The Problem of Not Doing

there have been few religious events in history like the total retreat of Christianity from the front lines of Western culture. A brief visit to church buildings on countless street corners reveal the reality that the majority of them are in danger of closing their doors at any minute. This is in spite of a century of million dollar efforts to grow these churches. Training, evangelism tools, small groups, Sunday School materials and more, but yet once-core elements of Christianity are now all but unknown to professing Christians- children and adults alike.

There is is little to unite the faith short of a desperate need to turn these effects around. We tend to desperately look for just the right music and pastor to return us to the glory days of better numbers and cultural relevance.

BUT - this is not how the first Christians stepped before the world. Unlike our fading postmodern echo, the first Christians were not in search of anything. They were convinced that they had FOUND it. They had a conviction and a message that made them FEARLESS. and it was the fearlessness of their conviction that made them so compelling everywhere they went. The message was so truly charismatic, so life altering, that it only ever inspired one of two reactions: love or hate. There was no lukewarm. There was no middle ground. There was not peace but a sword dividing families, breaking up cultures, and turning the entire world upside down.

What they found made them fearless

While the Book of Acts is a favorite of pastors, and it recounts that the message spread through the first century world at a dynamic pace. There was a gift of tongues, there were apostles empowered by the Spirit - But most importantly there was a consistent message .. everyone who opened their mouth to witness, regardless of location, culture, language repeats the same consistent refrain: “There was this particular local guy who was killed and he has refused to stay dead.”

The first day it was spoken, thousands believed. But it is a sign of our modern, weak kneed covetousness that we think the numbers are the thing that mattered. We forget that as stunning as all those first Baptisms certainly were, a far greater number went home unbelieving that same day. On that Pentecost day in Jerusalem, after the apostle’s preached with fiery heads, more people heard and did not believe than turned and repented. Afterward, day by day, more believers were added to their number, but this was NEVER a majority of those who heard.

The Message Remained the Same

the fact that it was never the majority did not once convince them to change the message. They clung firmly to the same story, insisted on the same proclamation, and emphasized the infallible nature of the task they had been given. They did all this in spite of the fact that that as more people believed, the worse the situation became for those who were the most public believers. Far from chartering private cruise liners and meeting at Capitol Cities the preachers were promptly jailed. People were beaten, they were driven into hiding. They were murdered on account of their message by having rocks thrown at their faces and heads until dead.

They became Fearless

The early church, by our measures, was a failure. The ones who responded to the message did not become influencers, did not win the culture, they did not have lives of divinely inspired victorious moments .... the vast majority of their leaders ended up dead before their time. Instead of detouring them, instead of turning them away, this is what inspirited them. This is why they were fearless. This is how they demonstrated their courage.

They did not need to see to believe, Rather they believed what they had heard, and this became in them the supernatural ability to see beyond the merely human possibilities of their present evil age.

Now here we are, some two thousand years later, arrogantly believing that we live in exceptional times .... and it is in fear of our present evil age that we hear churches and leaders speaking out. It is that overt trust in what is seen that has stolen from us the power to convert.

The Threat

Hebrews 11:37 LEB

They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by murder with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, impoverished, afflicted, mistreated,

Imagine a moment when I sit down for coffee at a local shop. I reach into my satchel and pull out a folder filled with documents. These documents are world class studies done with serious research paradigms. They demonstrate without any legitimate doubt that preaching the texts of the Bible in today’s market conditions guarantees the gradual emptying of the pews of the local church. 100% there is no debate; the evidence is clear … the actual words of Jesus will not grow the church but will close it. Quickly. Keep preaching the word and within 5 years the finances are in trouble, the volunteers are stretched thin, you are not wondering about next years budget you are selling property.

This is hypothetical of course … but this is for a purpose … IF it were shown to be true; What would you do?

Now let’s up the ante.

What if I had another folder with me, that showed not only would the church be closed in the next twenty years but preaching the Word would put you on a government watch list. It will put the members of the church in danger and affect your mortgage. If will affect your kids chance at an education, and our ability to find health care.

What if I showed you proof that continuing to attend your church’s services could reasonably get you killed.

Would you still go?

Would you still insist that the scriptures be preached? Clearly? Irrevocably?

Isn’t it amazing that this is a question that can even cause us to think about it before we answer?

The Death of Conviction

Galatians 1:10 LEB

For am I now making an appeal to people or to God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

The ancient Church saw martyrdom as an honor. Today, we cower in corners, bickering over the color of the carpet. The Ancient Church conquered the world by dying at its hands. Today we are crushed in an overwhelming retreat of trying to fit in.

The ancient church did not have better marketing. They did not have better tactics. They did not have better funding. They simply believed that they were on a ship that could not sink. They carried a message that could not be silenced. They were the Body of a Christ who could not die.

Christianity they believed, was unable to pass away, even though heaven and earth themselves passed away. Even while to the whole world it appeared that they were sinking, even if before the world they were publically being murdered, the words of Jesus were ultimate bulwarks to them. He spoke unassailable truth.

Today, our knees quake a the first thought of a dip in numbers. We whimper and cajole about passion, wondering why no one wants to listen to us. The church in the US grows weaker, individual Christians are more timid. Every year our hope is more atrophied. We ignore these failed results and simply try to put more lipstick on the pig of failure. Trying to accommodate the world we suck the life out of Western Christianity. How many times must we go back to the poisoned well before we stop drinking? How many times will we look to political leaders and parties to replace the Messiah for our hope of salvation?

No One is Listening Anymore

we are talking to echo chambers that are getting smaller. I believe the reason people are not listening is because we have become nothing more than an interest group and have abandoned the proclamation of the Truth of Christ for the ease of being left alone. Who wants to be a part of something in retreat that is afraid of offending people, especially when the Revealed Word says it will be offensive? People quit listening because, for the most part, the Western Church has nothing to say; all that we do proclaim amounts to gibberish babbled on the wing. After a century of trying and millions of dollars it is time to stop tinkering with the formula and take another look at the recipe.

IT is the words of Jesus that are the ting that ancient Christianity fearlessly sought to convert unbelievers into. Even should the earth have opened up and swallowed them into the sea, they would have merely continued to repeat the everlasting things of God with their mouths. They died willingly, merrily even, because they were convicted that such everlasting things made them into everlasting people. They last thing they would have done was change the Words to get someone to join with them. Such a tactic would have been the very defeat of its own purpose.

Missing Parts

1 Peter 4:11 LEB

If anyone speaks, let it be as the oracles of God; if anyone serves, let it be as by the strength that God provides, so that in all things God will be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

Maybe the way forward is in the way back to the Words of Scripture. Maybe we need to be convinced of the truth of scripture again? That is easier said than done.

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