Emphasis Preaching Journal

Gallup polls in the eighties consistently reveal that a large number of people say they are believers but belong to no church. That number has been as high as sixty million Americans. That is in direct contrast to the profile of church membership back in the fifties. Then the majority of Americans belonged to churches. Then people were saying they belonged, but they may not have believed. Today they say they believe, but they do not belong. Back in colonial times it has been estimated that only ten percent of the population belonged to churches. If someone had taken a poll then, maybe they would have said they believed.

Evangelism teams have a hard time finding the people who do not believe or do not want to believe. The churches have difficulty finding people who want to join up. With seventy percent of the people saying they believe in the Bible, and seventy-five percent saying they pray, we ought to consider ourselves a God-fearing nation. Many people would like to do that. However, we know that we have to question what the figures mean. We have to do that whether we talk about the period when the church membership was high or when it was low. In either event we have to ask what it is the people believe and how they relate to the Body of Christ. That is what the Apostle Paul worked hard to impress upon the congregation at Corinth. Christians are not to think of themselves in isolation and apart from all others who make up the Body of Christ.