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What’s New: Pew Research has revealed a decade-long decline in Christian representation in Congress, even though 87% of lawmakers still identify as Christian. While this might seem like a positive disparity compared to the 62% of U.S. adults who claim Christianity, the trend reflects a larger cultural shift of name-only Christianity.
So What: If “identifying” as Christian isn’t transforming our culture or solving our deepest social issues, what’s missing?
The Points to Ponder
1. Labels Don’t Equal Transformation (Duh!) Identifying as Christian doesn’t mean living like one. The disparity is evident: while 87% of lawmakers claim Christianity, fewer than 15% of Americans regularly attend worship. Cultural Christianity—name-only Christianity—has replaced discipleship.
2. The Heart Problem Laws don’t legislate morality. Decades of anti-racism, gender equity, and social justice initiatives have only made incremental progress because the root of these issues lies deeper—the problem’s in the human heart. “Identifying” isn’t synonymous with “being.”
3. The Church’s Role According to a study in Outreach Magazine, only 5% of growing U.S.churches are growing through evangelism. Growth comes from transfer or birth, not from reaching the unchurched. Here’s the reality: More than 95% of U.S. churches fail in the Prime Directive – to make disciples. If we’re going to transform our nation and end all those ism’s, evangelism has to become Job 1. Politicking, lobbying, law-making, and protesting hasn’t worked and it’s never going to work.
And … ?
The idea that a “Christian Congress” could lead to a morally upright nation is delusional. For decades, the church has banked on legislation, protests, and political influence to fix what’s broken, yet the same problems persist. Why? Because no law can change the human heart. Transformation is the Holy Spirit’s work, not Capitol Hill’s. The gospel’s power lies in its ability to turn lives around, not in its potential to score votes or pass bills.
The truth is, our churches aren’t fulfilling their mission. When only 5% of growing churches are growing because of evangelism, we’re failing to bring the life-changing power of Jesus to our communities. Instead of waiting for politicians to fix what’s wrong, we have to start mobilizing our members (and our pastors!) to share the gospel boldly and intentionally. That’s where true change begins—in hearts and homes, not legislative chambers.
Action!: It’s time to get serious about evangelism. Grab a copy of my Hitchhikers’ Guide to Evangelism so you can train your church leaders and members how to “do evangelism” in ways that won’t embarrass them, the church, or their friends.
