort just got the several hundred people out of the rain. It did provide a proper decent home, no matter the size.

Now the long term work of people building begins. We have established relationships with many of the people. We have worked beside them the last 8 days to build trust. Now we want to invest in their lives and into the community long term. We would love to see every family have a “beautiful shack” with a floor and beds and stoves for cooking and a fridge for keeping food so it does not spoil.

One friend recommended simple Wendy houses. That would be a huge blessing.

Please pray about sponsoring a Wendy house for a family would you?

To see more pictures from Red Hill click here.

Thank you for your love and support!

Yours,

Floyd

A few days ago a massive fire swept through the southern peninsula of Cape Town. The fire destroyed many homes and brought chaos to many people’s lives. Among those whose homes were destroyed was a small settlement of very poor people called Red Hill. The residents of Red Hill were moved to a community center in a very upscale coastal village. They have moved out of the community centre today.

The fire came suddenly upon Red Hill because gale force winds were driving the fire at an unbelievable speed. I went immediately to the site of the fire, and could not believe the strength of the wind. The fire was all around us and there was pandemonium everywhere as we assisted people to evacuate. Red Hill residents lost everything, clothes, furniture, blankets…. everything.

We have been able to mobilize teams of volunteers to respond to this disaster, but there is a great need to help the people rebuild their small shack homes, hopefully in a better state than they were before the fire. As we cleared the rubble and burnt remains of the homes, we found only one or two families actually had a concrete floor. Most of the people slept on the ground, not because they want to, but because they have no choice.

I am writing to you to ask your help in rebuilding the lives and homes of the people of Red Hill. We are committed to long-term involvement in the lives of the people. We have started a Red Hill Relief Fund and opened bank accounts to collect donations under the auspices of All Nations here in Cape Town. The bank account number is at the bottom of this letter.

Would you prayerfully consider sponsoring a new shack home with basic contents for the families and single parents of Red Hill? The disaster department of the City of Cape Town has donated a disaster kit that will put a tin roof over their heads with a blanket. But that kit does not include walls, doors or windows. We would like to do much more. Here is what your contribution would accomplish:

R6,000 - a 6X4 Meter one room dwelling place with two windows and a door.

This does not include a floor.

R8,500- the same as above with two beds and mattresses and a two burner stove.

R12,000- the same as above with a floor! United Nations studies have demonstrated that once a wood or concrete floor is constructed there is a 60% less chance of sickness or disease.

Perhaps your family can join with another family, or a home group, club, or your congregation to sponsor a home for a family in Red Hill? If you cannot sponsor an entire “beautiful shack” for a family, would you consider buying two windows and a door? That would cost R1222,68.

Yesterday I helped clear the rubble away for a single mother named Mavis. Mavis had lived in her home since 1982. Over the years she had built up a three-room home and ran a small shop from there as well. She sold meat and other food goods to the community. We walked through the remains of what was once her home. She showed me where the living room was, the bedroom for her two daughters, and the little shop area with two fridges and a freezer- all destroyed in the fire.

My wife, Sally, and I will help Mavis rebuild her life and her home. This is not a quick fix or a hit and run affair to us. We believe in helping the whole person. We will care for the spiritual needs of Mavis and her family as well as her emotional and social needs. Because we live near by, we will continue to have a long-term involvement in Red Hill.

Please help the people of Red Hill, will you? We would like to see every home replaced and improved, and every person have the opportunity to have a deepened relationship with God and others who love God.

If you would like to be part of this project,  please send your donation to:

Red Hill Relief Fund
Standard Bank
Fish Hoek Branch
All Nations Account nr: 073830135
Branch nr: 03600980

The accountant for All Nations is:

Rian Myburgh and his phone number 0219149493

For the latest news, photos and daily reports of the progress visit www.theglobalchallenge.org or www.floydandsally.org

I thank you in advance for your contribution!

As you begin the new year, please take a moment to consider how many people’s lives are being impacted, changed, destroyed, and saved….

Click here to visit what I call the “reality” clock.

During a 24 hour prayer watch in the early hours of December 17th, somewhere around 3:00 AM in the morning, while standing on the back deck of our team house here in Cape Town, one of the young people working with us saw flames shooting high up into the sky a couple kilometers away in a community called Masiphumelele. ‘Masi’ is one of the communities where we serve the poor.

