This Is Not Normal (And It Is Not Healthy)

We are in tumultuous times as the church dwelling in America. Everywhere we look it seems that the society is turning against us. I have written about this a lot but it seems to be increasing every day. Sin of the most egregious sorts is moving out of the shadows and into the mainstream. What was unthinkable 20 years ago is considered critically important to embrace now. What was common sense at that same time is forbidden to be uttered. We feel as though we have gone from a position of dominance and cultural acceptance to a rapidly evolving sense of being outcasts in our own culture and this has put us in panic mode.

Why?

The last couple hundred years or so in America are not the normal experience of the church or of any of God's people throughout history. We may pine for the "good old days" but really the good old days, while better socially, were neutral from a Kingdom viewpoint. Keeping the unregenerate from acting out their base desires is good but it saves no one. When we look at the history of the church, we shouldn't see the American religious climate as being normal but rather an oddity. The norm for the church is to be persecuted and despised, not because we are jerks but because the world hates the one we follow.

So enough with the doom and gloom, enough with sweating and wringing our hands over every survey that declares Christianity is dead in America because fewer people show up at cultural ordained religious events. It is going to be OK, heck it is going to be unimaginably wonderfully because Christ has already won the victory on our behalf. We just need to tell people about it and let God do the rest. Maybe our problem is that we have forgotten that and gotten a little too comfortable with getting by on our own......