On Sunday I had more message than minutes. Here is something I left out of Sunday's message, when I made the point that LIVING BY FAITH DEMANDS THAT WE BELIEVE GOD EXISTS. Hebrews 11:6b "because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists".
If you believe that God exists that belief will impact your world-view. Everything you do and think is based on your world-view and everybody has a world-view. A world-view can be defined as the lens someone sees the world through that defines reality.
As Christians, we have a distinct world-view that is based on that fact that we believe God exists, is knowable by grace through faith in Christ, and is at work in our lives and our world. But as soon as I say that I must admit that the church of Jesus is facing a crisis right now that is hurting not only the church, but the world the church is called to serve. The problem with the church is that many within the church know what the Bible teaches, but many do not actually believe what the Bible teaches nor do they see the world through a Biblical Christ-centered world-view. There seems to be a gap between the stated beliefs and the actual behaviors of Christians these days.
The people of the church says they believe certain things based on their membership in a local church, but many do not live what they say they believe. This is not true of every Christian or church. We are blessed at Living Hope to have a majority of people that genuinely believe the God exists and are living out of a Biblical Christ-centered world-view. But in general the church in North America isn’t and there are serious consequences to this gap between what is believed and what is lived.
One consequence of this gap is an unhealthy church that is not growing. According to Ed Stetzer, Director of Lifeway Research and all around great guy, "North America is the only continent in the world where the church is not growing. In North America, the church is in decline. Some even claim it is dying." That is startling, when you think about the number of people and the amount of resources that are at the disposal of the church in North America. The church is not dying, but it is struggling as a result of this gap between what the Bible teaches and how God’s people are living.
Another consequence is an unhealthy world that believes the church is irrelevant and hypocritical. According to David Kinnaman, the president of The Barna Group "(studies show)that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations when they were at the same stage of life. In fact, in just a decade, many of the Barna measures of the Christian image have shifted substantially downward, fueled in part by a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment among young people. For instance, a decade ago the vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith, including young people, felt favorably toward Christianity’s role in society. Currently, however, just 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a "good impression" of Christianity. Common negative perceptions include that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87%), hypocritical (85%)."
When 87% of these young people surveyed think of Christianity, they do not think about grace. They think about “judgment” and not of God's judgment, but of His people. I recently saw a bumper Sticker that said, “Jesus save me from your followers!” They see the church as a group of scary people.
When 85% of these young people surveyed think of Christianity, they do not think about authenticity. They think hypocrite.
The people of the world are looking at the church and not wondering if what we say is true, but they are questioning if we truly believe what we say is true. The world is questioning Christians because they claim to believe in a gracious loving God, but do not seem to be gracious and loving themselves.
All people live out what they believe is true based on their world-view. People who believe that God exists will live like it. The text tells us that to live by faith and please God, we must first believe that God exists and live like it. To live the Christian life we must embrace a Biblical Christ-centered world-view and then live it.
That’s what living by faith is. It’s believing God exists and then living like it.
2 comments:
The Barna stats must be improved. I really believe that in order to do that our Christian walk must be our Christian talk. No one can do this completely perfectly. However, how many can honestly say they work earnestly to live according to their faith in every trial of every day? Too much was paid to pay face for a luke-warm faith.
#1) I have friends that are missionaries in England/ Europe... Christianity is DECADES into decline there. Islam is consuming all corners of that continent.
#2) Christianity in America is reaping the harvest of about a century of easy believism, works based righteousness and a social gospel obscuring unadulterated TRUTH proclaiming. It's not so much that Christianity is in decline as it is that the Gospel has been supressed by a consumer minded church. We are headed towards the spiritual temperature of Europe.
Both Great Wars knocked Europe off the foundation... I believe Vietnam knocked us off ours. Relativism became our cultures pacifier and we tried to make the Gospel adapt to that.
-Jud
Post a Comment