The American Church in Crisis Quotes

“Luke concludes the book of Acts with these words: “He [Paul] proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ —with all boldness and without hindrance!” (v. 31). Luke’s final words should be the call and cry of the American church.”
― David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches

“Why do so many seekers report that they are attracted to Jesus but not to the church? Perhaps the problem is that the church has done a splendid job of concealing the powerful life-giving Jesus. We domesticate him; we make him our servant; we assume that people have more knowledge about him than they do. We are producing Christians who lack the vitality and depth that should mark Christ-followers.”
― David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches

“In our twenty-first-century American culture, firsthand communication will carry the most weight. People are no longer interested in an abstract and indistinct picture of Jesus. They desire immediacy. In a culture that no longer trusts authority, people desire firsthand personal experience. They need to hear for themselves his words and see for themselves his actions.”
― David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches

“American Christians have often allowed the world to determine their view of power and privilege, rather than Scripture. This has created an Anglo Christianity that is increasingly affluent, suburban, and educated, yet functionally disconnected from non-Anglo populations. A multiethnic church will bring to American Christianity a new awareness of these issues from a biblical perspective so that the new people of God, the church, may truly reflect the diversity and equality inherent in the gospel.”
― David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches

“When faithful Christianity is defined primarily as, “protecting the truth, insulating our children, and surviving the onslaught of competing thoughts,” the battle is lost.”
― David T. Olson, The American Church in Crisis: Groundbreaking Research Based on a National Database of over 200,000 Churches