Addicted to Entertainment:
Since I have been reading a book, The History of Christian Missions by Stephen Neill, I have started to wonder about what the greatest hindrances to the advancement of the Gospel are today. I hear report after report and demographic after demographic loudly proclaiming the slide from being a Christian continent to a pagan society. Reasons are varied and there are far too many to go into depth to report them, but the truth is that there seem to be fewer people accepting Christian faith and baptism. Now maybe this is the fault of churches and the Christians that occupy them, but what if that is only a small part of the truth.
What if it is simply a fact that there are so many choices to entertain one self that the gospel is hardly even noticed? Every where I turn I see people being entertained all the time. (Even as I write this I am listening to David Crowder Band on my laptop at a library) There are cell phones that are mp3 players and TV’s. There are portable video games, mp3 players. I wonder about myself and others if we are to simple and live to be entertained by everyone else’s lives. Movies, TV shows, computers, cell phones, PDA’s with games and MSN.
How different would life be without all the distractions? Would conversations with real meaning start taking place or am I just too optimistic? Would people start thinking the purpose of life might be more than just finding the next great band or movie or hit TV show? Would people stop, or be less able, to escape from the reality or pain of the life they are living and look for real answers? I think maybe many people are not Christian’s for no other reason than Christianity is not entertaining enough. (And too many churches seem to be trying to compete on this level.)
Disclaimer: (This is in no way to be taken that the church or Christians should throw up their hands and tell God “We have tried everything we can think of, we’re done now.” We must fulfill the Great Commission. There are real criticisms for the church and Christians individually that needed to be discussed and assessed. Real changes do need to be made, but I think what I have written above is a real factor in declining numbers of new converts and the slide of so many right out of the church in general.)
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
1 comment:
I agree.
But I don't think that is any surprise.
My old neighbours, who used to live across the road but now have an apartment in Moose Jaw, never have had a tv in their living room. In either place walking into the living room kinda throws you off the first time you walk in, which has a great deal to do the fact that the room is not focused around a tv. Their living is one of the most appealing places to hang out. There we have had fantastic conversations,thinking out loud, and challenging each other; there we read books out loud, drink tea, and laugh at our sad attempts to give characters their own voice... But I have had equally amazing conversations in my own living room, which does have a tv.
we could try removing the things that we use as a distraction and that woould work, for a moment, but we very easily find other distractions.
Entertainment is a distration, entertainment is our excuse. Will removing it solve the problem? Will we then turn to live a better standard? hmph... thanks for the thought engaging post.
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