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Recently, I came across an article in World Magazine where the author addresses the issue of our current generation not wanting to have children or being concerned about having children. Quoting another source, the author writes about how millennials view parenting as something that “will require them to sacrifice everything that brings them pleasure.” With such a negative and erroneous view of parenting, it is no wonder the self-described acronym “DINK” is becoming more appealing on social media (Dual Income, No Kids). The author writes of how many DINKs on social media tout the benefits of not having children, such as “lazy Saturday mornings, regular travel, dinners out, and restful nights of sleep…” 
 
Sadly, in a separate article published in Christianity Today, the author notes that “the birth rate in the United States is declining. It’s often assumed this decline represents our waning desire for children, but researchers from the University of North Carolina and The Ohio State University disagree. Their data indicates that Americans between the ages of 20–24 want as many children as desired historically. However, it does seem people today are putting off the task of raising children—and as they do, the ideal number of children shrinks.” But why is this happening, particularly among Evangelicals, and is it biblical? To be sure, there are a variety of reasons millennials and, among them, Evangelicals are postponing having children, having fewer children, and (in some cases) choosing not to have children at all. The author later posits that the “anxieties about parenthood today are real: economic uncertainties, ecological crisis, fears of inadequacy for such a consequential task. Whether evangelicals have shared these fears isn’t clear, but in recent years, evangelicals have joined the broader culture in having fewer children and having them later.”

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​As we look out at the landscape of the American religious culture, there is nearly a church on every corner. According to a National Congregational Study conducted in 2020, there are approximately 380,000 churches in the United States. With a U.S. population of about 331.9 million people, that means there is approximately one church for every 870 people or roughly 7,600 churches in each state. Yet, according to a report by NPR news (2023), the average size of the American congregation is roughly 65 members. This is probably surprising to many as we drive by so many churches that all seem medium-to-huge or the pastors we follow on the internet or through podcasts all seem to shepherd medium-to-large churches. What this means is that most of the 380,000 churches are hidden and out of sight, tucked away in a small neighborhood or they are meeting inside a gymnasium or a school auditorium. 

​In this postmodern, humanist, and theologically liberal western culture, there is a great misunderstanding regarding the gospel. It’s a word we have become all too familiar with, to the extent that we toss it around, use it in everyday lingo, hear it in songs on the radio, in Christian movies, Sunday messages, and mid-week studies. We hear people talk about having “gospel conversations” with their friends and neighbors, and yet, as we listen to the content of these gospel conversations, we begin to realize that what is meant is that they talked about God and religion on a high level. They mentioned Jesus, church, and the Bible—the core elements of the gospel (not).
 
All of this is indicative that many Christians fail to accurately understand the gospel. Even more so, many Christians struggle to explain the gospel in any meaningful and intelligible sense. This has led to churches being filled with people who say they are Christian, who profess to believe the gospel, but are no more saved than Cain or Judas. Over the years, this has become painfully evident to me as I have had the opportunity to interview individuals for church membership and ask them the question: “Please explain the gospel in your own words?” Over the years, I have had several people sit before me, who grew up in church or at least have been in church for many years prior, struggle with that question. At worst, a few entirely missed the mark.  At best, most presented a truncated view of the gospel.

​In Reformed churches there has been a longstanding tradition of learning and reciting historic confessions of the Christian faith within the liturgy. Reading confessions together within the context of corporate worship has value for the church for several reasons.
 
First, it reminds us that we are not alone. We stand in a long line of Christians and churches which stretch back over two millennia. We stand on the shoulders of the saints who have gone before us, risking their lives to faithfully preserve the orthodox Christian faith.
 
Secondly, learning and reciting historic confessions of faith remind us that the faith we confess is not unique to ourselves nor did it originate with us, but is a faith that has been once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). At this point in Church history, two-thousand years post-resurrection and ascension of Christ, there is nothing new under the sun. Not only is this true of orthodox Christianity, but even of heterodoxy. Heresies which present themselves as new teachings are always forms of false doctrines which were condemned by the church hundreds of years ago and are simply being repackaged today.