On the Christians of Boise

Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance shares a map that has some disturbing information in it regarding Idaho’s religious affiliation:

While it is fascinating to look at the nationwide profile, it is particularly arresting to look at Idaho and indeed the entire Pacific Northwest. While eastern and southern Idaho are burgundy, largely due to the strong LDS presence in that region, only one other county in the remainder of the state boasts as much as 50% of the population which claims religious affiliation.

This means a couple of things. For one, it means the church has a lot of work to do in extending its message of the gospel in Idaho. Idaho appears to represent as much of a mission field for the Christian church as some foreign lands. While not as unchurched as our neighbors to the west, Oregon and Washington, Idaho clearly is less spiritually active than most of the rest of the country.
Secondly, this means that the pro-family community in Idaho will need to rely on more than just religious arguments to advance policies that support life, marriage and the family. Fortunately, the best in social research in virtually all instances confirms the view of society we find in the Judeo-Christian tradition, so the task is clearly doable.

But we will have to do our homework and be prepared to engage in the public debate not only by appealing to the historic standards of the Judeo-Christian tradition but also by appealing to history, law, logic, science, reason, and research.

Clayton Cramer addresses the politics of this further. The state’s overall social conservatism is fairly well documented. Given the 68% approval of the marriage Amendment last year in most of the state and the vote in favor of the Ten Commandments Monument in three of Boise’s four legislative districts, we can say that there exists in America and Idaho in general many traditionalists without religion.

 

Having said that, I think it is limited good. While Bryan Fischer is correct that argument and reason can be used to persuade people of socially conservative positions, there’s a limit to the good that can be done by that, as Reverend Fischer alludes to.

 

 

 

The best result for society and for the individual has nothing to do with the political sphere we focus on here at Adam’s Blog. It is what flows out of the heart due to a relationship with Christ. What has made Idaho and the rest of the Northwest so non-religious?

 

 

 

While, it’s very popular for the church to focus on Evangelism as the question, “How do we get these folks in to the church?” I think we’ve missed the point. The question is, “What is there that makes the church worth joining?”

 

 

 

 

The theories that you hear on Evangelism begin with the church reaching out to the world.

 

Yet, when you study the history of revivals, you find something remarkable, most came out of efforts at revival in the Church.

As I’ve prayed about this topic, the one thing I’ve felt is that the key need is for the church to become concerned for is for the faith of the Church to come alive throughout our Valley.

 

 

Having known folks who’ve tried pioneer works in the Western states, the one thing that stands out is that the West’s greatest strengths in other areas may be her weaknesses in this area of Faith.

 

 

 

 

 

What I love about the West is the people. Having been to numerous parts of the country and interacted with thousands of people, I wouldn’t want to live anywhere other than the Rocky Mountain West. Folks tend to be laid back overall. You don’t have many snobs (with the exception of a few areas.) Folks are casual here. Casual in dress, casual in conversations, and relaxed in manners. Other areas of the west are even more laid back.

In the four years I lived in Eureka, Montana, the only person I saw a suit was me during my campaign for Lincoln County Treasurer.

 

 

 

 

 

But when that attitude’s taken towards God, that’s when the problems come. Now, I’m not casting any stones or targeting anyone with what I’m about to say and I include myself in much of this criticism. Observing many different churches, it seems that we’ve carried that casual attitude over into the church.

 

 

Church should be a community, where we model Christian love and faith to one another. Instead, in the Treasure Valley, church seems to be an add on to our life where we make church convenient for us and we’ll take it when it is easy to get to, and when we have something else to do, it gets thrown aside.

 

 

Perhaps, nothing is more emblematic of that than all the ministries that are shut down during the Summer. Most churches around here suspend some pretty vital activities such as Sunday School during the Summer. The net result is people are in church once a week for an hour, then gone. It’s hard to build a strong community of faith when everything is rebooted every year.

 

 

We also tend to have less services than churches out East or even on the West Coast. One Sunday, I decided I felt like I needed a little extra church, so I decided to visit a church with a Sunday Night service. The problem is that other than Andrea and I’s former church, I couldn’t find a single church in the Treasure Valley holding one. While not everyone in other areas of the country holds a Sunday Night Service, many do. You also see a lot less Wednesday Night services, prayer meetings during the week, etc.

 

 

Of course, numerous services are no guarantee of spiritual revival, but I think the lack of them points to a basic problem, our laziness with our faith. I say our laziness, because it’s my problem, too. Christianity in the Treasure Valley is very comfortable. It’s made easy, convenient, and non-demanding. At the same time, though, we’ve lost something along the way: the need for discipleship, real community, and a sense of the family of faith. Rather, in many cases, we are only strangers who happen to worship in the same building. We don’t truly know people and they don’t truly know us.

Such a church doesn’t attract most people. The church is to be an example of God’s kingdom. What we learn in church should overflow to every other area of our lives. Instead, when the church merely serves as an add-on, the greater culture affects our view of what the church and scripture teaches and the Church becomes involved in a game of follow the leader with the culture rather than being a redemptive force in our society.

Our problem in the Treasure Valley isn’t that we have bad pastors or that we have bad people in our churches. I’ve met many pastors in our valley and would consider the vast majority to be dedicated servants of God. Perhaps, if it were the cause, it would be a much easier problem to fix. Our problem is that we need to be revived by the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps, most importantly we’ve got to want to be revived. We have to sacrifice our pleasure, our comfort to come closer to God. I know that it’s hard for me, just like anyone else. My flesh doesn’t want to pray more, doesn’t want to seek God for revival, doesn’t want our casual relationship with church to change, but it must in order to fulfill God’s will and purpose in our valley.