If God Disappears…

“I’ve lost me faith. How can I get it back?”

This is a question that is becoming more and more common in ministry. Because of the confuse regarding what is faith and religion, most of us are having a hard time understanding the question.

David Sanford is going to attempt his answer of the life changing question in a book to be released this fall: “If God Disappears: 9 Faith Wreckers and What to Do About Them” Sanford details nine reasons he uncovered through listening to stories of those who exited the church and abandon faith. Most of the time, Christians leave because of a "wounded" experience. They either deliberately walk away due to questions and doubts that go unanswered or they feel that God has walked away or "disappeared," observed Sanford.

The numbers are astounding. Barna research group confirms that the church is loosing about 1 Million parishioners in America each year. Over the last several years about 31 Million have walked away. To quote Sanford:

"Any business that is losing 31 million customers is going out of business," he told a room of Christian journalists and editors. "[It] is the greatest crisis among Christians today in the U.S., Canada and some parts of Europe…We must break the silence in our publications.”

I know where Sanford is going with this book and understand how he is attempting to build people up and help them rethink their theology of God. Is attempting to answer the age old crisis of why bad things happen to good people, or why a Good God would allow such pain and suffering in this world. This is the same urgent need that has spawned the popularity of the fictional book “The Shack.”

This summer I had two wonderful conversations with a young woman and a young man who shared the very same question with me. They were in crisis and didn’t know what to do. They both had attended church and considered themselves Christians at one time but had walked away from God, one even thought of himself as an agnostic moving toward atheism.

What I discovered just by listening to their stories is that they were not Christians who were born again in the Spirit of Christ by the faith of Christ, but they were people who followed a religious form of Christianity. They did not know the difference between faith and religion. They acted and bargained with God with Christian terms but they relied on a religious understanding. In all fairness they knew no other way. When I asked to explain the difference between faith and religion they were at a loss.

I am glad to report that after one conversation with them they made the choice to move beyond religious Christianity and move into the Faith of Christ. That faith came with power that made a difference in their hearts, attitudes and direction. The conclusion that God has brought me to believe is that most Americans are religious but not really born again Christians. They have not the real faith that can change their world.

As new books come out on how to help the million people who will leave the church this year, I am afraid that they will get only another religious list of things to do without using this moment to leave religious efforts behind for the peace of Christ.

They next blog will deal the difference between a Christian religion (which must fail) and the Christian faith (which cannot fail.)