Ridgell's Originals

I hear a lot of discussion about the future of the church in America.  Why aren't we growing?  Will we be here in 20 or 30 years?  Will we be a post Christian nation?

I am not smart enough to know all the answers.  But I have seen three things that just might be contributing to the death of Christianity in America if not stopped.

We have too much money.  Most of our churches cannot pray the Lord's prayer.  "Give us this day our daily bread."  Most of us do not really need to ask God for our daily bread.  Most of the time we mean "thank you for our daily bread."  That's nice but there is no faith dependence there.  I know there are Americans who do need to pray this way.  It's just that most of them are not in our churches.
Budgets and buildings are killing us.  Those are things only rich churches wrestle with.  Poor churches don't have budgets.  Many of them do not have buildings.  Check out churches in poor countries.  Look how they grow.  At least until an American church gets over there and builds them a building and helps them develop a budget.

It is hard for economically self-sufficient people to realize how much they need God.  It is hard for them to depend on God.

I know that all of us are sure this does not describe our church.  But how many poor people are in your church?  How many of them are elders?  

Our churches are rich, our members are economically sufficient. And we are dying.

So what should we do?  Give away our money and stop being controlled by a budget?

Yes.


We are too intent on having dual citizenship.  America is not a Christian nation.  Never has been.  Never will be.  Neither will any other country.  We are citizens of a heavenly country.  We believe that should be true in every country except ours.  It is easy to get caught up in trying to make our country into something it cannot be.  So we worry about legislation.  We demand first amendment rights.  We buy into the lie that God guarantees us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  So it becomes easy to confuse fighting, killing, or dying for a political system with serving God.

And we are dying.

What if we really believed we were citizens of a heavenly kingdom and not an earthly kingdom?  We worry about abortion.  Why not put our time, money, energy, and prayers into caring for unwanted babies, helping single Moms that feel trapped, or ministering to those who are in pain over the choice they made?

Quit expecting a country to be the guardians of God's plan for marriage.  Let the church do that.  I have no problem sending members of my flock to a government official to have whatever official recognition the state expects.  Then I would do a church recognition of marriage.  It would have no legal standing at all.  That's OK with me.  It would have standing with God.  And the state ceremony would not.

But that only works if you believe there is a difference between being a Christian and being an American.

So what are you suggesting?  That we "disunite the states?"

Nope.  That's God's business.  But this I know.  My kingdom will last forever.  This one will not.  Guaranteed.

We do not expect persecution.  The church has always been persecuted.  Christians have always died for their faith.  But we celebrate the fact that we are "free from persecution."  That may be part of the problem.

Acts has so many great stories about the incredible growth of the church in the first century.  Started in Jerusalem on a cross and exploded all over the world.  And they were persecuted.  They died.  They were jailed.  They lost property.

And the whole world heard about Jesus.


So...

I think persecution is coming.  I do believe my grands and my great grands will face a hostile culture as Christians.  And I believe they will be part of an explosion of the gospel in this country.

Well I expect most will read this and disagree.  OK.  I may even be wrong.  Don't think so, but I do think this is a discussion worth having.