When you're caught up in generation and culture-aware evangelisation and church planting strategies for modern, postmodern, unchurched and other societs, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of the basics.

Fortunately, Nils Minkmar of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung“ gives us some feedback to let us know what is really important (found via Spiegel Online, my emphasis):

„Selbst die Katholiken, die ich kenne - und man muß ja schon gezielt danach fragen, zu welcher Konfession jemand gehört, um es zu erfahren; man kann es kaum noch aus dem Verhalten, dem Milieu, den Ansichten erschließen -, sind weniger fromm, weniger praktizierend, gehorchen weniger den Sittenlehren denn je.“

(Unauthorized translation: Even the catholics that I know – and you purposely have to ask what denomination someone belongs to to know it, since it is hardly possible to infer it from the behaviour, milieu or views – are less pious, less practicing, obey the moral law less than ever“.

Jesus expressed the same thing rather strongly.