The "Religiously Unaffiliated" Are All Around Us - What a Mission Field

The Iowa Caucuses are now history.  For a few months, anyway, the people of Iowa can escape the political spotlight that has kept them in the national focus for the past 18 months or so.  History was made with the largest turnout for a caucus.  There were some surprises.  Ted Cruz being declared the winner on the Republican side was not totally unexpected, although even the final poll on Caucus Day had Donald Trump in the lead.  One conclusion I reached with regard to the Republican side of the results this past Monday night was this: Iowa Republicans did not seem to  care about any past political leadership in their potential candidates.  Three of the top four picks have little political experience: Trump and Ben Carson have had no political leadership, and remember, Cruz is in the middle of his first term in the Senate.  Perhaps the grassroots electorate is sending a strong message that the days of the political establishment are drawing to a close.  It will be interesting to see what the results will look like coming out of New Hampshire next Tuesday.


On the Democratic side, things really got interesting.  Hillary Clinton, perhaps one of the most recognizable names in politics and certainly one of the most powerful women on the world's stage - or at least she thinks she is - found herself in such a tight race that it was virtually decided by a coin toss.  Her challenger, Bernie Sanders who, until about 10 months or so, was just an unknown, socialist Senator from Vermont.  The Democratic establishment certainly never saw this coming.  The results in Iowa and the potential results in New Hampshire - Bernie Sanders has a huge lead in the polls - coupled with the increasing saga of Mrs. Clinton's email scandal have to cause alarm for the Democratic Party leadership team.  Can Mrs. Clinton change her image and reinvent herself to a Democratic electorate that seems unexcited about her candidacy?  Will the FBI boldly do what is necessary in order to promote justice with regard to the email scandal?  And, what about the ghosts of Benghazi that continue to linger over her campaign?  Stay tuned, this is going to get very interesting. 


I received an interesting email this past week that I want to share with you.  You can find it at: www.wnd.com/2016/01/this-is-most-godless-city-in-America.  Let me ask you a question: What do you think is the most godless city in America?  My first guess would have been Las Vegas.  My second guess would have been New Orleans.  Boy, was I wrong.  The most godless city in America, according to research conducted by the nonpartisan and nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute's American Values Atlas, is Portland, Oregon, where 42% of the residents in that city declare themselves to be "religiously unaffiliated."  In a tie for second place were the cities of Seattle and San Francisco (33% "religiously unaffiliated").  Denver (32%) and Phoenix (26%) were in third and fourth place.  What caught my attention was that the Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked 10th with 23% "religiously unaffiliated."  I happen to live in Buffalo, Minnesota, which is just 30 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.  That means that in our community of 15,000 - if these statistics are true - there could be the potential of over 3,000 people who are "religiously unaffiliated."  Friends, that is a pretty large mission field right in our back yard.


The article went on to say: "Studies show one-fifth (22 percent) of the U.S. population has no religious affiliation whatsoever.  Numbers are rising.  Last year atheists were 15 percent of the population; 10 years ago, numbers stood at 10 percent.  In the 1950s, it was 1 percent.  In late 2012, it was reported that atheism was the third-largest "faith" in the world after Christianity and Islam." 


After reading this article, I was reminded of those words of Jesus to His disciples about the fields being white unto harvest.  Friends, we do not need to look for unsaved people.  They are all around us.  They live next door to us.  They work alongside of us every day.  They share lockers with our kids at school.  They are our bankers, our grocers, our mailmen, our doctors, our policemen.  Just think, if the statistics are true, one-in-five people you meet today will have no church affiliation. 


If we believe that we are living in the last days and, at least from my study of the Word the descriptions of those last days certainly seem to mirror what is happening, then there is an urgency to get the Gospel message to as many people as possible.  We don't have to look for the mission field anymore - it is right next door.