What has happened to the American church?
Church
People
Hurt
People
"Silence in the face of evil, is itself evil" - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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This is the church, here is the steeple. Open the door and see all the people.
Close the door and listen to them pray, watch them all walk away.
a nursery rhyme
Why are the people walking away?
"As recently as the early 1990s, about 90% of U.S. adults identified as Christians. But today, about two-thirds of adults are Christians. The change in America’s religious composition is largely the result of large numbers of adults switching out of the religion in which they were raised to become religiously unaffiliated." -Pew Research Center
Declining attendance, mega church scandals, false teachings, omitting truth, million dollar budgets, flashing lights and smoke machines... is this really what God intended for the local church? When He had the Israelites construct the Temple, do you think he envisioned sneaker clad priests in skinny jeans, Perfect Tees and vintage inspired sneakers entering side doors and using their own green room? Did the God of the heavens who constructed His Earthly temple with the same care and concern He used to construct His heavenly house, really intend for sanctuaries to become multi-purpose rooms with basketball hoops and stacking chairs? Pickelball on Thursday, and worship on Sunday? Not a cross in sight or it's discretely positioned on the outskirts so that the vibe can stay edgy, hip and cultural?
“The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people.”
Bonhoeffer
When did the local church become cultural? Is not the call on God's Church (the body of Christ), to live counterculturally? Is the institution of the local church declining because it has lost it's favor with God, turning to golden calves and $50,000 LED screens? Is it declining because it needs to be deconstructed and rebuilt?
When the church gets so far off course, the ultimate casualty is that the church people start to hurt people. They don't intend to, they aren't all evil, but when the local church goes down a path that is far from what God intends, people are the ones who suffer the most.
god.
but,