The young lady who spotted the fire quickly woke up others on the outreach and they began to pray for God to stop the fire. Within minutes it began to rain and the fire was quenched.

But the damage was already done to people’s small shack homes. The fire burned 160 homes and left 600 people homeless. Within two hours the young people participating in “Ten Days for Jesus,” a Christmas outreach during December, were on the site of the fire. But the rains were hindering the help they brought to the people forced out of their homes. So the team prayed again. This time they prayed for God to stop the rains. Once again, God extended his hand and the rain stopped. Rescue operations got under way.

It was a long weekend of removing rubble from the home sites, distributing blankets, food and materials to begin rebuilding, and working besides the people to reconstruct their tiny shack homes.

And it showed 30 young people on the outreach that God answers prayer.

It was a tragedy that the fire happened in the first place. Sadly, fires in the townships are common on Friday and Saturday nights. Mostly they are caused when someone is drunk and accidentally turns over a kerosene cooking stove.

We are committed to long term solutions to the housing problems of the poor here in Cape Town. We can’t do much to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged people, but we can help one family at a time, one life at a time.

And we can serve besides people in their times of tragedy. Listening, getting involved, serving where needed, and praying expresses the love of Jesus. We understand in times like the fire what Jesus felt when it says of him,
“Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowds because their problems were so great - they didn’t know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36

Click here to view a slide show of some pictures of the damage to Masiphumelele. They are also on the photos page.

Click here for original article

Understanding the disparity of those who call themselves Christian in America.
A new national survey co-sponsored by Leadership. Reported by Helen Lee.

Jennifer Hua identifies herself as a Christian. A 35-year-old former attorney studying Christian counseling at the Wheaton College Graduate School (Illinois), she has gone to church all her life and is a lay leader in her suburban Chicago congregation. She furthers her spiritual development by daily Bible reading, prayer, listening to and singing worship songs, and interacting with other Christians. And every few months, she carves out time for a silent retreat. “I do all of these things because I know from past experience I need to recalibrate my mind and my heart to be in tune with God,” she says.

James Smith also identifies himself as a Christian. He attended church as a child, but his attendance was minimal as a young adult. He believes in God, occasionally attends Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan when his time-consuming job in the finance district allows, but he does not often participate in other activities to further his spiritual life. He has a Bible but rarely opens it; what leisure time he has he spends with friends, most of whom are of different faiths, and he does not necessarily believe that his God is any different from the one his Muslim friend worships.

“I don’t think that God would be a God who would shut others out of heaven because they don’t use the word ‘Christian’ to describe themselves,” he says.

The United States is described in mainstream media as largely Christian (between 70 and 80 percent, depending on the study, identify themselves as “Christian”), and compared to the rest of the world, this is certainly the case. However, not all within this vast group of Christians are alike.

To understand the range and differences among American Christians, Christianity Today International (publisher of Leadership) recently partnered with Zondervan Publishers to commission Knowledge Networks to conduct attitudinal and behavioral research of U.S. Christians. In September 2006, more than 1,000 self-identified Christians 18 years of age and older were surveyed on their religious beliefs and practices. The results reveal a number of significant differences, illustrated by the examples of Hua and Smith. In fact, portraits of five distinct segments emerged from the study. We have named them Active, Professing, Liturgical, Private, and Cultural Christians.

Each group represents about one-fifth of those identifying themselves as Christian, with Active Christians (such as Hua) most likely to have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that affects their beliefs and inspires an active church life; Cultural Christians (such as Smith) are least likely to align their beliefs or practices with biblical teachings, or attend church. Between the two is a range of beliefs, commitment levels, and public practice of the faith.

Leadership discussed the survey results with leading pastors and religious experts to ascertain the ramifications for church leaders. Three critical issues emerged:

• The local church is no longer considered the only outlet for spiritual growth.
• Churches must develop relational- and community-oriented outreach.
• Lay people have to be better equipped to be God’s ambassadors.

Faith Yes, Church Maybe

The survey shows that for nearly half of Christians, involvement in a local church body is a minimal part of their daily lives (see chart 1).

