Join Collin Hansen, Michael Graham, and Sarah Zylstra as they look back on the top theological stories from the last 25 years.
Since the year 2000, religion in America has changed dramatically. Back in the 1990s, religion in America was what Tim Keller called “thick,” meaning that in general, many clergy were held in high esteem, churches were respected, and people either belonged to a congregation or knew that would be a good idea.
That’s different now. Since 2000, the percent of religious Americans has dropped and the number of nones (no religion) has jumped up from 8 percent to 22 percent.
This is really important to talk about, because social commentators make a big deal out of how much time Americans spend on our screens—and rightly so! And we hear a lot about how our views on sexuality have drastically changed, how our politics have become sharply polarized, and how our mental health has tanked, especially for Gen Z. But what mainstream journalism almost always misses is that the thread running in and through and around those issues is how we think about and react to God.
In This Episode:
00:00 — The Great Dechurching: belief vs. disaffiliation
00:32 — Sarah hosts: why a 30,000-foot view now
03:26 — “Factfulness” and why we overlook positive trends
05:00 — #10: Global church leadership moving south
09:02 — Theological education hasn’t moved south at the same pace
10:03 — #9: Rise of non-denominational congregations
14:49 — Data point: non-denominationalism grows from ~3% (1972) to ~14–15% today
17:27 — Why churches drop denominational labels; media amplification; scandal-by-association
20:00 — #8: China’s church growth—and crackdown
22:07 — India, Hindu nationalism, and persecution; Nigeria and the Africa frontier
25:41 — #7: The Dechurching of America
30:24 — Apologetics after dechurching: from hostility to apathy
34:25 — Are churches fewer but stronger?
36:39 — Retention vs. conversion: why evangelical identity declines less
39:09 — #6: The Great Awokening (Ferguson to Floyd)
47:20 — Four paradigms for navigating race in America
52:44 — Wrap-up: Part 2 teaser
53:10 — Outro + where to find the podcast/newsletter
Resources Mentioned:
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