The Church Answers Podcast

#164 The Three Major Groups of the CHRINOs (Christians in Name Only)

Thom takes six episodes to take a deep-dive look at the demographic groups that claim they are Christians but are probably not true believers. In this episode, he looks at the three major groups of CHRINOs: churched CHRINOs, cultural CHRINOs, and unchurched CHRINOs.

Duration:: 10m
Broadcast on:: 29 Mar 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. Welcome to episode number 164 of the Church Answers Podcast. I'm Tom Rayner. Hey, if you missed the previous podcast, since we're in 164, that means we did 163, it's available. You can hop right in and over and listen to it. And in this case, usually I say it doesn't really matter what order you listen to. I would suggest that you follow the six podcasts that we're going to do on Crynose, in sequential order. There's a reason behind it, because we're building up. We're giving foundational issues, and then we're giving some high-level issues, and then we get more granular, and then we even get prescriptive as we dig deeper into our study of this group. Remember always, you're able to watch this on YouTube. You're able to hear this in your favorite podcasting app. Thanks for the ratings and reviews. Thanks. Hey, YouTube watchers. We've been slowly but steadily building our YouTube channel. We started off all audio. Those of you who are at the YouTube channel, hey, come on, subscribe to us. Let's get the word out because it's a free ministry, and give us a thumbs up as well. Thank you for doing that, and thank you for being a part, whether you listen or you view it. Okay, Chaney and Associates are the reason we can provide this ministry. Chaney and Associates loves the church so much that they are the sponsor of the church answer's podcast, and it's more than them just advertising. I wanted to hear that. They love the church. They work with over 1100 churches. They're based in California, but they can serve any church in North America. They are ready to go, and they are the best. They are the accounting firm for the church. They're the tax preparation firm for the church. They are the bookkeeping firm for the church. They are all things financial for the church, and I just encourage you to go to chaneyassociates.com, look them up and talk to them and let them know that Tom at church answers sent you there so that they can know that they have been recognized at this podcast as well. In episode number 163, we introduce you to the chronos. It is an acronym, Christian in name only. That really defines itself. It means that there are people who claim the label of Christians say, "I am a Christian," but they truly are not Christians, and I gave you a caveat. I'll repeat it very quickly here. The caveat is this. We ultimately cannot know the hearts of people, so we ask doctrinal or biblical streaming questions. The primary one dealing with John 14-6, do they affirm that Jesus is the only way of salvation? As I said in the previous episode, if they do not, that not only means that they are denying a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith, but they're also denying Jesus' own words because John 14-6 begins with Jesus said. So it's not a perfect methodology, it's the only one we know since we cannot go sneak a peek at the Lamb's book of life. And so this is what we're doing to determine chronos. If people who say, "I'm a Christian," but they deny John 14-6 with exclusivity of salvation through Christ. There are three major groups of chronos, and just a reminder, once again, chronos are people who claim the name of Jesus, claim that they're Christians, but they likely are not. We're going to look at three major groups of those. The first group would be the church chronos. It's just what it says it is. People who are still active in the church, but they're not Christians. We estimate that there may be as many as 40% of a particular congregation that has regular attenders, not to mention inactive members, regular attenders who are Christian in name only. How did they become a part of the church? Usually these churches do not have a clear entry point that talks about beliefs to the Christian faith. We'll talk about in a future episode and these series of six, but people have gotten into the church. They have said they wanted to join as a member, but they're not Christians. I can almost hear the feedback taking place on the YouTube channel or on the podcast app. That's crazy that people could get into a church and they're not even believers. I agree, but it happens, and it happened more in the past than it does in the present, but it is still happening. More and more church leaders are not asking the basic questions about what people believe before they join an organization or institution called the local church. There's one group of people that I think would deserve our first level of attention, and that group of crinos are called the "churched crinos." They are the people who are in the church, but they are not believers in Christ. You may have heard this. I was recently speaking virtually in Nigeria earlier this week, and I mentioned this group and the pastor from the church in Nigeria said, "Yes, those are unregenerate believers." He's right. That's what they're called. That's the big name for it. Believers means that they have the label of Christian. Unregenerate is a word that means "not born again," so unregenerate means they have not been born again, and they are claiming the name of Christians. He's right. They're called unregenerate Christians. That's what the church crinos are in many ways. They are the believers in name only, the Christians in name only who are in the church. Another group laps between the two groups I'm mentioning the church and the un-church. If you get to the church group and then you say what's left over is the un-church group, well, how can there be a middle group? Well, this is more of a description of both groups within their particular name. They have subgroups, and so I wanted to bring out the cultural crinos, the cultural Christian in name only because these are the people who feel like they need to say that they are Christian to be accepted in culture. In other words, they will affirm that they are Christian. When you do surveys, this is called the halo effect. It has nothing to do with angels or God or even religion, but we tend to want ourselves to, we won't portray ourselves better when the surveyors ask us a question, and that's one of the biases you have to overcome in surveys, but cultural crinos are those men and women who affirm that they are Christian, but they are Christian in name only because their reason for the affirmation is that they want to be accepted in culture. They want to be accepted in the business world, in the political world, in the social world, in the neighborhood, and sometimes in the church as well. Cultural Christians are those who feel the pressure to claim the name of Christianity for cultural reasons, not for conventional reasons. This group is dwindling in number. It is no longer by most standards. It is no longer necessary to be a Christian to be accepted in culture, especially the culture of America. So I think that we will see this group decline in number. So we've got the church crinos, the cultural crinos, and then of course the unchurched crinos. The unchurched crinos have no activity in church, and they are most likely claiming the name of Christian because it's a part of their family line, it's a part of their heritage. We hear it frequently, we ask someone, or your Christian say, "Oh yeah, my father was an elder." Or, "Oh yeah, my mother was on staff at a church, you've heard those things before." And so, unchurched crinos, they don't have any connection to a church, but for some reason or another. They want to claim the name of Christian, and usually it is a reason of heritage, of tradition. It's a part of their background. And so there are a number of people who are unchurched crinos. They don't want to get connected to the institutional church. They don't want to get connected to any formal form of religion. They want to be in church, but they still claim the name of Christian, even though they are not. It's important to remember these three groups because we're going to unpack it even more. Even seven more of these episodes, I'm sorry, five more of these episodes, a total of six. We're going to, this is one of five left, we are going to unpack this even more as we talk about the different groups of crinos. Remember, we're talking about Christians in name only. We're talking about people who claim the name of Christ, but by all marks that we're able to discern, they are not Christians, but they're Christian in name only. Now, here's the question that we get asked. Why do we even have crinos? What happened there? What gave a little bit of the, the, the why behind it, but I'm going to dig a bit deeper in the next episode. That's going to be the episode number 165. Why do we even have crinos? I hope you'll jump over that. If you didn't listen to the first of these, episode number 163, do that. You just heard at 164 and then we have also provided episode number 165, the third part of the six part series on the crinos. All right. We're digging deeper. I hope it's not a hole that we can't get out of. I hope it's good for all of us and I'll see you hear you be with you on your, on your podcasting app or on your YouTube channel as we continue to talk about those who are crinos, Christian in name only. You have been listening to the church answers podcast presented by Chaney and Associates. Chaney and Associates are the accounting firm for the church. You need to focus on ministry. Chaney will focus on finances. Also, please subscribe and give a review to the church answers podcast on YouTube and on your favorite podcasting app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)