The “Church in America”

(Previous –> One Nation…Under God?)

A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.
Proverbs 25:26 (NKJV)

Without a doubt, the moral battles being waged in this country today—from abortion, to homosexual marriage, to embryonic stem-cell research, and everything in between—clearly point to a culture that is engaged in an all-out war upon traditional beliefs and values. The good news is that “the church” is on the forefront of these battles; the bad news, though, is that “the church” is usually on both sides of every fight!

In the not-so-distant past, the lines were more clearly drawn when it came to moral issues, and it was equally clear where the church stood…but that’s not the case today. Over the past few decades, the church has gradually become divided when it comes to questions of morality. For slowly but surely, as long-held notions of right and wrong have been cast aside by our society, the liberal factions within each sect of Christendom have succeeded in moving the church towards the culture instead of the other way around.

Along the way, virtually every denomination has become embroiled in a battle for survival, waging the equivalent of “civil war” as it fights to recapture a moral identity that has dissipated through years of compromise. And while the fight to restore integrity is an absolute necessity, the unfortunate consequence is that we end up fighting not only the culture, but also amongst ourselves. This in turn makes it that much harder to focus on our God-given mission—making disciples—because before you can make disciples, you have to agree upon what it means to be one.

In the meantime, while the church struggles to recover from years of decay, society drifts farther way from God as it gravitates towards a “new” gospel that preaches science and technology—knowledge—as our savior. So whereas people have not stopped looking for peace, for hope, or for ultimate significance, the problem is that the church—which is busy arguing with itself over what it believes—no longer seems to have the answers.

Spiritual Schizophrenia

When you contemplate the state of the American Church today, how would you describe it? Would you use words like “strong” and “vibrant,” or would you be more inclined to describe it as “passive” and “weak”? Do you envision an institution that is vital and growing, or one that is stale and in decline? Or to put it differently, do you think of the present-day church when you read this verse:

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
Acts 6:7

Clearly no church is perfect, but on a scale of 1-to-10, how would we rate? Are we hot, cold, or have we too become lukewarm? While you might attempt to answer this question in a variety of ways, allow me to propose the only criteria that really matters: how well is the church making disciples for the Kingdom of God?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20

This is the church’s overarching mission, so every activity we undertake—from the local soup kitchen to our support of long-term missionaries—is a means to this singular end. Moreover, since our ultimate goal is to make disciples, any measure of the church’s overall health should be viewed in light of this objective.

Unfortunately, recent research would tend to indicate that the “Church in America” is nowhere near robust. Church membership continues its steady decline, and since membership is an important precursor to discipleship, it would appear that our mission is in some jeopardy. In addition, current trends do not bode well for the future of the church:

• A declining proportion of people are attending church
• Those that do attend are attending less regularly
• People are increasingly looking to other religious outlets for spiritual fulfillment.¹

Granted, numbers don’t always tell the whole story, so we need to be careful not to rush to false conclusions. Nonetheless, in a day and age that has seen homosexual “marriages” performed under the auspices of the church, it should be pretty clear that we need a change of direction. For rather than being described as “obedient to the faith,” all too often this verse would be more appropriate:

“Both prophet and priest are godless; even in My Temple I find their wickedness,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23:11

Honestly, then, where does the “Church in America” rate? I don’t know about you, but by just about any standard I can think of, the American Church is clearly not on the “hot” side of the scale…and lukewarm might even be too generous. It’s not that things are as bad as they can get, but rather that we’ve lost a lot of moral ground to the culture over the years. And gaining it back won’t be easy.

To complicate matters even more, not only is our culture trying to dictate the norms by which we live, but it also attempts to constrain the “rules of engagement”—wherever it can’t remake the church, society tries to silence us. And the weapon of choice? Political correctness. The mantra of “tolerance” has become the club with which our culture regularly beats the truth into submission, meaning that all too often civility is preserved at the expense of purity. In other words, “tolerance” trumps truth.

