The Decline of the Church in America

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The remainder of this page is one man's life experience — my own. I do not apply these observations and conclusions across all Christians or churches, because I know there are deeply committed Christians in many churches, but in general I think a great deal of what I write here holds true for much of the Christian church in America.

I was raised in an IFCA church (Independent Fundamental Churches of America). It was a church that preached Jesus Christ and him Crucified, risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father. In one way, what we were taught was basically little more than a "get out of hell free" card, with smatterings of other theological and doctrinal issues — why we were right and others who believed differently were wrong. Many verses regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit were either ignored completely or brushed over lightly. There were summer Bible conferences every year from July Fourth through Labor Day, with many great speakers, but the messages were usually focused on the speaker's area of concentration. I was never taught how to walk out the Christian walk in every day life as a matter of my faith being focused exclusively on what Christ had accomplished on the Cross of Calvary on my/our behalf. There was preaching on Christian living out of the Pauline epistles, but it was all by human effort (AKA works).

Over several years as an adult I attended a few churches that did preach more about the Holy Spirit, but to the exclusion of Christ. In some of those places there was almost a spooky nature to the goings on — think Twilight Zone. People would fall out, others spoke out in tongues, and some claimed healing. Now sometimes these things may have been real, but too often they were not of God. Preachers taught messages of prosperity and healing, as if God were a vending machine or slot machine and we can simply push God's buttons to get what we want.

Psalm 37:4 (NASB) reads, "Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart", but people misinterpret that. When we go to Hebrews 12:2 (NASB), we read, "fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…" Yes, God fulfills the desires of our hearts, but first He authors those desires in us as He perfects our faith. God uses preachers and teachers, but we must stop looking to them, or something we must do, as our source. Instead we are to look to God to reveal His truth and to meet our every need.

I also attended some Baptist or Baptist-like churches. It seemed that the larger the church, the more the church was focused on buildings and programs, and less on ministry. Instead of it being Christianity, it was churchianity. Many times it looked and sounded like Christ, but He could often not be found within its walls.

No matter what church I attended, often the overall message was incomplete or incorrect, and mostly excluded Christ and Him Crucified and was devoid of teaching on how to live this Christian life in the here and now. One measure I have regarding any one message is whether I leave encouraged and uplifted. I am not talking about having a "feel good" moment, because it may very well be that the Holy Spirit has convicted me in a certain area, but rather if I have been challenged and have received from God. Jesus said that we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. If I walk out of a service and feel more imprisoned than free, then I know that what I have just heard is not God's truth. What they say may be true, but truth is more than tidbits of true facts. Truth is God's Emeth (Exodus 34:6), the very character of God. It is the whole truth. God is true! His Word to us, spoken in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, is unswervingly exact, without any deviation to the right or the left.

My measure of a church is the consistency of such messages and as evidenced over the long haul in the lives of those people sitting under that teaching. No, I am not expecting perfection, but I am looking for transparent authenticity and consistency in their lives, while proclaiming God's way of salvation and victorious Christian living to overcome the wiles of the Devil.

My earliest recollections of meanness in the church were in prayer meeting. Gossip mongers used "prayer requests" and prayer itself to inform the others of some misdeed by the object of prayer. I can almost hear them now. I remember one prayer in which the woman prayed. "God, did you see the six o'clock news" and then proceeded to inform us all whatever it was that she was exposing. She was not praying to God; the Bible refers to such prayers in this way, "The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people…'" Luke 18:11 (NASB); he was his own god.

My earliest recollections of the church losing focus came with the book buying frenzy when Hal Lindsey authored The Late Great Planet Earth. For the record I do not believe the teaching of that book, but that is not the only aspect of the church beginning to lose focus. It was also that a book — any book — became more important than God's Word. Instead of hearing "God said", I heard "Hal Lindsey said".

Whenever the Supreme Court ruled regarding taking prayer out of public schools, instead of there being a renewed emphasis on family and church teaching the importance of prayer and that prayer can be said silently in school, the emphasis became political regarding the courts "trying to legislate". The church started looking to Uncle Sam instead of to Almighty God.

Revelation 13:11-12 sounds like the church of today; it looks "like a lamb and [speaks] as a dragon", causing its inhabitants to worship and serve the first beast — the government.

"Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed." Revelation 13:11-12 (NASB)

So there are three major aspects of where the church has gone wrong: judging others, losing focus and turning to government. There are others, but these three stand out in my mind.

It was in the 1980 presidential campaign that the church turned the political attention from prayer in schools to abortion. Much of that came about with the advent of The Moral Majority and The Christian Coalition, both organizations political in nature. There was more reliance on politics and government, and less on God. Every time we shift our focus from God to some human effort, God takes a back seat and true ministry suffers. Instead of bringing people into the Kingdom so the Holy Spirit can do His work, the church tried to get laws passed and Supreme Court rulings overturned. Twenty-seven years later, with heavy concentration on that one issue, the Religious Wrong has consistently voted for one party, whose candidates have continued to make promises, yet have never done one thing to end abortion. How many dead babies are there because the church turned to politics and failed to bring others to Jesus? The church will be judged!

