Tag Archives for congregational Christians

STEREOTYPING & Lessons from the Video: I’m Christian, But I’m Not

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel: These videos are aimed at going against stereotyping and thus have an important message.  The import seems to be that individual Christians come in all varieties.  Let’s explore this deeper.

A Leadership Exercise. 

Watch these videos (including the parody of the first video with some poignant satire, both below) and answer the following questions.

  1. Is an aversion to stereotyping somewhat of a North American trait?
    • Pew Research Center surveyed people in 44 countries and found that that individualism is more prevalent and celebrated more in North America.
    • What are your thoughts?
  2. How does the “Cultural Christian / Congregational Christian / Convictional Christian” distinction apply to these videos?
    • Ed Stetzer defines the two as, “Cultural Christians … they call themselves Christian because of heritage or culture. Congregational Christians have some connection to a local church, but rarely attend. On the other hand, convictional Christians call themselves Christians like the other two categories, but they attend church services regularly and order their lives around their faith convictions.” (No, American Christianity is not dead,” CNN, 5/16/15, retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/16/living/christianity-american-dead/)
    • What are your thoughts?
  3. Does the latter (satirical) video make some points about the first video?
    • And if so, what are they?
    • What does the world need to know today to better understand these videos?

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTUGadddOq0&feature=youtu.be

CHRISTIANS & 3 Types: Cultural, Congregational & Convictional #EdStetzer

Commentary by Dr. Whitesel; “My friend Ed Stetzer has done a great service to the Body of Christ by pointing out there that there are not just two cultures of Christians (churchgoers & non-churchgoers) but actually three. See this helpful explanation by Ed to CNN. Thank you Ed! (But before this lulls convictional Christians into complacency just remember, despite these insights Pew Research shows that convictional Christians have plateaued and are beginning a decline.)”

Ed Stetzer (CNN), 5/24/15.

It’s helpful to statistically clarify Christianity in the United States into three categories—cultural, congregational, and convictional. The first two categories are nominal Christians—they identify, but do not shape their lives around the Christian faith.

Cultural Christians are the least connected — they call themselves Christian because of heritage or culture. Congregational Christians have some connection to a local church, but rarely attend. On the other hand, convictional Christians call themselves Christians like the other two categories, but they attend church services regularly and order their lives around their faith convictions.

If you read the headlines this week, you’d think the latter category is collapsing. But, that would be a sign of bad math, not an accurate reading of the situation.

About 70-75% of the U.S. population calls itself Christian, but about 25% of the U.S. population practices that faith in a robust manner. This includes, in order of size, evangelicals, Catholics, mainline Protestants, and others….

Today, we are seeing cultural Christians, and even some congregational Christians, now self-identify as religiously “unaffiliated.” Folks who previously marked “Christian” on a religious survey because they weren’t Hindu or Jewish are now choosing “none of the above.”

In other words, nominal Christians (cultural and congregational) are becoming the “nones.” That’s not all that is going on, but the nominals becoming the nones are a big part of it. How do we know? Well, math….

Yet, the kind of Christians going to church has changed, particularly among Protestants. It’s moved from mainline, to evangelical. In 1972, 9% of the American population was regular church-attending mainline Protestant and 8% was evangelical, according to GSS. By 2014, the roles had reversed: church-attending mainline Protestants made up 4% of the population, while evangelicals rose to 13%…

Read more at … http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/16/living/christianity-american-dead/

(Thanks to Scot McKnight for the edit.)