I have recently met a
fellow believer from Pakistan whose life is drastically different than mine. He
lives in a part of the world where there is a constant threat of persecution
and to further his challenge of being a believer in a Muslim country, my friend
has taken in several orphan children into his home whose lives have been
devastated by the loss of their parents. As I compare my life with his, it is
not difficult to become easily disturbed at what I have prioritized in my own
life the things I consider essential and important to daily living. Recently,
my friend sent me a video that showed the reality of what is happening on his
side of the world. Words cannot express the horrors of the atrocities that I
viewed-----the slaughtering and beheading of innocent children because of their
association of with Jesus Christ. When you see something that tragic, something
inside of you almost doesn’t want to believe that it is real. And yet, when you
allow for it to sink in, your perspective suddenly changes and you see the
world in which you live in a completely different light. For those of you who
know me, I have never been one from refraining from speaking the truth and
sharing my concern for the condition of today’s church. After viewing the
video, I have come to the realization that the church in America is in a state
of disconnection from the reality of what is happening to other
believers around the world. To their defense, there is a very plausible
explanation as to why the average evangelical American Christian remains disconnected.
The reason? Because week in and week out, they sit in a pew in order to be spiritually
medicated with the message of self-help and achieving a happy life. If
you do what I did and watch a video like that on a Saturday night, and then go
to church Sunday morning, you might be surprised that your perspective might
change. Do we for one second believe that our messages about being more
successful in our relationships, how to be blessed in our finances, how to deal
with our emotions, and overcoming stress in our lives would have one ounce of
meaning to those who are truly experiencing what Jesus promised-----that “you
will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by
all nations on account of me?” (Matthew 24:9).
What would we say to our brothers and sisters who are living
in the midst of the fire? Here’s seven principles for healthy Christian living?
Sitting in our morning services, they
would most likely walk away with the impression that “We want you to feel good
about yourself, so take a happy pill from the pulpit and know you’re are loved
and accepted just as you are!” From more recent trends, they might even hear,
“Now, be careful not to judge groups like ISIS or any other Muslim extremists,
after all they were born into that kind of life, so we shouldn’t cast stones.
In fact, we should understand the pain we’ve caused them from the past because
they’re still trying to overcome the detrimental effects that the Crusades had
upon them.” Why? Because it appears for
the America Christian, we have this fascination of wanting the world to love
and accept us. The majority world
Christians (which by is no longer in the West, but in Africa and the East),
does not embrace the dynamics of “relativity” when it comes to engaging culture. The
majority of them only understand one kind of church: a persecuted church!
Preaching and teaching the gospel could literally cost them their lives. I
cannot imagine that they sit around in a pointless leadership meeting asking,
“How can we get more people to come to our church?” or “What creative elements
do we need to put into today’s service to make the pastor’s message more
effective?” No, the focus is more likely upon things like prayer, the Word, and
how can they stay alive for another day in order to preach the gospel. In the
meantime, American Christians fearfully concern ourselves with being labeled as homophobes
and racists
because we do not want anyone to be turned off by Christianity and its true
message of sin, repentance, and the work of Christ. We do everything possible
to protect the image of our church from being seen as judgmental and ensure that
our services will accommodate those who might find the message of the gospel
offensive.
I believe it is time to evaluate the driving factors of the
American church. If we are honest, we could easily see our sermons as nothing
more than hour long counseling lectures that offers just enough medication to maintain the flock until
they need their next weekly fix. I have a good friend who always asks a great
question when making evaluations: “What is the end game?” What exactly are we
accomplishing in America when it comes to the gospel? Last time I checked, we
are in decline. And my brothers and sisters who aren’t “privileged” to live in
America, they are thriving in the persecuted church! According to Operation World statistics, the two
countries experiencing the greatest annual growth are Iraq (19.6%) and Afghanistan
(16.7%). In fact, America is on the slowest growth/declining list with a rate
of 0.8% annual growth.[1]
If the way we are doing church is so effective with the myriad of programs,
small group studies, amped up worship teams, and cutting edge technology, then
why are we so ineffective in reaching our nation for Christ? Meanwhile, in
places where even the Bible is scarcely available, the church is thriving. We
want so much to believe that our churches are great and that we are the supreme
example of leading the way for the rest of the world, but the truth is we’re
not. We can have a mega churches and tell people they can have their Best
Life Now, motivating them with all sort of clever antidotes that become
memes on Facebook, but it’s doing nothing more than making us feel good about
our dreadful condition. I believe the words of John in Revelation are pertinent
for us today where Jesus addressed Sardis warning, “You have a reputation for being
alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die”
(Revelation 3:1-2). And while our churches
are teaching us to become “better people,” we are becoming horrible disciples.
Yes, my language is strong, but the self-centered mentality that permeates the culture
of the American church is what testifies against us. Face the truth, the American
church is all about me, all about what I want, and all about what I believe.
Jesus himself stated that being a disciple would cost us our very lives (Matthew 10:37-39, Luke 14:25-33) and
yet, we do all that is necessary to preserve our lives and save face with our culture. After
all, no one wants to be unpopular, unpleasing, and unappealing to the
prevailing crowd. The issue isn’t our failure in demonstrating “love” for our
world, it’s that we love this world too much.
The end game is this:
we are disconnected from the reality of the true gospel. It’s not about us. It’s
not about this quest to have a wonderful and successful life in this world. It’s
about living the reality that we are citizens of another kingdom and inviting
others to be a part of it. It’s time we stop the dosage of the self-help
medication and begin to feel the pain of our failure in truly living as
followers of Jesus Christ. We as the
church don’t have the answers to help our fallen world, only Jesus does. All of
the self-help programs in the world cannot motivate a person to live for Jesus,
only Jesus can. Part of that reality is
suffering, pain, and being rejected by the world in which we live. No matter
how hard we may try, if we are truly living our lives for the kingdom, we will
never live comfortably among our culture. Each day, men, women and children who
live in these hostile areas in the world can testify that loving Jesus means
being hated by the world. People are dying but we’re worried about crying! Here
in the U.S. we cannot fathom that type of response from the world around us. We
would find the newest book or begin a sermon series that would help us to cope
the rejection (perhaps something like Eight
Methods for Dealing with Rejection or Four
Principles for a Better Self-Esteem?). In the end, we just want everyone to see us
loving, accepting, and good people, rather than the abandoned, radical follower
of Jesus. And because of that, we will continue to live in a spiritually
medicated state, watching the decay of the American church, while believing that
as long as we’re feeling good about ourselves, all is well.
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