{"id":4075,"date":"2022-08-18T16:25:06","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T20:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=4075"},"modified":"2022-08-18T16:25:06","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T20:25:06","slug":"new-poll-delineates-8-modern-idols-keeping-christians-from-a-deeper-relationship-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2022\/08\/new-poll-delineates-8-modern-idols-keeping-christians-from-a-deeper-relationship-with-god.html","title":{"rendered":"New Poll Delineates 8 Modern Idols Keeping Christians from a Deeper Relationship with God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2664\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2021\/10\/pexels-pixabay-208315-2-350x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" \/>In Song of Solomon 2:15, the reader is warned to \u201cTake us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines\u2026\u201d The passage seems out of place for a love poem, but within its context and the understanding of foxes as destructive creatures, the message becomes a warning to the lovers: Beware of anything that will get in the way of the love you owe to another. Or, when the poem is viewed as an allegory of the believer and God, beware of idols.<\/p>\n<p>A recent <a href=\"https:\/\/research.lifeway.com\/2022\/08\/09\/pastors-identify-modern-day-idols-comfort-tops-list\/\">survey<\/a> conducted by Lifeway Research polled 1000 U.S. Protestant pastors to determine what, if any, idols they felt their congregations struggled with. Comfort came to the top of the list with 67% of pastors surveyed stating they believed it was a significant influence on their congregations. Control or security came second at 56%, followed by money at 55%. In all, the pastors identified 8 idols that they felt held significant influence over their congregations, with \u201csex or romantic love\u201d rounding out the bottom at 32%. 14% of pastors surveyed stated that they felt their congregations struggled with \u201cnone of these.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked which of the 8 idols was the biggest struggle of their congregations, comfort came in first again at 30%, while control and security came in at 20%. Regarding the study, the executive director of Lifeway Research, Scott McConnell, said, \u201cIt\u2019s easy to think that those in Christian churches have chosen their God and are faithful to Him. However, pastors quickly acknowledge how divided their congregations\u2019 allegiances can be. These gods don\u2019t have a physical shrine, but they compete for the hearts of Christians.\u201d The study also looked further at how the age of the pastors affected their views of their congregation\u2019s struggles, with younger pastors seeing more issues with modern day idols like money and political power in their congregations.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the idols vividly described in the Old Testament, modern day idols in nations like the United States can be harder to recognize at first and many are linked together. McConnell noted, \u201cIn many ways, the top three idols pastors recognize in their churches are related. Comfort and security draw the hearts of the most congregations, but they are often enabled by the pursuit of more money.\u201d The study also reflects other growing schisms between a churchgoer\u2019s personal commitment to Christ and the distractions that can intervene. A <a href=\"https:\/\/1s712.americanbible.org\/state-of-the-bible\/stateofthebible\/State_of_the_bible-2022.pdf\">\u201cState of the Bible USA 2022\u201d<\/a> study recently showed that two-thirds of younger self-identified Christians <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/most-younger-adult-believers-dont-attend-church-survey-finds.html\">don\u2019t attend church.<\/a> The study also showed a 21 % decline in what it labeled \u201cscriptural engagement\u201d in Christian adults. Although the study did not explore the specific reasons why younger people weren\u2019t attending church, it can be imagined that some of the idols in the Lifeway study could play a part. These distractions that draw away the heart like the angel\u2019s cry in Revelation 2:4, \u201cthou hast left thy first love,\u201d are all leading to somewhere. The question, as best conjectured in the \u201cState of the Bible\u201d study is, \u201cIf Act I is a decision for Christ and Act II is a separation from the church, will there be an Act III? Can they be wooed back into a vital church connection, in which they are engaging with Scripture, sharing their faith, and growing in the company of other flawed believers? And how can we set the stage for that?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Song of Solomon 2:15, the reader is warned to \u201cTake us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines\u2026\u201d The passage seems out of place for a love poem, but within its context and the understanding of foxes as destructive creatures, the message becomes a warning to the lovers: Beware of anything that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":2664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New Poll Delineates 8 Modern Idols Keeping Christians from a Deeper 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