Is Canada in the same boat?

According to Reginald Bibby, religion in Canada is anything but dead.

62% of Canadians believe Jesus died for their sins, but only . . .

17% go to church regularly and more than half of Canadians go to church once a year or never at all.

These statistics beg the question . . .

Why?

This the first part of a four part series on “What is Church?” by 100 Huntley Street.  It is only 6:45 long.  Please watch this clip as it is an important topic for all of us . . . yes, even more important than watching 24 (or, since it is only 6:45, you can watch during the many commercial breaks in your favourite TV show!)

Leonard Sweet said, “The church is the place where people ought to feel most free to be themselves and most accountable to one another.” You can see other responses to that question from people on the street in the above video.

How would YOU answer the question, “What is church?”  Leave your answer below.

This mini-series will continue tomorrow with “What is Church?” Part II and a look at Emerging Churches in Canada and USA.  Please consider subscribing to keep up with the conversation here!

[tip] If you enjoyed this post, you will probably also like the interview with Bruxy Cavey here. [/tip]

“What is Church? Part II – Emerging” is here.

Combining social justice, community and the arts in the third poorest neighbourhood in Canada.

Connecting with others through urban farming while adding sustainability to your community.

Creating space for people who normally would not be allowed to have space in church.

What is God doing on the fringes of Canadian culture?

Flying under the radar of pop-Christianity, experimental churches are quietly establishing genuine Kingdom outposts in settings both feared and forgotten. ‘One Size Fits All?’ uncovers the obscure story of these Canadian missional communities and its leaders.

In the words of the producer, “these communities are not emergent, but contextual, incarnational, missional.”

You can watch some clips and interviews here.

In the clips, you will hear about one of these communities in which a crack addict chooses to sleep on the couch rather than with his girlfriend because he believes Jesus would want him to abstain until he’s married.

You will also hear one of the leaders of another community said, “I don’t necessarily care about getting people saved I just want them to begin caring about the things that Jesus cared about.”

One Size Fits All? tells twenty-five stories about God’s work in the fringes of Christian pop culture in Canada.  You can order it from the webpage here.  Go ahead and support new expressions of church and order a copy.  (No, I do not get any commission or affiliate percentage.  Just trying to spread the word )

In an interview one of the producers, Joe Manafo, says . . .

“If the church is not about the event or tremendous service or fantastic kids’ program, if it’s about doing life together -  and that’s the good times and the bad times, this is a long and arduous  and dirty process but it’s beautiful as well – what’s better than having people sit across from you at the kitchen table or holding other people’s kids, what’s better than doing life together whether they are followers of Jesus or they’re not?”

Awesome! Well said Joe.  I strongly believe that the church is definitely NOT about services or programs.  It’s about the people, isn’t it?  Doing life together.

What about you?  I’d love to hear your comments, and here are two questions to get you thinking . . .

Do you think that church programs are obstacles to spiritual growth and community, or do you find it impossible to think of church without the programs?

One person said, “It’s like asking your grandmother to put on a mini-skirt because you are asking her to adopt a style that is not hers.”  Can you relate? Is your community attractive to only one style of person?

However, for all my Canadian readers, we need to remember these posts are about the church in the USA which is quite different than the church in Canada (believe it or not!).  We, in Canada, often think that our Christian culture is the same as in the States and we read books by American publishers forgetting that they were written from from a different perspective.  It is not easy to find the kinds of statistics and commentaries about the Canadian church.

And this is why I am linking to a friend of mine at Eclectic Christian where some of his posts give statistical information and reviews of Canadian Christians and churches.

Also Michael Bell has done a great job looking at statistics that help to expand on what Internet Monk was saying.  Please, please read his posts at Internet Monk here and part two here.

One of his comments is as follows:

If you want to know what America is going to look like in forty years, and how Evangelicals will be treated, look at Canada today. . .

. . . If my statistical analysis up to this point has been correct, then Evangelical numbers in the USA in forty years will be very similar to Evangelical numbers in Canada today. Much of what Michael has said about the way Evangelicals will be treated in the USA is already true in Canada.

So, please read these posts as they will prove to be very informative and helpful as we all aim to follow Jesus in our own contexts and what that looks like for the church in North America.

Also please refer to Michael Bell’s Ancecdotal Look at Canada in reference to the aforementioned Evangelical Collapse.