canadianchristianity.com email interview with John Redekop, veteran political science professor and author, Abbotsford

1. What are the main challenges and issues the Canadian church is facing? How are we doing at dealing with those challenges and issues?

At a time and in a country where Christians, including evangelical Christians, tend to be well-off, if not affluent, it is very difficult to get Christians to acknowledge their need of God in practical, daily matters including financial and other ways. It is also difficult to get them to see that they need one another. It is similarly often very difficult to get them to acknowledge that they still need the church and that the church is a divinely ordained institution!

At a time when lay people in the pews are increasingly well-trained and many bring important skills and much experience to the situation, and many people spend productive decades of retirement time in various pursuits and endeavors, it is sad to see churches increasingly depend on a professional and expensive clergy class while the available talent in the pews gives itself to community service elsewhere or is simply ignored.

Evangelical churches need to take a much stronger leadership role in addressing social and community ills without reducing their emphasis on soul salvation as a primary agenda.

Evangelical denominations need to be more committed to cooperation and joint activity. A lost world is not interested in theological minors. The masses need to hear our collective witness concerning majors!

Christian churches today must stand strong in defence of basic Biblical morality, especially as it concerns marriage and the family. At the same time, the Christian church must address serious moral issues concerning greed, materialism, individualism, and hedonism as Jesus also did.

The Christian churches must speak more boldly to governments, media and education authorities about their rights and their historic and current contributions to societal well-being. Christians have every right to be heard seriously at public tables and in the public square.

2. What are the bright spots, encouraging trends, new movements in Canadian Christianity? How will the Canadian church and Canadian society change in the future? What future trends and issues will we have to deal with?

The key developments include the following, as far as Canada is concerned:

Evangelical seminaries are becoming larger, stronger, and more significant.

Attendance in evangelical churches remains strong and is increasing faster than population growth.

The Canadian church scene is becoming less denominational. The danger is that theology will become less orthodox. We can, however, become less denominational without yielding on essentials.

Denominations need to be more open to the idea of learning from one another.

'Worship wars' and musical malaise are not yet over. We must be open to new forms of expression without rejecting what has been time-tested. While music may be similar, we must be different from the world in order to bring a saving message to the world. I find it encouraging that some churches are again embracing more traditional music, a genre which they too readily discarded.

I foresee an increasing attack on Christian teaching about family and marriage. We must, in Christian ways, counteract such attacks whether they emanate from the media, the courts, the legislatures, the schools, or entertainment depictions. We must not only oppose but present a better option and a clear rationale.

3. What is the character of the Canadian church? What distinguishing characteristics does it have? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Is this changing?

By and large the Canadian church, including the evangelical sector, is less militant, less nationalistic and less partisan that most US churches and perhaps most churches in various other lands. This is commendable. The Christian church is universal and must not tie itself to any political structure or ideology. Equally important, while always prepared to be a Christian presence in any situation, the Christian church has not been mandated by God to be an uncritical chaplain to aggressive nationalism or military pursuits.

The Christian church needs to become more outward oriented, less committed to a mere maintenance mode. Some Christian churches, in a laudable attempt to become more relevant and attractive, have sacrificed solid Biblical preaching and have compromised worship. Some have, unfortunately, come to rely on entertainment and novelty to build and hold a congregation.

4. How is the church doing qualitatively? How committed are church members? Are churches generally optimistic, pessimistic, fearful, expectant, discouraged, energized, complacent, disinterested, etc.?

While it is dangerous to generalize, it seems to me that a significant sector of church attendees and even members are relegating their church to an ever lower level of priority. Many see themselves as mere consumers. Of course, the sector of truly committed believers is also still impressive.

From my limited observation I would say that the main concern is not being pessimistic, fearful or discouraged but, rather, being complacent and aloof.

Because denominational leadership has all too often lacked vision, much dynamic Christian

energy and zeal is now expressed through para-church agencies which, in some instances, lack accountability.

