Today I did something stupid. I allowed myself to go down a rabbit hole of hopeless news. With each story I felt myself growing more and more discouraged, until finally I read the last story I found to read and backed away. At which point I was beginning to have serious doubts about things I had believed for years now. Of course, that made me feel even worse.
The worst part of all of this is that the trail had started on a well known Christian site (I won't reveal which one, because it's not a problem unique to them and I have no desire to "call them out" individually). This is a site I usually love reading, but in the last few months they have become very focused on the problems in our country. On the one hand, I applaud their courage for going after these problems and not ignoring them. On the other hand, I'm beginning to see those problems presented through a lens of hopelessness. The former is something the church is called to do, the latter is something the church is never supposed to do.
And yet, the American church is full of hopelessness. I would argue it may be the largest problem in the church today.
After reading all these stories I retreated into my room, desperately needing time alone with God. I cried out to Him in my spirit, "Is it really true? Is judgment coming? Are we all heading into a deep persecution?"
I wept as I cried out. The nation I loved, I couldn't imagine it falling apart. I wept for all the prayer and hope and work of the saints I knew was going on in the nation, feeling as if it meant nothing. I felt powerless.
"It doesn't have to."
I stopped then, His voice clearly cutting through the mess in my mind.
"Why are you listening to them?"
Well, because many of these are pretty trusted Christian leaders. But then again, they also are Christian leaders I have no relationship with.
"Who said you were powerless?"
And there it was. Right there I knew I had let lies of the enemy in. I had dropped my discernment for a few moments and let hopelessness overwhelm me. As I heard these words I felt hope awaken in me again, and I knew now that God was not nearly as hopeless for the nation as others were. I knew it because as I heard from Him I felt peace, peace that had left me while I was reading other things.
He wasn't done speaking either.
"As my church loses hope it loses it's influence."
How true. When I had felt my hope missing I had just wanted to give up. If there is no hope for America, for the people here, then there is no need to keep pushing forward. Nonbelievers don't want to hear about how they are doomed if they continue in their ways, they pretty much believe they are doomed anyways. So what makes Christ appealing to them?
Hope. Hope and love.
There is a popular blog right now making the rounds on Facebook and other social media which has the premise that the reason the church is dying in America is because the church is "boring/" I couldn't disagree more.
First of all, I don't believe the church in America is dying, but that's for another blog. However, I DO believe the church is losing influence, and I believe that is because the church has given up hope.
The symptoms are everywhere. Want to find a hopeless church? Look for these things:
1) An over-emphasis on the "end times" and judgment.
2) Constant talk about persecution (a "victim" mentality).
3) Consistently harsh criticism directed at the church and prevalent immorality.
4) Consistent preaching blaming the church for its inadequacies
5) Consistent mentioning of "how bad things are" or the infamous "it's all going to get worse."
There are more, and I'm sure you could all think of a few. Why? Because it sure sounds familiar doesn't it? Of course it does. In fact I have only ever regularly attended one church that wasn't guilty of at least one of these. It is a spiritual infestation in the American church which hides in plain sight because it is able to quote scripture as justification.
But we forget that scripture used through the mouth of the enemy is still a lie. Go read about the temptation of Jesus if you don't believe me (Matthew 4).
Scripture is to be viewed through the lens of the Holy Spirit. It is to be read through relationship with God. It is to be understood within the full context of the whole Bible, and not cherry picked for validating verses.
When we do that, we find that there is no room for hopelessness in God. There is no room for despair and doom-saying. We find that every hard truth spoken in Scripture (and there is plenty!) is accompanied by hope, encouragement, and love.
Imagine if the American church would finally grasp this. Imagine if we, as a church, focused on knowing Jesus more and focused less on the end of the world. Imagine if preachers stopped trying to verbally beat their congregations into submission to Christ and instead focused on igniting the fires of excitement in order that they would CHOOSE submission to Christ on their own! Imagine if we, as a church, fell passionately in love with Jesus.
We would be the most moral, passionate, peaceful, joyful, loving and hopeful people the world has ever seen! And we would become irresistible to every person who has ever looked for love and for answers.
Church leaders, this doesn't mean ignoring our problems, it doesn't mean giving permission to live in sin, it doesn't mean ignoring the harder truths of scripture. What it means is that we re-order our priorities, and we begin to see every problem, ever person, through the lens of faith, hope and love (And in case you're forgetting what that looks like, go read 1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 25:3, Romans 5, and so much more).
It's time we repent of being hopeless. It's time we started believing that God has a plan for everything, to bring it all into redemption. Yes, there will come an end-time, but anyone who believes they know more than that is fooling themselves. I've seen too many "prophecies" and projections by "wise" men and women over the years that were ridiculously wrong to know that no one really knows anything about what it will look like or when it will come. To preach it as if we know is not only foolishness, I believe it is a tool of the enemy to promote fear and powerlessness in the church, as well as apathy to actually changing the world. We MUST NOT give in to it!
Scripture is clear, God is in no hurry to destroy the world. Read 2 Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." Sounds to me that as long as people are coming to repentance, God is eager to let them keep doing it. Our focus should be on spreading this Good News more and more so that more will be saved, and let God worry about when He's coming back.
As a church we have very obvious callings and jobs in scripture. We are to spread the Good News (which telling people they are "going to hell if they don't change" is not an effective way of doing that!), we are to disciple people (which means training up those who have said "yes"), and we are to live blameless, good, productive lives in society. That's the simplicity of it. I've read the New Testament countless times, and this whole "casting judgment and proclaiming end-times doom" is nowhere that I have found!
I'm calling on Church leaders to repent now of this negative outlook. I'm calling on us to forsake hopelessness and start promoting hope! I'm calling on us to reject the limits of the "logical" approach to Christianity that the church adopted in response to the Enlightenment and again embrace the "foolishness" of God! (1 Cor. 1:25) It's a foolishness that says, "these problems are opportunities!" and embraces hope when all is dark around us! It's a foolishness that says "I REFUSE to let the enemy steal my peace and joy! I refuse to be afraid of the sin of others when I was set free from it!" It's a foolishness that will attract the most unlovable and the most lost.
It's time to repent and find our hope and joy again, and then watch as our influence changes the nation.
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