Ready or not, here we go!

There has been much discussion in recent weeks about the decline religion in America, more specifically, the evangelical stream of Christianity. Major papers across the country have written about it, news websites have posted it, bloggers have discussed it. Books have been written on the subject and I'm sure many more are being written as you are reading this.

A number of thoughts are flooding my limited-capacity brain. I will whittle them down to two main ones. From my perspective as a Pentecostal Evangelical I see:

1. WE DON'T “LIVE OUT” THE JESUS WE PROCLAIM
We may sing, “It's All About You!” but we live like “It's All About Me!” We follow after the same pleasures as the world, we seek to “get ahead in the world” that Jesus would have us leave behind. As we accumulate after more and more “stuff” and are always desiring bigger and better everything, we are as guilty of the sin of covetousness (remember that one, “Thou shalt not covet?”) as anyone whom we would say “doesn't know the Lord.”

Our teens seem to be getting pregnant at a rate comparable to that of non-Christians.

Our married couples are divorcing at a rate equal to (or in some studies, greater than) those who do not profess Christ.

Jesus said that it is in the love we have for one another that the world would know we are His disciples and that our unity would be the evidence to the world that He was sent by God. The world doesn't see it.

As long as we fail to “live out” the Jesus we proclaim, we have very little to offer those outside of Christ. It is little wonder that we are seeing a decline in evangelical Christianity.

The very evangelical St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words.” Another similar quote of his said it this way, “Its no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” In street lingo we might say, “Bring it, don't sing it!”

2. WE HAVE DEMYSTIFIED GOD
It seems to me that we've lost the awe and fear and reverence of God. The Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth and Lord over all the universe has become “Our Buddy who art in heaven...” We have dumbed down God so He is easier to understand and figure out than the guy across the street. We have conformed Him into our likeness rather than allowing Him to conform us into the image of Christ.

A god we can fully comprehend and has no mystery is not the God of of the Bible. For His ways are always higher than ours; His thoughts are always higher than ours. An amoeba can more easily understand the complex workings of an advanced computer than we can understand how God works. Yes! He is that big! Oh, we have glimpses in the Holy Scriptures, but they are only that.

In our desire to be relevant to the world, the evangelical Church has failed to remain reverent before God. We need both: relevance and reverence.

In our attempt to avoid being thought of as being religious, we've reduced sacraments to ordinances, down-graded rituals to ceremonies and replaced traditions with whatever is trendy. We've become seeker friendly instead of being God-focused and worship is now more of a performance that entertains rather than an act that humbles our hearts in surrender before a holy and all-powerful God. And we wonder why our American evangelical Church is in decline. We've compromised the sacred in the name of being lead by the Spirit.

May God have mercy and send a true revival of Christlikeness to His Church.