Editorial August 30, 1975 Issue

Reading the Signs

Carl J. Welz

Christ Jesus rebuked those who did not see what was going on in their time. He said, "Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?"^{Luke 12:56;} Could it be that the problem many churches face today is not so much outward events, attitudes, or trends of human thought, but failure of church people to "discern this time"?

Ask a group of active church people why they are faced with decreasing support of church activities, and the answer is usually accelerated materialism. Less interest in organized religion is equated with mankind's greater involvement in material activities. The trend toward new concepts of morality, marriage, and family is given as added evidence of growing materialism. It is as though a great flood were coming—waters of materialism rising and the church searching for an ark.

Is this a correct reading of the signs? Is the entire world really more materialistic today than a few years ago? Is the materialism in people's thought so sweeping that it causes a church that once had congregations of thousands and Sunday Schools of hundreds now to have congregations in the fifties and Sunday School sessions with tens? Could this not be the effect of reading the signs of the times from a base other than the spiritual? Can we not see the divine qualities expressed today by many people—everywhere we look?

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