As much as this is a devotion, this is a pouring out of what’s been on my heart lately regarding the Church, capital “C” and where our country is at. This is not about politics or presidents or news, but about who the church should be.
Often what happens more than not is that Christians shake their head at culture for being cultural yet neglecting the idea that we are to be influencers of it. However, it’s not what the church has been. From as far back as I can remember, by large, church has been about attending a service, listening, receiving, and returning back to our lives. This mentality has progressed over years, and church has found a way to be even more entertaining and convenient as we extend this mentality. All of this while we imagine that culture has lost its mind. I’ve asked myself recently if we’ve looked in the mirror lately.
As a church, we went through the Truth Project that was put on by Focus on the Family, and Os Guiness made a statement that haunts me. He basically said that Christians have maybe 10, 15, or 20 years before culture passes the point of no return. The shocking moment for me was that the content had been released in 2006. In 2021, we hit the 15-year mark. If Os Guiness is correct, there are a handful of years left before we hit the point of no return.
When I look at his warning for the church to impact culture and I trace our digression from 2006 to now, his words seem to be on point with our current cultural conditions. I don’t say this as an accusation, but as a burden. We can separate the church from the world in how we live, but we cannot separate the two in our concern. We can’t because Jesus didn’t. Even though His people and His culture had drifted from God, Jesus comes to save anyone who would listen, and we see His concern spread in the book of Acts through the end of the New Testament in Revelation.
There is no complete answer that can be given in one short message in how to respond, but the remedy I believe, still lies within the church. It will lie within believers who find a church home where they choose to give their lives away for the Gospel. It will take parents willing to disciple their children in the ways of God despite what their college professor says. It will take all believers striving for biblical literacy in a biblically illiterate age. It’s going to cost us something. It will cost time, our talents, and maybe our lives. We are going to have to let go of all the distractions that have no meaning for the only thing that matters. We are going to have to go out, share truth and live like the Gospel of Jesus is worth our lives.
In my opinion, the church hasn’t looked like this in a long time.
I leave you with my burden. If you have only a few years left before culture falls over the edge, what should you be doing? What sense of urgency should you have? We should be praying for revival with all of our hearts. No more entre church where you go to the place that serves you best. Where do you go to pour yourself out for every person God will place in your path? What if the point of no return is sooner than you think? This has been my awakening. Is it yours?