This trend is not particularly surprising when you consider human nature, but the bigger problem is the extent to which political correctness has influenced the Body of Christ. For over time, many
in the church have chosen to err on the side of being “open minded” rather than relying on the revealed Word of God. As a result, instead of speaking to the culture with unity and clarity on issues of God and morality, the church ends up transmitting competing messages that both distort and obscure the truth: some embrace homosexuality, others have not; some endorse pro-choice positions, others are pro-life. What is the message that society hears? Is homosexuality
wrong, or isn’t it? What about abortion? And in the final analysis, does it really even matter? We have forgotten that we are to be lights of truth as well as compassion.

The irony in all of this is that our misguided attempts to be more culturally “relevant” have largely succeeded in making the church just the opposite. Why? Because as we have tried to reach out and engage the culture, we have allowed societal norms and values to progressively infiltrate and shape the church. Hence, by allowing the culture to change us, we’ve essentially become an extension of the culture—rather than an alternative! And while Paul would likely approve of our well-intentioned efforts to connect with those around us…

I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
1 Corinthians 9:22

he would first chastise us for losing sight of the goal:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than
what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
Galatians 1:8-9

And isn’t this exactly what we have allowed to happen?

The Fruits of Compromise

In our zeal to reach as many as possible with the Gospel, the problem is that we have essentially reduced it to a “get out of jail free card.” Why do I say that? Because the appeal we make to the
culture is to “come to Christ,” or to “accept Jesus as your personal Savior.” That’s certainly a necessary first step, but remember that Jesus also told those who came to Him to “follow Me.” So not only do we have a sacred obligation to bring the lost to Christ, but we also have a responsibility to disciple them in the truth of God’s word. In other words, accepting Christ is how to become a Christian, whereas yielding our wills and desires to Him daily is what it means to be a
Christian:

If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
Luke 9:23

Practically speaking, this means that accepting Jesus as Savior is only part of the equation—we must also submit to Him as our Lord and Master! Why? Because it is through our submission to God’s will for us individually that He conforms us to the likeness of His Son and thereby purifies us from our sin. Unfortunately, though, this aspect of discipleship has become so downplayed that the process of sanctification—becoming more and more like Jesus—is largely ignored or taken for granted.

But isn’t transformation the essence of the Gospel? Doesn’t being “born again” set us free from the sins that both burden and master us? What is the point of being “saved” if we remain a slave
to the very thing that has condemned us in the first place? What kind of life is that? Where’s the “recovery”? Where’s the victory? Don’t forget that Jesus promises us more than a clear conscience, He gives us new life starting from the moment we receive Him!

I have come that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 (NKJV)

Put it this way, if the Gospel of Jesus Christ can’t free us from the power of sin—deliver us from our “sin addiction,” so to speak—then what makes it unique? Because if our faith in Christ is ultimately nothing more than a way to deal with our guilt, then there are lots of other choices out there. On the contrary, though, there is much more to the Good News than being forgiven of our sins…because the Gospel doesn’t end at the cross. For not only has Jesus’ death delivered us from the penalty of sin, but in His glorious resurrection He has also freed us from its power!

For if we have been united together [with Christ] in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Romans 6:5-6 (NKJV)

Thanks in large measure to the incessant pounding from the culture, though, this is the part of the Gospel that’s been progressively stifled over the years. Our society doesn’t want to talk about being freed from sin, because that necessarily implies a standard of right and wrong. So as the church has sought to relate to an increasingly relativistic culture, one where truth is “personal” rather than ordained by God, we have gradually capitulated to these terms. We invite people to “come to Christ” now, and hope they will learn to “follow him” later. Yet church membership continues to decline…

Our motives may be well-intentioned, but they have clearly backfired. For when we focus on conversion at the expense of discipleship, we essentially rob the Gospel of its unique, transforming power. This reduces Christianity to little more than a way to escape Divine judgment, one of many other alternatives that promise basically the same thing. It’s all about invitation, little about commitment, and yet what does the Bible say? Are people invited to “accept” Christ?

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained.
Acts 17:30-31 (NKJV)

The problem is that our attempts to make the Gospel more “palatable” have stripped it of any sense of urgency. For by overemphasizing our “friendship” with Jesus, we have effectively turned
Him into little more than a gentle Savior who will always be there for us…no matter what. We extol the depths of His love, we praise Him for our forgiveness, and we thank Him for interceding with
God the Father on our behalf. What better friend could you have? So is God loving? Of course! Is Jesus our friend? He says as much Himself! But Jesus is much more than our best friend—He has to be more than our “buddy”—for He is also Christ the Lord.

