Does your faith seem more like an addition to your life than the reason you are alive? If so I apologize. I’ve held back a lot of my frustrations on this blog for the sake of being nice. I see now that by staying quiet, I’m doing a disservice to the church. I don’t intend to be mean. Instead, I want to be honest, because our American Church needs to hear this message. Honestly, if our church doesn’t change in these things, our faith will only grow more obsolete in this country. Here are three reasons why I’m mad at the American church.
#1 A Total Lack of Urgency
Are we ill-informed, or do we just not care? I pray its the former and not the latter. Christians, nonbelievers are dying every day! And do you know where they go? Hell. That eternal land of fire, where there is no rest, no peace, and no hope.
We rose up to fight the nazis, and now as Satan and his demons ransack our country and our world we sit back and turn on our TV. We don’t see the battle, so we kill time and inadvertently let thousands of souls perish. How can we let this happen?
We must get up, go out, and talk to that neighbor we’ve never met. We can help them with their yard work, invite them over for dinner. Anything. Just please do something. How can we distract ourselves while nonbelievers race blindly down a deadly path toward eternal separation from God.
How is it that we are so willing to forget that by God’s grace we were completely spared from this punishment that we deserve? We were given an amazing gift that we didn’t deserve and now we are afraid to share it with others?
I see churches all over the place share in their mission statement some emphasis on evangelism or taking part in the great commission. Then, when my team and I show up to train in evangelism less than 5% of the congregation stays.
I know I’m not perfect at this and there’s a lot of room for me to grow, but it’s awfully hard to take those steps when no one in my church wants to take them with me.
Answer me this, why are we here on this planet if it’s not to share the gospel with the lost? We exist to be in a relationship with God and to glorify him, but we have this life on this planet for purpose of reaching the lost. That is why you are here right now. Are you being faithful with this time?
We will be far better at all of our other Christianly duties in heaven. However, God keeps us here—where we are much less diligent in prayer, worship, and live far less holy lives—because he wants to use us to reach the lost.
This extends far beyond our church walls. Pastors, I’m speaking to you now. When was the last time you shared the gospel outside of the church? When was the last time you went to the lost instead of asking them to come to you? Instead of planning a big evangelism event on your church property, go to a park.
God commands us to reach out to the lost in Matthew 28:18-19 when Jesus says “Go and make disciples.” As far as I know, a command is not optional. If we love God, we must share our faith with the lost. This isn’t something we pass off to our pastors or church leadership.
This is something for all believers. Saying evangelism is just for some people is like saying being filled with the Holy Spirit is just a gift given to some people.
They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I believe the road to hell is surrounded by silent Christians.
It’s easy to sit back with the belief that God doesn’t need us because he could just reach the world himself. As true as this may be, do we apply this to our finances? Do we just sit around and say that if God wanted us to have money, he’d just give it to us? No, we work for it. So, let’s work toward reaching the lost also.
Somehow, and in some way, this math problem stands true: as more people share their faith, more people will trust in Christ.
So, please, go. Share your faith. Fight back the lies and fears Satan will throw at you. Don’t let him force you back into submission with the fear of the unknown or the awkwardness of a conversation.
The excuses that hold us back from sharing the gospel look pitiful compared to the lives of the apostles. People stoned, imprisoned, and martyred the apostles for sharing their faith. Yet not even this stopped them.
Why should we hesitate? Why should we let our excuses keep us from playing a critical part in saving their lives? Imagine if police, firemen, paramedics, lifeguards, or doctors operated this way? Look at how pitiful our excuses are:
- Discomfort
- Feeling awkward
- Fear of what they might think
- Concern for not being able to answer a hard question
- Believing there will be another opportunity
When we use these excuses to step back and abandon our duty as believers, we let Satan win. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I believe the road to hell is surrounded by silent Christians.
#2 Pacifying the Gospel
The early church was a movement. A revolutionary idea that by loving even those who hate us and are killing us, we can reach the world. And, it worked.
Now, look at the church. Our churches are basically now self-help clubs. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but when this is all that we are as a church, there’s a huge problem. We focus on God’s love, we sing songs, we talk about how we can be better, live in peace, and feel these warm and fuzzy emotions. None of this is wrong, but if you shared this description with a group of people, who’s going to come?
We’ve stripped the gospel of the big and important things. Perhaps this is why we are losing the younger generation. We want a battle to fight, a cause bigger than ourselves to stand for. We want adventure, and that’s exactly what Jesus gave us.
When we make the gospel only about God’s love, we make the gospel comfortable and often-times passive. We need to make it clear that the gospel is about love and a mission. An invitation to join God and fight back Satan and his demons.
You bet the younger generation will rally around that. Especially younger guys like me; you know, that elusive group that the church just can’t seem to reach. We want something to fight for, just give us something to do!
