The Stats

Happy Friday,

May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 33:22

Biblical hope is not optimism – i.e., it’s not dependent upon a sunny disposition or wishful thinking. Biblical hope is the strength and resilience we gain when we reflect on the character promises of God. If we place our hope in someone or something else, it is as easily lost as misplaced car keys.

FWIW: After preaching last week on Gideon, someone said to me, “Do you know what the Bible never records people saying after they’ve heard from the Lord? ‘Of course. That’s what I was going to do anyway.’”

The Stats: After ten years of crunching census data, the once-every-decade report on the U.S.’s 370 religious bodies, 350K congregations, and 160 million adherents is in.¹ What does it say? Over the last ten years: 1) Mainline Christian denominations have declined (especially Presbyterians, who dropped 40%); 2) The number of “religious Americans” has grown by 7% – which is 0.5% less than the growth of the general population; and 3) Of religious groups, Evangelicals grew the most (9M), followed by Roman Catholics (3M). (Note: RCs grew in spite of closing 1,100 parishes). As helpful as this data is: It already seems dated. BC data – i.e., data collected Before COVID – does not seem very helpful.

Hellen Keller Denialism: Just when you thought the news couldn’t get any crazier, you discover there’s an Internet community comprised of people who reject the idea that Hellen Keller was deaf and blind.

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WOTW: Honorable mention goes to anti-tribes and its cousin epistemic-tribalism. Collectively they point out that there is a lot of tribalism out there. I also feel the need to recognize peer contagion, which hints at the way Social Media x Middle School = Big Trouble. Actual honors go to voluntold, which is developed in this WSJ article. While I’m sure the other terms are more important, I’m going with voluntold because, well, I’ve been voluntold more than a few times. BTW, you are free to ignore the WSJ piece. I’m not voluntelling you to read it. And one more thing, a few weeks ago I gave honorable mention honors to bespoke. I’d seen it four times in the same week, but I haven’t seen it since. I’m withdrawing its award. I bespoke too soon.

Quotes Worth Requoting: 1) Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself. Soren Kierkegaard; 2) The most important thing about you is what you think about when you think about God. JI Packer; 3) Every person needs three kinds of friends: a Paul, who can challenge and mentor us; a Barnabas, who can walk alongside us; and a Timothy, into whom we can pour our life. Howard Hendricks; 4) The biggest thing I’ve learned in my career and life is that when I focused on myself in life – in a job or on a team – it didn’t work out well for me. But when I tried to help other people it really worked out well. Tony Dungy

Steve Martin’s Atheist Hymn: As a long-time Steve Martin fan, I was surprised I’d not run into his lament before. It’s not as catchy as King Tut, but because I think Martin ends up making more of a point than he realizes, I’m including the link here.

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Without Comment: 1) Sometime this month India will pass China as the world’s most populous country; 2) 90% of Congress identifies as Christian, contrasted with 65.4% of U.S. adults; 3) According to Gallup, only 23% of Americans have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the presidency – the lowest percentage since 1975 – and only 7% have confidence in Congress.² 4) Unlike most Americans, White Evangelicals and Black Protestants think believing in God is necessary for morality; 5) The global population was five times larger at the end of the 20^th century than at the beginning, not because we “started breeding like rabbits,” but because we stopped “dying like flies;” 6) The percentage of Americans who say they are “not too happy” has more than doubled, while the percentage who say they are “very happy” has fallen to the lowest level in the five decades the poll has been conducted; 7) Barna says three reasons nonbelievers say they do not believe are: Past experience with a religious institution, the hypocrisy of religious people, and human suffering; 8) According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, the average credit card debt for U.S.households is $9.3K, and according to this study, 40% of U.S. households have no money saved towards retirement; 9) In 2018, American Higher Ed brought in $700B in revenue – nearly a quarter of which now goes to administration; 10) Among the most common items on people’s bucket list are: Traveling to a specific location, learning a new language (or musical instrument), skydiving, completing a marathon and writing a book or screen play; 11) In 2014 Steve Kerr reshaped the Golden State Warriors by giving them a simple team goal: Pass the ball 300 times per game.

The Paper of Record: The NYT suddenly has a lot of Christ-followers writing for it: David French, Tish Harrison Warren, Esau McCaulley, Ross Douthat, David Brooks, et al. BTW, I recently ran across Brook’s 2004 column on the late John Stott. I remember being shocked to hear that Brooks knew about John Stott and later hearing that Stott had been praying for him – and quietly sharing the Gospel with him – for years.

Let’s Not Overthink Things: There are powerful truths that we overlook either because they are too obvious or too uncomfortable: 1) If we want to know which direction our life is going, all we really need to do is look at the things we do every day; 2) The rapidly declining mental health of our young suggests our society is not healthy; 3) Our wounds, past, failings and flaws do not define or disqualify us unless we hide behind them.

Resources: Click here for last week’s sermon on Gideon – it’s the first in our new series entitled, This is My Story. Click here for my interview with Roy Schwarz on all things Jewish.

Closing Prayer: Set my heart on fire with love for you, most loving Father, and then to do your will, and to obey your commandments, will not be grievous to me. For to him that loves, nothing is difficult, nothing is impossible, because love is stronger than death. Oh, may love fill and rule my heart. For then there will spring up and be cherished between you and me a likeness of character and union of will, so that I may choose and refuse as you do. May your will be done in me and by me forever. Amen. (Jakob Merlo-Horstius 1597-1644)