In short, the church has fallen into insignificance because we have compromised the entirety of the Gospel. We have become a victim of our own attempts to seem less “offensive,” which in turn
has made it difficult to communicate what is truly unique about our faith and about Jesus Christ. Thus, it is little wonder that Christianity has become increasingly viewed as “just another religion.” Because when you couple this re-packaging of the Gospel with our insistence that Christ is the only way, our apparent “intolerance” prompts the culture to simply tune us out.

Onward Christian Soldiers

So how must the Body of Christ respond? Attacked from within as well as without, the church is presently locked in an all-out fight to recapture its identity. We gain ground on some fronts only to lose it on others, and at times our circumstances can seem to be overwhelming. Even so, we must not become discouraged or succumb to the temptation to give up. We need to press on in light of the promise that Jesus gave to Peter:

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Matthew 16:18

After all, our situation is not particularly unique to the church in the 21st century. Just read through any of Paul’s epistles or the opening chapters of Revelation. From the church’s inception, the Gospel has always been under siege—and should we be surprised? For even before the fullness of the Gospel was revealed in Jesus Christ, the nations of Israel and Judah struggled to maintain the integrity of God’s word as revealed under the Old Covenant: the truth has always been under attack.

Indeed, the failures and trials we face today are really no different than what the Israelites or the churches at Galatia, Corinth, Laodicea, or Ephesus wrestled with. For like them, we too have been lulled into a spiritual stupor by the prevailing notions of God that preach only “Peace! Peace!” without a corresponding call to obedience. Consequently, we have lost sight of our calling and of our Lord.

Nevertheless, we must diligently resist the temptation to wallow in our guilt. Not because our guilt isn’t real—for indeed it is—but rather because the last thing we need to do is to sit around and beat ourselves up while things continue to disintegrate. Our Lord needs us back on the front lines, so like Peter we need to confess that we have denied Him, repent of our ill-advised attempts to repackage the Gospel, and move forward in the light of the knowledge that we have been forgiven:

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16 (NKJV)

This verse does not mean—as some have interpreted it—that we are free to approach our Heavenly Father in a spirit of presumption. It in no way implies that we can come before God and ask for whatever we want, but rather that our boldness is grounded in the knowledge that we now have peace with God. For by virtue of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have been cleansed by His blood and therefore have the privilege of being counted as God’s children rather than His enemies!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Romans 5:1-2

And since we are God’s children, we can pray to our Father with confidence—both in His ability to grant our requests as well as our standing to make them in the first place.

Accordingly, it’s time to come before God and ask Him to heal His church. We’ve gotten ourselves into a mess by trying to meet the culture on its own terms, and until we stop trying to fix things by our own power and according to our own understanding, things are only going to get worse. Indeed, only God can restore the church, so just as Esther realized that only King Xerxes had the power to save the Hebrew people from annihilation, we too need to acknowledge that only our King can fix what is broken in the church today.

It must be understood, though, that whereas Esther approached her king from the standpoint of a relationship that wasn’t broken to begin with, our connection with God needs to be restored. In other words, God will hear our prayers to heal the church and our nation, but not until we repent of our pride and turn back to Him:

Then they will call on me but I will not answer; they will look for me but will not find me. Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord, since they would not accept My advice and spurned My rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes.

For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety, and be at ease, without fear of harm.
Proverbs 1:28-33

So once again, how must the Body of Christ respond to the current crisis? Clearly we should not give in to feelings of discouragement and despair; neither should we be paralyzed by our guilt.
What we must do is pray, seek God’s face, and turn from the error of our ways—the exact prescription given to Israel in 2nd Chronicles. For the battle at hand is one that we cannot win under our own strength:

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 (NLT)

In short, we need to humbly seek God before we presume to seek His blessing—and the sooner the better. Because in the meantime, as we vainly search for other ways to deal with the fallout of what we have unwittingly sown, the culture continues to rush headlong down the broad road to destruction…and it’s taking us along for the ride.

(Next –> The Last Straw)

1. “The American Church in Crisis,” Christianity Today, January
   2007 ↩︎