Why is it that the Black Lives Matters movement is so popular with the younger generation? Because they want to fight for something. So, let’s give them something to fight for. Something that is purely good and based whole-heartedly out of love.
Show them that they should fight for the sake of the lost.
#3 Focusing on Worldly Matters Rather than Eternity
When was the last time you thought about heaven? When was the last time you truly longed for heaven? Even better, when was the last time you willingly gave up something here on this planet because you knew you’d get something much better in heaven?
As Americans, we have come as close as possible to making life here on this earth feel like heaven (until recently). We aren’t worried about running out of food or getting killed. We have comfortable homes, beds, couches, cars, and kitchens. Why would we even want heaven?
That’s the problem.
We are too focused on making this earth our heaven that we don’t long for heaven anymore.
I love living near my siblings, but God’s called me to set aside this dream because I know I’ll have an eternity with my siblings. Instead of pursuing this dream, I’m dedicating my life to reaching the lost and unreached.
There are billions of people in our world right now who have never heard the gospel, nor ever will, unless someone goes to share it with them.
We are too focused on making this earth our heaven that we don’t long for heaven anymore.
These are people God longs to welcome in as his children. These are our future brothers and sisters in Christ. How could I not sacrifice in this life and put off my selfish dreams for the sake of stepping into this grand adventure and reaching out to those God loves?
For many of us in America, stepping into heaven will be like waking up from a dream. After all our toils and labors in our lives on earth, we’ll realize that not of it means anything in heaven. How much time are we wasting in this life that we will later regret in heaven?
There is such a thing as resting, and I don’t want to undermine that.
Friends, I don’t want to feel like I wasted this life when I step into heaven. I want to enter my eternal rest exhausted, knowing I did all I could to bring as many people into heaven as possible with every second of my life, every ounce of energy, every word I spoke, and every cent God’s entrusted to me in this lifetime.
What about you? Will you live wilder?
What Now?
So, what steps do we take now? I want to encourage you not to wait. Share this blog with your pastor if you think he needs to hear it. Or find a friend to share this with. Tell them how you want to change the way you live and ask them to keep you accountable. But also, keep learning, keep growing. And that’s what I’m here to help with. I want to help you live this wild life. We are in this together.
You can start learning more by checking out my blog post How to Join God’s Army
Additionally, if you need to learn how you can share your faith, check out my ministries recent live training here
Wow. This was awesome. Honestly. I have no idea why I am the only one who comments on your posts. But that’s gotta change. Praying that does.
That was completely profound. “The preacher” is on you my friend, speak that gospel like you were born to!
There is one thing I noticed that maybe you’d like to see. When you talked about “satan” you have him a capital S. I never do this because the devil shouldn’t be given any power. Grammarly says it is incorrect not to capitalize, ignore that idea. That’s just a suggestion. Stellar job once again! Rooting for you and saying AMEN!
Wow, thanks Philip..truly sharing our faith is a matter of urgency! So important message greatly blessed.it doesn’t only apply to Churches in the US alone but the body of Christ as a whole.
Thank you for commenting! And sometimes people just don’t comment because they are afraid to be the first to comment, so thank you in leading out in example.
I did think about that. And I don’t think it’s wrong to say that Satan has power, for he certainly does. After all, if we think Satan isn’t powerful, we may engage him out of our own strength, which is doomed to fail. Satan is incredibly powerful, as are his demons, but we have a greater power named the Holy Spirit working in and through us. That’s what we must remember.
That is true, you got me there. See, you’re much more mature in the Lord than I am. Hopefully more will comment here because of my example. One already did. Reading your posts is one of my favorite things to do now and I look forward to it. Be blessed. 😊
Great start but you have just touched the surface. One huge issues is pastors get inadequate training at seminary schools. They teach them how to be a successful business owners who can make money vs. Obey what the Word of God says. They Don’t teach 1 John 2:27. They Don’t emphasize the need of the Holy Spirit to teach us and not man. Most churches are 50130 churches so they pledge allegations to the Govt. Instead of God. The churches teach religion vs. Relationships they are just like the institutions s Jesus encountered when He was here i could go on and on but their total interest is nickles noses and numbers the pastors wolfes in sheep clothing. They only care about themselves for the most part. Organize religion is influence more by Satan than God. Read Pagan Christianity by George Barnna and Frank Viola and you will have plenty to add to your 3 items you wrote about. DAVID Block
Oh believe me, there’s a lot I could’ve shared, but I stopped where I was at because the post was already getting long enough. I think there are a lot of bad pastors, but I’ve also met tons of great pastors, so I definitely don’t want to talk down on them. But you are getting at something here. There is a massive shift we should all have back toward simply depending on God from day to day.