Larry Osborne: Fewer People Are Calling Themselves Christians, and Why That's a Good Thing… » Leadership Network
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Our friend Larry Osborne thinks a new study that shows a decreasing number of people who identify as "Protestant Christians" could actually be a good thing. Here's why:
- Cultural Christianity has never done anything to advance the kingdom. It only inoculates against the real thing. When large numbers of nominal and cultural Christians wave the banner of Christ, it confuses the message of the gospel. But now that they have ditched the title, it opens the door for genuine disciples to get the word out without all the confusion.
- Despite the drop in the number of people who chose the label "Christian" the actual number of people who identified as evangelical and attend church continues to increase (even among those under 30). In other words, the nominals have fallen off, but they were never aboard. And the number of committed Christ followers has increased.
- The decrease in the number of people who call themselves "Christian" also shows the folly of messing with God's Word in an attempt to make it more palatable. The drop in self-identified Christians is roughly equal to the drop in self-identified mainline Protestants. That's right. The churches that left scripture and orthodoxy in an attempt to be culturally relevant, have become culturally irrelevant. Those who try to improve upon God's Word or bring a new gospel have always done so at their peril. Jesus said he would build his church, not ours.
You can read more of Larry's thoughts here…
What do YOU think?
By ToddRhoades
Original Page: http://leadnet.org/blog/post/larry_osborne_fewer_people_are_calling_themselves_christians_and_why_thats
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