The Washington Post did a brief interview with Packer. He has many good things to say and the interview is worth reading. Here’s on thing I was glad to hear:

I think that the number of lively evangelical Christians in North America is, in fact, increasing. I think that if overall statistics show that churches are losing ground, it’s because the deadwood is dropping off the branches. Amongst younger people, there is a very great deal of evangelical Christianity. It’s not always deep, but it’s there.

This has been a thought I’ve had for a while. The church in America seems to be decreasing, but is it? Or is it just being pruned of dead branches? My impression is that the 1950s was filled with people going to church because that was the American thing to do. Communists were atheists and Americans were religious people, so go to church, it’s your duty! But many of those churches were liberal and lost. People attended on Sunday but didn’t care about the rest of the week. So churches are dropping numbers since then. In a way, that’s good!

When a man like J. I. Packer says it I’m relieved that it isn’t just me. Take a few minutes and read the interview.