“Faith is relevant for many people, but church is not,” says Bryan Wilkerson, senior pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts. “People want to attend to the spiritual side of their lives, they are interested in God, but their experience of church has not been relevant. They say, ‘Why do I have to sit through boring sermons and old music that don’t speak to my real needs and problems?’”

“A growing element of the Christian population is disappointed with or frustrated by the local church,” says D. Michael Lindsay, assistant professor of sociology at Rice University and former consultant with the Gallup Institute. In part, this trend can be attributed to factors within local church bodies themselves, such as lack of strong leadership or teaching.

Given that 60 percent of all Christians worship in churches with fewer than 300 people (see chart 2), most Christians are in congregations that continually struggle with resource issues. Previous generations were accustomed to that, and today’s worshipers have higher expectations.

“These days, people can get good teaching, wonderful music, and excellent writing, whether through iPods, TV, or online,” says Wilkerson. “They learn to shop around and pick and choose. Then they expect the same high quality in their local church. A generation ago, the average person learned to accept his home pastor and was faithful to his local church. But now, people’s appetites for excellence have been heightened.”

As pastor of a large church himself, Wilkerson acknowledges “we probably end up perpetuating that kind of appetite by trying to be as high-quality as what we find out there. The temptation of larger churches is to compete and to be as good as the others are.”

Even for those Private and Cultural Christians who do not typically consume Christian media, access to it can still play a significant role in their spiritual development in ways that may not be reflected in the survey.

“Private and Cultural Christians might not use traditional Christian media, but I would bet they disproportionately watch [Lakewood Church pastor] Joel Osteen on cable,” says Lindsay. Cultural Christians are the group that spends the most time watching TV and using the Internet.

Spiritual growth, then, may be occurring for many of today’s Christians in non-traditional ways. Instead of attending church on Sunday mornings, many opt for personal, individual ways to stretch themselves spiritually.

“Emerging generations may not see themselves as churched, but neither do they see themselves as any less committed,” says Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland Church in Longwood, Florida. “The traditional programming that churches do is becoming less essential to work out faith for many people.”

Personal or Media Relationships?

The danger, however, is that the multimedia availability of religious content helps people become spiritual do-it-yourselfers. As a result, they lack an important aspect of faith development: interaction with other Christians in community. This privatizing of Christian faith fits with the American spirit of individualism, but it may not produce Christians with enduring and long-term spiritual vitality.

“It’s fine to use religious media as an addition if you are part of a local Christian community,” says Lindsay. “It becomes problematic if you have no binding commitment to a local community and you become a Lone Ranger Christian. Before long your faith becomes something you put on and off like a jacket.”

Instead of trying to win underchurched people back to a traditional church context, leaders say the approach to bringing Private, Cultural, and non-Christians into the church is relational and outward-looking rather than programmatic and inward-focused. Lindsay notes many Christians who are not involved in traditional churches are “much, much more interested in personal connection. The ways in which they nourish their faith are through home churches or one-on-one Bible study or non-church related small groups.”

In fact, house churches have recently become a noteworthy trend in the United States. Time magazine in March 2007 quoted pollster George Barna as saying that house churches were evidence of a “seminal transition that may be akin to a third spiritual awakening in the U.S.” and that in two decades, “only about one-third of the population” will attend traditional churches.

“The old paradigm of evangelism was a transactional sharing of the gospel,” says Ken Fong, senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of Los Angeles. “I would try to get people to intellectually agree with me. But the new paradigm is different, an approach in which I invite you to walk alongside me, examine my life, and see evidence of the truth, and hopefully there will be something compelling that you see. It’s a no-strings-attached invitation to enter my life as I follow Jesus.”

Another necessary shift is recognizing that the old metrics of success may no longer apply. Wilkerson says, “We need to spend the next ten years investing in the life of our surrounding community and finding ways to regain a hearing for the gospel. Instead of going to the nursing home and holding a church service, we’re just going to go and love and serve people for years and years, until the staff and residents ask, ‘Why do they care so much?’ This won’t result in 150 decisions for Christ in a year. You might not see results for five or ten years.”

