The End of Christian America part 2

(I had this 1/2 written and got distracted.....)


Had a great time in Massachusetts last week. Glad to be back.

Made a couple of contacts this morning. Got a lot on the agenda this week, but I want to check in on the ole blog so here I am.

I haven't forgotten about the previous blog about the end of Christianity in America and I wanted to continue my thoughts on the matter....

The kingdom of God operates very differently than the kingdom of this world. We must never, never forget that. In America, we think it's great that we can worship God freely. We think it's great that the church can not only influence law and government, but actually obtain power to run it. To be in charge, on top, and in power, is considered a sign that things are "going well" for the church. Success is measured by how big the group is, how much $$$ you have, and how much pull you have in forming public policy (we call this power).

So what is happening in America today? Church numbers are down and it's "place" in national politics is not what it was 10 years ago. Recent elections show that evangelical/conservative Christians (and their policies) are not as welcome in the political arena as they once were. State sanctioned gay marriage appears inevitable and roe v. wade isn't going anywhere.

So, do the math....the sky is falling. Bad, very bad times for the church.

There are/will be many folks who are not Christian gloating about all that I said above. They will declare victory in America's culture war. They will pronounce dead the church and talk about dancing on it's grave. It's already happening and I expect nothing less from those folks. Using their rules, they won. Good for them.

But here's the thing, the church is called to operate under the values of the Kingdom of GOD. Success in the church is defined very differently and comes under different conditions. Strength is found in weakness and smallness and vulnerability. God moves powerfully from the bottom up, not from the top down.

It all started with that Constantine rascal. Connie is considered a hero by many Christians who evaluate success using the worlds yardstick. He's the guy who made Christianity the state religion in the Roman empire in the early 300's. The emperor before him, Diocletian, was all about persecuting and killing Christians. Under Diocletian, Christians had to do their thing "underground". There was no freedom to worship in those days. They weren't winning elections. They weren't formulating policy. They weren't making rules. They were objects of legislated hate and ridicule.

A couple of intense dreams experienced by new Emperor Constantine changed everything. He became a Christian and made Christianity the state religion. Christianity went from running from the government to being the government overnight. Obviously, more and more people became Christians. Christian morality and ideals became law, and folks were free to worship Jesus openly. We now had the power. We made the rules. The church has valued this place of authority ever since.

And while I can see the positive motives behind such a value. I think it has robbed the church of it's true source of it's power. I think Emperor Constantine's institutionalizing of Christianity emasculated the church.

But this is getting too long......I promise to continue this in another post.....
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Now back to 1 Cor 13:8-13 for me--looks like that passage will be my swan song.....

The End of Christian America

Brian Miller sent me a link to a Newsweek article titled "The End of Christian America". http://www.newsweek.com/id/192583/page/1

I wanted to comment on a few things it says. I've been thinking about this stuff for some time now.

The hingepoint of the article is the result of a recent survey that found that "the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990, rising from 8 to 15 percent". There were other numbers given to reveal that the number of those claiming to be Christian has gone down during the same time period and that less folks consider America to be a Christian nation.

Should we be scared? depressed?

I'm not. I've been aware of this for some time. I've brought it up in sermons. In all honesty, I see it as a positive trend.

Where do I start?

Well, first off, the number of cultural Christians has greatly decreased. By cultural Christian I mean those who would claim to be Christian but have no real relationship with Jesus. They call themselves Christian, might even go to church (on Easter and Christmas), but there is nothing to speak of regarding genuine faith in Jesus. They were Christian because that was the box they checked. They felt it was important to identify themselves as something, and Christian seemed more appropriate than Muslim or Jewish.

Today, folks are less inclined to feel compelled to identify with a larger group. Plus I would venture to guess that the possible answers to these surveys make it easier to claim no religious affiliation (just a hunch on that one).

I remember growing up seeing the church filled with folks (in my judgmental opinion) had no idea why they were going to church. They just went because it was the thing to do. Well, these folks had kids and their kids have grown up and seen through the empty religious crap and don't feel compelled to identify themselves as something they are not.

So, the end result is less what? Less Christians or less people calling themselves Christian? I'd rather have a committed army of 100 than a lukewarm army of 500. If these numbers indicate the death of anything, it's the death of mainline, cultural Christianity, which the prophets of the Old Testament would heartily welcome.

No problems here. For me less is more. I think the Kingdom of God functions better when it is the underdog. When it is looking up form the bottom, rather than looking down form the top. Which brings be to my next point......

