I’m going to start by acknowledging that I am not a Catholic. I attend a Church of Christ, so I don’t have a dog in the race when discussing the recent conclave to appoint a new pope.
Yet Catholic or not, we should all care about how the new pope will lead the Catholic church, as Catholicism is the largest sect of the Christian religion across the world and is only growing.
It seems the College of Cardinals have declared Cardinal Robert Prevost, now to be known as Pope Leo XIV, as their new leader. I have heard conflicting reports on his leanings, but I do know many Catholics are shocked as he is the first American-born pope.
The late Pope Francis was a leader who appealed more to the boomer generation. Ambiguous in many of his teachings, it almost seemed he was going against longstanding Catholic doctrine. Whether or not that was the case is still debated even after his death. He was against the Latin Mass, a deeply liturgical form of worship, and sought to get rid of it, a fact displeasing to more traditional Catholics. He also seemed to wish to open the door for more female involvement in the clergy, as well as blessing gay “marriage.”
No one rejoices over Pope Francis’s death, and he is properly mourned. And I certainly pray for Pope Leo’s success in leading the Catholic Church in the right direction. But I hope he takes heed to the change in culture concerning what many are looking for in Christianity.
This change was recently noted on the podcast Morning Wire. During a segment on the growth of Christianity, author Megan Basham revealed interesting numbers from Pew Research showing a 12% uptick in Christianity across the board, a far cry from the death of Christianity others have been saying is happening. Roughly three-quarters of those new converts became Catholic and 14% became Protestant. And this is just in the United States. Germany reports a 15% increase in Catholic converts and a 10% increase in Protestant converts.
Basham also noted that Vanity Fair recently ran a story that tech people in Silicon Valley are returning to church in droves.
Sociologists are calling this the post-secular moment, attributing it to a society whose morals are increasingly unmoored and a rise in conservatism across the board.
I’ll pause here to underscore that point about the rise in political conservatism bringing people back to church. If we think Christians ought to stay out of politics or just unhook Christian morality from politics in order to grow the church, this information should make us rethink that position.
Pastors are reporting a strong increase in the return of young men to church, a trend that actually reverses the traditional one of mostly women seeking the church. This trend is so long-held that we’ve shaped our style and tenor of worship and preaching around it. It’s noticeable when we listen to modern worship songs designed for middle-aged women driving around in their cars, or in feel-good, fluffy sermons.
But these young men aren’t attracted by that approach. As Basham notes in the above podcast, they are running from consumerized and feminized churches, reporting a desire for tradition, liturgy, and a more rigorous form of Christianity. In fact, she notes, Germany is reporting a 12% rise in young men who are citing the appeal of biblical authority.
These young men want to get involved. They want the traditional and the transcendent, yet they want to be grounded.
It remains to be seen if the Catholic Church has picked up on this trend in its election of the new pope, or whether the new pope will rise to the moment. But will Protestants listen to this trend and act accordingly?
Right now, Protestant services are rife with songs that would make any straight man blush to sing to a male Deity – I’m looking at you, “How He Loves” and “Beautiful One”! Our sermons are so ambiguous and fluffy or moralistic that no sense of doctrine may be found. In fact, we’ve developed a perfect allergy to doctrine all together. Our version of scriptural interpretation may be boiled down to: “Pick a random thing in that verse that stood out to you. Now what does this mean to you?” Then we put it on a pretty background and share it to social media.
Church leaders, I beg you to stop playing solely to an audience of white boomer women and consider the youth you desperately seek to claim for the Kingdom. They are looking for solid biblical teaching, doctrine, authority of Scripture. If you don’t give that to them, you are no better than the world or secularism. Yes, they still need “Jesus loves you,” but they also need “the Bible has this to say on marriage.”
Much like the Catholics, we Protestants are at a crossroads. Catholics are bringing in a new era of leadership. We should be doing the same. It’s time to change churches. It’s time to bring out the full gospel, preaching on sin included – maybe throw in some doctrine of the Trinity. Rise up and meet the moment!
Laura Clark is a wife, mother, and community activist. She currently serves as the interim president of Alabama Center for Law and Liberty, a conservative nonprofit law firm that fights for limited government, free markets, and strong families in the courts. Anything written by Laura for this publication does not constitute legal advice.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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