Reading over the Pew Forum survey on religious life in America I came across an interesting line in the statistics:

Would you describe yourself as a “born again” or evangelical Christian, or not?

Mainline churches    Yes 25%    No 69%    Don’t know 6%

It’s interesting to me because this seems, well, not right.  Do 69% of those who identify themselves with mainline churches (including the UM church) really not consider their lives in Christ to be a new life – that they are “born again” into a new life in Christ?  And do they also not consider it to be their responsibility to share the good news of Christ with others – that is to be “evangelical”?  I hope the problem comes in what these terms have come to be presented as by the media.  If you buy into the media’s portrayal of “born again” and “evangelical” you would say these  means that you are a “Jesus freak” who likes to hand out tracks and has a conservative political agenda.  This isn’t what these terms mean, and I certainly hope that the problem is with misunderstanding these terms.

But what if it’s not?  What does this really mean?  Does it then mean that 69% of those who identify themselves with mainline churches don’t really consider their lives to be completely changed by Christ, enough so much that they would say they now live a new life and have a faith that through Christ they will live eternally?  If this is the case, then the church has a lot of work to do, because this is exactly what the church is about.  We need to help people understand that the church isn’t just a nice place to come and learn about who God is, but a place to come and meet the Savior of the world and begin to live a new life in a relationship with Jesus.  This is why the church exists, and why we should all seek to share the good news of Christ.

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Just so you can see where other churches fit into this survey, here are the full answers to the above question:

Would you describe yourself as a “born-again” or evangelical Christian, or not?

Evangelical churches    Yes 79%    No 18%    Don’t know 2%

Mainline churches    Yes 25%    No 69%    Don’t know 6%

Historically black churches    Yes 67%    No 29%    Don’t know 3%

Catholic    Yes 16%    No 79%    Don’t know 5%

Mormon    Yes 21%    No 73%    Don’t know 6%

Orthodox    Yes 16%    No 77%    Don’t know 7%

Jehovah’s Witness    Yes 17%    No 73%    Don’t know 10%

Other Christian    Yes 15%    No 52%    Don’t know 33%

Total    Yes 44%    No 52%    Don’t know 4%