We tend to think of America as more religious than the nations on this side of the Atlantic. Recently, however, there have been reports about a steep decline in church-going in the USA. One writer (Michael Spencer) goes so far as to speak of the "coming evangelical collapse"
Commentators suggest various reasons. One is that certain sorts of Christianity had become associated with the policies of the Bush era, now out of favour. Another is that some churches have become narrowly focussed on certain moral issues, like abortion or gay marriage, "believing in a cause more than a faith".
According to Christian Smith and Melinda Denton, who have conducted polls on this topic, the main problem is the picture of God that is being presented: "Basically, God exists and watches over human life. God wants people to be nice. God does not have to be involved in our lives except to solve our problems and make us happy". In other words, churches are thought to exist to promote a feel-good factor - "chicken soup for the soul" as a recent book calls it.
Link these ideas with two of today's ideologies - consumerism and individualism - and the result is devastating. Consumerism holds that shops, governments, churches exist to serve ME and if I can't get what I want in one place I will go elsewhere. If worship doesn't make me feel good perhaps I could join a gym or take up yoga. As Smith and Denton say, this attitude "is killing off the 'historically key ideas in Christianity: repentance, love of neighbor, social justice, unmerited grace, self-discipline, humility, the cost of discipleship, dying to self, the sovereignty of God, personal holiness, the struggles of sanctification, glorifying God in suffering, hunger for righteousness'."
In religious terms, individualism implies that our relationship with Jesus is purely personal, and that prayer and Bible study can equally well be done on our own. In truth, however, "there is no such thing as a lone Christian". We are a "where two or three are gathered together" faith and there is no substitute for the corporate life of the Church. Even when worship does not do it for us one Sunday, it is still important to be there - for the sake of others as well as for our own sake.
Europe is not America, of course, but all the same we should take note of what is happening over there. The American style, content and methods are often proclaimed as the way to revive the Church in Europe. If these reports are true, we should hesitate about adopting fashions that are already going out of date.
Peter Potter