Christian ethicist David Gushee recently coined a phrase that may stick around for a while: “half-churched Christians.” Mainline Protestant pastors like myself are more than familiar with gloomy prognostications about burgeoning hordes of the “unchurched” and “nones.” Somehow, “half-churched” sounds more encouraging. Half a loaf is better than none, is it not?
Gushee is bemoaning a changed perception in American Christianity: weekly Sunday worship attendance is no longer even an aspirational ideal. Twice a month, at best, is more like it. For screen-obsessed 21st-century Christians—who, like the biblical Martha, are “distracted by many things”—even that may be a high bar.
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