5. What is the state of the church in Canada numerically, both in terms of the number of church members and the number of Christians? What branches of the church-such as, Catholic, mainline, charismatic, postmodern, evangelical--are growing and shrinking? In what parts of the country-provinces, urban areas, rural areas--is the church growing or shrinking? Among what demographics is the church growing or shrinking?

My understanding is that evangelical churches are growing in number and in attendance. Unfortunately, mainline and Roman Catholic churches appear to be declining in church attendance although the RC continues to hold its formal membership quite well.

I think that charismatic churches are still growing more rapidly than others, on average, although I have noted that those few churches which have done a good job in developing traditional and even liturgical services are also attracting many attendees, including non-Christians.

Canadian evangelical churches have generally not done very well, especially in recent decades, in attracting urbanites in big cities. The main problem, it seems to me, is not inadequate methods or even inadequate resources, although that is often a big problem, but, rather, a weakening among Christians generally, and perhaps city dwellers a bit more than others, of the sense that unbelievers are eternally lost.

In general I see a major challenge in retaining the next generation for Christ and His church. Television, the internet, etc. are drawing many people away. We need both education, strong Christian home situations, and Christian usage of new technologies in order to prevent undue losses.

6. What is the attitude of the larger Canadian society to Christianity? Is this changing? In what ways? What impact is secularism having? What is the character of Canadian society generally, how is it changing, and what impact is that having on the church?

In most parts of Canada the larger society is becoming less supportive of traditional Christian values and practices. Society is becoming more secular. This will create serious problems for the church. However, a truly secular society, as it realizes its ideological futility and moral rootlessness, may, in fact, become increasingly open to the Christian Gospel and the Christian ethic.

In the future the various denominations will need to work cooperatively and with great tact and sensitivity in order to make a convincing case for respect for Christianity, tolerance of Christianity, and a place for Christianity in public affairs ranging from education to the media.

It seems to me that in recent years Canadian society, including its vocal leaders, have become increasingly tolerant of minor religions and increasingly less tolerant of Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity.

7. What is the ethnic makeup of the church in Canada and what impact is immigration having on Canada? What percentage of immigrants are already Christian? Are we converting immigrants to Christ? Are other religions gaining adherents? Are we winning our children or losing them? How multicultural is the church, how representative of the Canadian population?

The actual data is available from public sources. Given the changing composition of Canadian society, especially in large urban areas, increasing attention will need to be paid to minority groups. While increasing effort is being undertaken by some denominations to incorporate a diversity of ethnic peoples in 'open' congregations, I doubt if that will work. Ethnic groups, by and large, prefer to be with their own kind. In some cases linguistic differences are important. As I see it, the important aspects are good will, mutual affirmation, cooperation, and loving acceptance of differences.

In the future the evangelical church must become even more multi-cultural than it is today but this trend may not be expressed very much within individual congregations.

I am concerned about what strikes me as a growing 'loss' of children who grew up in Christian homes. It is not possible for the church to compete successfully with electronic entertainment and pursuits generally if that is the chosen method of trying to keep the younger people in church. While the church should, of course, use all suitable technology, it needs to attract people on its own terms. The content of what is said and the corollary body life in the church will attract and hold the young folk.

8. What are the most important moral issues that the church will be wrestling with in the next few years? Are we still wrestling with issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, or are those battles over? What can and should the church be doing in these areas?

Many moral issues such as sexual fidelity in marriage have been with the church and society since New Testament times. That will not change. In addition, of course, we now also need to deal with abortion, same-sex marriage and the undermining of the family generally. I see these challenges becoming more, not less, serious. Many churches are doing good work in addressing these issues in both practical and theological ways. They need to be affirmed. The big challenge for evangelical Christians will be truly to love those who sharply disagree with what the church stands for and because of their chosen lifestyles, come across as increasingly unlovable!

In coming years the evangelical churches will need to work in a much more focused manner in affirming government action where it is good, working with government agencies where we have a common agenda, and being constructively critical of governments and their policies where these are detrimental for society.

9. What studies/resources can you refer us to that back up/provide hard data for your answers?

I do wide reading and considerable writing on these topics but I do not have the time to develop the appropriate bibliographies. I'm sorry about that but it is the reality.