Question: was Emperor Constantine good or bad for the kingdom of God?

I'll make that my next post.

My Tuesday prayer

This morning I start the process of preparing for next Sundays message. No writing or study or anything like that--just a small prayer, asking God to lead me in the right direction. My prayer is that I would be sensitive to His "prompts", as I believe He will give me more than a few in the next couple of days.

These promptings will come as I live my life. I've got a number of phone calls to make today. It's quite possible God will answer my prayer in one of these conversations. I've got some paperwork to do and things to file. It's possible that one of the papers I'll be holding will contain God's message. Maybe it'll come when I run, or when I'm driving a Northwestern school van....but it will come.

For 10+ years God has faithfully answered my Tuesday prayer. Sure, sometimes He answers it on Saturday night (ugh), but He answers.

My job is to be on the lookout, to be waiting with a sense of vulnerability and hope. I hate to think of all the messages I've missed simply because I wasn't looking.

Thank God for His grace.

chance

This is a real cool video. I went "whoa" a few times watching it. Nothing overtly spiritual here. By the way there is another new entry below this......

the will

....we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:5


I've started running in preparation for the military. I guess I have to pass some physical stuff to get in, so I figured I'd better get a head start. I'm up to 1 1/2 miles now, which isn't bad considering I lasted about 250 yards my first day.

I'm learning that running is like 99% mental. After the first 1/4 mile, my legs begin to really ache, my stomach gets upset, and I feel like my knees are going to give out. I have the strong desire to turn back and promise to do a longer run tomorrow. I actually feel this way for most of the run. I know that my body can go much further, but my mind, my will, is telling me to stop. "It's too hard. You don't have to do this. You will be happier if you stop." I have to fight hard against this inner voice. Every time I start a run, I know my will will be tested. It's hard.

But it is very good (even though I hate it). Not only are my legs, but my will, is getting into shape.

The battlefield IS in the mind and if my will is "in shape" than I am more apt to win those battles. Any kind of temptation, doubt, fear--all that bad stuff, are attacks on our will--to get us to do or not do something. Some folks are dominated by negative thoughts. I wonder if that is because they are weak willed. I wonder if that would change if they began to exercise their will.

I'm learning the importance of exercising the will. I realize that I have been lax in this and it has affected many areas of my life. I guess this is why something like fasting is so important--because it is a good work out for your will. It pushes you to a place where you want to stop but must choose to continue. Not a fun place to be, but an important place to be. One of the pitfalls of our culture is we never have to go there.

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I still have not heard anything official from the military. I did call some officer dude today and he told me pretty much...."you'll hear something when you hear something, until then, don't bother me".

I guess if you've ever been in the military, you understand that last sentence very well.

Painful Grace

Yes, painful grace.

Grace, by it's very nature, is born out of pain. It's only relevant in the face of hurt or failure or something bad like that. Grace is for when you forget your wife's birthday, not when you get her a nice present. So the idea of painful grace is kind of redundant. But I like it anyway because we often throw the word around like its nothing.

We (I) need to be reminded that grace isn't just this cool thing that God does to make things better. It's not simple. It's not sweet. There is a painful price paid for grace. That's why the cross is so meaningful. The graphic, gruesome, bloody death of Jesus shows me full well how much grace costs. I can picture God saying "this much Jim, this much". The movie "The Passion" is excellent in considering the cost of grace.

To digress--Muslims believe that God forgives sins by fiat--meaning He just forgives them from His desk in heaven. Kinda just like "yeah, you're forgiven...next".
No pain. No cost. No sacrifice =No grace.

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Many folks at Solid Rock have shown me painful grace these last few weeks. It's hard for them to "like" the decision that I've made. Truth be told, they don't like it. It hurts. But there has been grace. Grace that will leave the door open for God to comfort and reassure.

Well, I'm kinda 1/2way through a thought but I'm getting so tired.




Here's another thought that I haven't finished flushing out but thought worth throwing out there for something to chew on:
Grace can only come from a wounded person. A lot of people have trouble giving grace because they refuse to admit that they've been hurt.


Also completely unrelated to anything is this following game website where you can name all 232 players in the baseball hall of fame. It took like two weeks but I finally can get them all.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/mlbhalloffamers.php

Behind the Coffee

A recent investigative report on the making of Brian's Coffee. I found it quite educational.




ps. I made to about 3 1/2 minutes through. I am seriously hoping that nothing *bad* sneaks in the last half. Wouldn't go over well on a pasotrs blog.