2nd Opinion: Election serves notice to church

Church-growth experts and demographers have been proclaiming cultural and generational shifts for several years. Television coverage of the 2012 election results underscored what the Barna Group and other data analysts have been telling the American church all these years but which many American churches have failed to comprehend or appreciate.

According to political pundits, Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential election because he appealed to a constituency of Americans that no longer constitutes the majority of voters—even if their cohort still is large enough to produce a close election. The Gallup organization’s research revealed Barack Obama received significant majorities of women, Hispanic and young votes, not to mention significant numbers of other so-called minority groups. As the political commentators talked about these figures throughout election night, camera shots of the crowds in Boston and Chicago only seemed to confirm the polls.

Pundits also repeatedly referred to “the ground game.” Obama’s strategy for winning both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections involved street-level community organizing engaging large numbers of field offices with large numbers of campaign volunteers, large numbers of grassroots donors, and a significant presence on Facebook and Twitter.

A theological way of describing Obama’s strategy is “incarnation.” Obama put himself where the people are and found ways for a broad base of support to find ownership in his campaign. He spoke their language, and it won him two presidential elections. Regardless of how you feel about Obama or his policies, you simply cannot argue with his campaign strategy.

For me, watching the election coverage was less about politics than it was a realization of the power of demographics. When I read about what some call the Millennial generation, I see the future of the American church—a future more present than many seem to realize. Millennials comprise the largest generation in American history, surpassing the Baby Boomers, who occupied the fantasies of Madison Avenue for the last couple of decades. Millennials increasingly are non-white, unmarried and educated. Millennials also tend to be more community- and family-minded and less risk-averse than their forebears. They also are mostly digital-natives.

The Obama campaign understood and appreciated the cultural shift in diversity, communication and expectations taking place among both the Millennials and the larger American culture. The Romney campaign did not. I wonder if we in the American church understand and appreciate the cultural shift happening all around us. Are we taking seriously our society as it is becoming, or are we so convinced in the veracity of our presentation that we are ignoring an audience that is ignoring or turning away from us?

Watching the cameras pan across the two different crowds in Boston and Chicago, I saw what happens when cultural shifts are taken seriously. I also saw a chilling vision of the future of the church in America. I saw that as long as American churches continue to “preach to the choir,” they will steadily lose ground as their constituency decreases. And I wonder: Who will incarnate Christ among the new majority? Thankfully, many are incarnating Christ among those people.

As it goes for the Republican party, so it goes for the American church. If American evangelicals continue engaging the population as Republicans did over the last four years, I expect evangelicals to become increasingly irrelevant in a society obviously becoming more diverse by every measure.

There is, however, at least one flaw in my premise. Presidential campaigns are about winning. Being the church is not. Our campaign already is won. Being the church, then, is about being the body of Christ and embodying his good news and hope in an ever-changing world. Furthermore, the church is not a political campaign, despite the shenanigans of some in ministry. And Jesus is not up for election.

However, inasmuch as the American church tends to borrow secular marketing and growth strategies, the 2012 presidential election serves as notice.

Eric Black is pastor of First Baptist Church in Covington.