Join Collin Hansen, Michael Graham, and Sarah Zylstra as they look back on the top theological stories from the last 25 years. In part 1 of this two-part series, Graham and Zylstra walk with Hansen through his stories #10 down to #6.
Since the year 2000, religion in America has changed dramatically. As recently as the 1990s, religion in America was what Tim Keller called “thick”: In general, many clergy were held in high esteem, churches were respected, and people either belonged to a congregation or knew that would be a good idea.
Yet since 2000, the percent of religious Americans has dropped and the number of nones (no religion) has jumped up from 8 percent to 22 percent—and climbing.
So while social commentators lament how much time Americans spend on our screens, describe how views on sexuality have drastically changed, identify how our politics have become sharply polarized, and observe how mental health especially in Gen Z has declined, they often miss the biggest story of all, the one underneath all the others—the decline in attention and deference to God.
In This Episode
00:00 – The Great Dechurching: belief vs. disaffiliation
00:32 – Sarah hosts: why a 30,000-foot view now
03:26 – Factfulness and why we overlook positive trends
05:00 – #10: Global church leadership moving south
09:02 – Theological education hasn’t moved south at the same pace
10:03 – #9: Rise of nondenominational congregations
14:49 – Data point: nondenominationalism grows from 3 percent (1972) to 14–15 percent today
17:27 – Why churches drop denominational labels; media amplification; scandal-by-association
20:00 – #8: China’s church growth—and crackdown
22:07 – India, Hindu nationalism, and persecution; Nigeria and the Africa frontier
25:41 – #7: The dechurching of America
30:24 – Apologetics after dechurching: from hostility to apathy
34:25 – Are churches fewer but stronger?
36:39 – Retention vs. conversion: why evangelical identity declines less
39:09 – #6: The Great Awokening (Ferguson to Floyd)
47:20 – Four paradigms for navigating race in America
52:44 – Wrap-up: part 2 teaser
53:10 – Outro and where to find the podcast/newsletter
Resources Mentioned:
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
The Reason for God by Tim Keller
Making Sense of God by Tim Keller
A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
Divided by Faith by Michael Emerson and Christian Smith
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
We Have Never Been Woke by Musa al-Gharbi
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