But God . . .
Despite bleak picture of U.S. Church, God’s moving
The past decade has been a nightmare for American Christianity.
Donald Trump’s emergence as a presidential candidate created conflict in the Church, with his past marital infidelity and other issues. Prominent Christians called out President Bill Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky scandal. It was different with Trump.
Jump to February 2019, Harvest Bible Church fired Pastor James MacDonald under allegations of bullying, deception, and financial misconduct. The same month, the Southern Baptist Convention had the explosion of sexual abuse involving 380 pastors.
In 2020, covid chaos was compounded by the George Floyd protests and riots, with both intensifying the heat of election 2020. All three caused varying degrees of conflict in churches.
Numerous governors told churches they couldn’t meet in person during covid, overstepping constitutional boundaries, which doesn’t account for biblical demands of any church. No man can tell churches what they can and can’t do. This was an Acts 5 moment: “Obey God, rather than men.”
Following the death of Ravi Zacharias in May 2020, we learned of his scandalous behavior. Three months later, Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as Liberty University’s president because of his scandalous behavior. There have been several others in their wake, all with shocking allegations that could make anyone wonder whether any of them were “Christians.”
Throw in the prosperity gospel, woke congregations, other man-made teachings and no one should wonder why America is post-Christian as the late Francis Schaeffer predicted in the 1980s.
A new book and some new data from George Barna only stand to make ministry more challenging. “The Great Dechurching” contends as Americans have pulled away from the church attendance they are leaning on politics. Meanwhile, Barna contends many American Christian parents are outsourcing faith development of their children.
One of the most respected observers of the Church in America, pollster George Barna, compounded the bad news about the depth of uncommitted Christians.
The Christian Post reported in September:
‘During the research, parents often shared doubts about their own parenting ability, even expressing that although they are doing the best they can, they don't feel that they are very good parents,’ Barna, the director of research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, explains in a summary of the research highlighted in the book. ‘But because they love their children and want them to have the best experiences and outcomes, parents look to find people who they believe can do the job in various dimensions of their child's lives.’
Meanwhile, Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center, which assists Barna in his research, performed a worldview survey in February. It’s nothing but more alarming news:
Barna, who has measured the worldview of American adults for more than 30 years, said these new lows among American adults could effectively spell the ‘extinction’ of biblical beliefs in our nation.
‘When you put the data in perspective, the biblical worldview is shuffling toward the edge of the cliff,’ Barna commented. ‘As things stand today, biblical theism is much closer to extinction in America than it is to influencing the soul of the nation. The current incidence of adults with the biblical worldview is the lowest since I began measuring it in the early 1990s.’
The veteran researcher noted that ‘young people, in particular, are largely isolated from biblical thought in our society and are the most aggressive at rejecting biblical principles in our culture.’
Any American follower of Jesus Christ cannot ignore the obvious: the American Church is weak in the face of cultural chaos and moral mayhem. Too many Christians are cultural Christians, rather than having an impact for a kingdom not of this world.
“But God” is moving again. And there’s growing evidence to show it.
I was a critic of the chatter of “Asbury Revival” in February and March. We best not talk about “revival” until we have evidence that something spurred a genuine act of the Holy Spirit.
Since then there have been multiple events that could cause any observer to conclude: “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
On Pentecost Sunday and during the summer there were two separate mass baptisms at Pirate’s Cove in California of more than 4,000 people.
Additionally, there have been mass baptisms at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Auburn University, and multiple churches.
People can cavalierly pass it off as “much ado about nothing.”
As someone who has been in the church 55 years, there’s no way I can view these events in 2023 as pure happenstance, no connection, no relationship.
Also, I’d contend that churches faithfully preaching the gospel have found themselves with new ministry opportunities created by video services during and following covid.
With all of the bleak information on the Church in America, God is moving.
We underestimate and trifle with Him at our peril.