Churches that do engage their local communities may discover that what they gain surpasses what they give. At Evergreen Baptist Church-LA, the demographics of the city of Rosemead, where the church is located—Asian, Hispanic, and lower-income—differ from the congregation itself—predominantly Asian and largely middle- and upper-middle class. Fong strives to encourage the right attitude as his church engages the surrounding community.

“As we reach out to kids in the neighborhood, we tell our congregation that we don’t just do this to be good Christians. We tell them that maybe these poor kids know something more than we do about knowing God, more so than us middle-class snobs,” he says. “It’s not enough to reach out because we think it’s the right thing to do. That is paternalistic. We need to see that there is something that different people with different perspectives can show us that we’re missing.”

Hunter believes the way the church responds to the forces affecting today’s Christians and non-Christians will have significant ramifications. “As the traditional church has a rougher and rougher time, our challenge will become a motivational factor: either we build relationships with people in our communities, or we will die.”

New Need for Apologetics

The survey indicated that self-identified Christians hold a wide range of theological and doctrinal beliefs. For many, Private and Cultural Christians in particular, Bible-reading is minimally important (see chart 3). Thus, as churches encourage their congregants to engage with the surrounding communities and build relational bridges with people, they must simultaneously equip these Christians to handle the questions and attitudes they may encounter, both with non-Christians as well as with other Christians who hold different beliefs.

But the current level of biblical and theological teaching in the church may not be meeting the challenge of preparing people in the pews to explain the power and significance of the Scriptures to those who rarely read them. “I do think there is decline and unbelievable degrees of biblical illiteracy that we haven’t seen in previous generations, among all five of these categories of Christians,” says Lindsay. “People used to know their Bible, but now they can go week-in and week-out and not even know the order of the books. Many churches feed their congregants a steady diet of messages that do not require intellectual engagement or an understanding of the biblical narrative. And that is a huge problem.”

Hunter says, “We need to preach with apologetics in mind, with a rational explanation and defense of the Christian faith in mind, so that the people who are in the church really know how to phrase that to people who aren’t in the church. We should say, ‘You need to be able to tell other people what I’m telling you.’”

During one recent Easter Sunday, Grace Chapel focused on the disciple Thomas and his doubts about Jesus after the resurrection. Wilkerson told his own story of spiritual darkness and doubt, then planned a service the following Sunday entitled “Doubters Anonymous.”

Wilkerson asked people to e-mail their questions to the church, and he had three pastors up front to handle the questions. Those who attended were also able to text message questions or turn them in on a card.

“There had to be an authenticity about it that demonstrated this was real, not canned, that these were genuine questions and answers, and that it was okay to ask these questions,” says Wilkerson. “It also gave the Christians in the audience more confidence, that they now had some tools to answer the hard questions about Christianity.”

Ultimately, though, Northland’s Hunter feels that the way to counter biblical illiteracy is to equip Active Christians as teachers, ambassadors, and apologists. “We have to go out and be with those who do not know or understand. People will always default to what they know, and if they believe general statements such as ‘We’re all God’s children’ or ‘Jesus was just a representative of God,’ then that is all they will know. Unless they have a relationship with someone who can explain theological doctrines of atonement or of original sin, they will always just believe their own general concepts.”

What About Jesus?

In addition to these findings about the church, we found a most defining dichotomy over the Jesus question: Active and Professing Christians said “accepting Christ as Savior and Lord” is the key to being a Christian (almost 9 in 10), while Liturgical, Private, and Cultural Christians favored more generally “believing in God” as the main element in being a Christian. So, for a vast number of people who consider themselves Christian, Christ is not the central figure of their faith.

Leith Anderson, senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, believes that the high value placed on tolerance in this country is partly to blame. “‘God’ as a term is transferable amongst different religious sects, but ‘Christ’ is not. It seems intolerant. What we need to do is reintroduce people to Jesus, his story, his life and his teachings. Not by forcing people to agree with us, but by giving them adequate examples and reasons to believe in Christ.”

Hunter agrees that trying to provide intellectual arguments for the Christian faith will only go so far. “Christianity is about Christ, and it is about that personal relationship. We have to not focus on explaining Pauline theology, but on the person and ministry of Christ. We have to be people who live out the life of Christ. People aren’t generally interested in theological teaching. But everyone has a heart for the one who had a heart for us.”