Of course the issue of homosexuality has also dominated the Religious Wrong. The church has adapted an attitude of judgment and condemnation, having the affect of not only causing homosexual men and women to not ever want to darken the door of any church, but also to have driven out those of us already within its walls. Parents and church leaders, lacking any visible signs of Christ's agapé Love, through judgment and condemnation have driven out their own kids, many who have committed suicide, or turned their back on God completely. Even today many churches and ministries are working in the political realm with call-in campaigns to Senators and Congresspersons and lobbying to stop a bill that would punish persons who commit violent crimes against many people groups. They oppose the bill because it would also punish persons who commit violent crimes against homosexual persons. Do they condone such violent acts? Where is the Love and compassion to lead homosexual persons to Christ and to befriend them in His name? How many gay men and women will end up spending eternity in hell because the church failed to show them Christ's compassion and Love and as a result having no way to reach and teach homosexual men and women about God's plan of redemption from sin and new Life in Him? The church will be judged!

I have been alarmed at the preponderance of blogs and online videos of people from many divergent views, but who have turned to agnosticism and atheism. I am aware of one ex-Southern Baptist pastor who says he is no longer a Christian (as if he could escape: NOT!). Anyway, he teeters from saying he is agnostic to atheist. Fortunately I am confident that God is working in his life. From my observations, that trend is primarily due to the meanness of the church and it's often inconsistent message. Of course there exist many other ways in which people looking for love find some other substitute. Whether turning to prostitution or gangs or drugs or alcohol or any other activity, many are seeking what only Christ can provide, but they don't know where to find it. How many of these seekers will never hear the message of Christ's Love because the church does not obey the Great Commission? The church will be judged!

"my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body." Ecclesiastes 12:12 (NASB)

Not unlike the current Harry Potter obsession in the general population, and Hal Lindsey's aforementioned book in Christendom, I have seen other book buying frenzies from Christians over the years. The church has gone to sources other than God and His Word. Whether the more recent book buying frenzies of The Purpose Driven Life or the series Left Behind or any other book, people are getting their teaching from human sources, and not from God. People follow man's ill-conceived formulas for successful Christian living. It all becomes just more rules that man cannot keep on his or her own strength. Where is the reliance on the Holy Spirit? Other books are replete with heretical teaching. Even when couched in the form a novel, people are misled not knowing what is Biblical and what is fiction.

With itching ears, we heap unto ourselves books and teachers that say what we want them to say and what we want to hear. This is true for gay and ex-gay persons as well. Just like our favorite denominational and doctrinal positions, we find scriptures to prove what we want to believe. We even buy Bible translations, some of which contain mistranslation, because the text makes us more comfortable, allowing us to remain in our condition unaffected by the Living Word.

Many have become enthralled with end-time doctrine, missing the part of Revelation that pertains to "The Revelation of Jesus Christ". They have become fortunetellers and have ceased to be forth tellers. Personally I have enough trouble with living life in the here and now to be concerned with some day in the sweet bye-and-bye. I trust God enough to know that whatever the future holds for me, after my departure from this earth, it will be the highest and best. That is what God want for us all — the highest and best. Since God is the highest and best, what He wants for us is for Him to be the central part of our lives.

It is sometimes getting difficult to tell a television ministry program from an infomercial. With very few minutes of teaching, much of the program is taken up selling some articles in the guise of fund-raising. Some of those programs need to go off the air. There is one television ministry whose leader also does infomercials, selling vitamins. Is the church for sale? If God really called them to be on television preaching and teaching, He would cause the finances to come in to support the work. The church I attended as a youth had a daily ten-minute radio program. Our pastor never once sold anything, and never once asked the listening audience for money. At the close of each program, he simply said, "Inspiration Time is cared for by those who care."

We sit in judgment of others all the while justifying our own actions. We compromise with the world. When others observe us, they often cannot distinguish us from non-Christians. Whether in the books and magazines we read, the places we go, the things we do, the movies we see, the way we treat our neighbors, who can tell us apart from the world? We do not obey speeding and littering laws, and we pilfer from our employers. Our churches sell tickets to events that should be free so that we can minister. Our churches don't observe the Sabbath. A previous church held sporting events on Sunday. The largest church in Memphis recently (the Sunday before July Fourth) held a fireworks event, complete with a carnival atmosphere including kiddy rides, food sales, etc. Where is our salt and light when others can't see any difference in the who and what of us?

We must turn away from judgment and politics and meanness. We must refocus our attentions to seek God above all else. We must return to the God of Abraham and proclaim the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, whereby He provided for us everything pertaining to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3) through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. We must stop finding a spec in our brother's eye and Examination our own Conscience to see the beam in our own eye.

Let's move away from law and start listening to the Spirit of God. Galatians 2:20-21 (New American Standard Bible) "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

Also see What is Sin?.