Encouragement

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A Church in Crisis

The Church in North America is in decline. The church in North America geographically is among the weakest in spirit on the many faces of the world's continents. To further explain what I mean by weak is the lack of intensity, ambition, and influence it is presently having on the secular world, it's culture, and it's people. In many circles of Christianity in the western hemisphere the the church resembles almost perfectly the Laodicean church in Revelation. It believes itself to be prospering and in need of nothing. It believes because it is large, rich, and politically powerful that it is the epitome of what Christianity ought to be. Jesus Christ though, had something very different to convey to the Laodicean Church. In very blunt terminology, he said that they were poor, blind, naked, wretched, and miserable. Christ never minced words, and his address to this church was indeed not a flattering one. I have a conviction that if he were to address the church in North America right now, he would have similar things to say about us. I do not believe God is happy at all with the church overall in North America.
While there are possibly a plethora of factors which contribute to this; I have attempted to nail down four primary reasons why this church, while believing itself to be the hole in one, is actually not hitting par. While nobody knows for sure; that title of knowledge is reserved for God himself; perhaps we can attempt to shed some much needed light on this subject.

Wealth

The Laodicean Church was wealthy which is why they believed themselves "in need of nothing". Paul the apostle said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Wealth has corrupted a great deal of initially strong spirit-filled Christians. One of the contributing factors of the lethargy and apathy which plagues modern western culture is the comfort by which people have attained by wealth, status, and power. Our culture is defined by materialism and rugged individualism which has infiltrated the church. For example: The latest ideological craze to hit society in the last few months is a book titled "The Secret", which is no more then polished Eastern mysticism at bottom.
This book declares one can be fulfilled beyond their imagination by the power of positive thinking; that the forces of the universe can be manipulated through the positive concentration of the mind. It is replete with self-serving, self-absorbed philosophies and encouragements. It feed this culture's addiction to self-fulfillment and materialism. It is really modern witchcraft. The church is buying into it, because it promises "things", it promises health, wealth, and utter happiness. If you venture into any Christian book store you'll find numerous books written based on the same premise; get what you want, have what you want, and enjoy what you want; through the power of God. Three quarters of the books found in Christian book stores concern money, health, and happiness. "A thousands ways to receive blessings abundantly", are the sort of titles you find now in book stores. They mirror very well a lot of books found in secular book stores.
While there is certainly no sin in being wealthy, the obsession with wealth is what is. North America's churches in large part are structured and operated like corporations. Some of these buildings draw as much as 40,000 people every sunday, such as Joel Osteen's Lakewood church in Houston, Texas. With the general offensive nature of the gospel, in that it is confrontational when speaking of sin, the sheer numbers of people attending these congregations indicate that a less then adequate gospel is being preached there; because popularity, appeal, and accommodation are what draws crowds and not the straight, convicting gospel preached by Christ. The reason for a watered down gospel is usually a want or need for profit. You sacrifice whole truth for monetary gain. Wealth has driven many churches to present a veneer, convenient, and non-offensive approach to preaching. To find genuine gospel preaching, it is becoming ever more clear that you have to find a small church, where profit is not the number one objective. Because of the focus on money, the secular world is not being impacted by the church at large, due to a diluted gospel. We tell people that Jesus will make them happy, wealthy, and wise. What if they're already healthy, wealthy, and wise? What do we offer them then? Christianity is supposed to offer them what they do need, like salvation; and that's where the true gospel comes in. The urgency to inform a lost world of a savior gets put on the shelf when we become intoxicated with "things".
Wealth diverts the attention that is supposed to be focused on things above, to things below; like possessions. Many a Christian have been sidetracked by covetousness; a loss of their first love(Jesus) in exchange for worldly wealth and pleasures. Many Christians due to the pursuit of acquiring gain, live far away from God and because of this they possess little influence in the unsaved realm.

Discernment

The reason Christians fall for frauds like "The Secret" is that much of Christianity in North America has little discernment. Consider this: Benny Hinn has perhaps the largest following of professed Christians on the planet. Yet he has been exposed as a fraud by innumerable Christian as well as secular investigations. His healings have never been validated by any medical professional outside of his staff, and his doctrine is nothing short of atrocious(such as his nine person trinity). His onstage antics are ammunition for critics of Christianity who cite the sheer comic absurdities of his crusades as proof that Christians are little more then kooks. How can so many Christians be duped by this man? Another example: Many Christians think Freemasonry is perfectly acceptable, even harmless. This is astounding because in Freemasonry the first thing they ask you to do before becoming an official member is consent to having your throat cut from ear to ear, your insides ripped out, your tongue cut out, and buried at low tide if you divulge anything that goes on behind lodge doors. That should cause anyone to leave skid marks running away from this organization. Also, Freemasons worship one God, only it's Lucifer. You have to reach the top of the organization in membership before they tell you this, but that's who they revere.
There are countless false prophets, teachers, and preachers in churches all over North America yet they draw the most people, because Christians by and large have little discernment; they do not test the spirits. Some preachers claim to be Jesus Christ reincarnated yet Christians keep tossing money at them thinking they are true men of God. We have men teaching against the trinity and we even have men teaching that Jesus was and is not God. We cannot separate the sheep from the wolves. Few preachers are guarding the flocks these days, and a flood of hideous doctrines have permeated the church, including all forms of New Age mysticism and pantheism. We have a few gospel-preaching ministers who are standing against all of it but they often go ignored. The church in North America deems anyone who names the name of Christ to be genuine, even though Christ said many will come in HIS name who will be false. We are plagued by this notion today that correction is strife and questioning doctrine is equivalent to judging, often flogging Matthew 7:1 redundantly, and out of context. The extent of our reproof is limited to obvious cults such as Mormons and Freemasons; who we knew years ago were obviously false, yet within our own ranks we are too timid or unwilling to use discernment. The result is that our influence on the unsaved world is limited because of the terrible mixture of truth and error which renders the church vastly ineffective.

Knowledge

The reason we cannot discern anything, is because we don't know anything. The number one claim against Christianity by seething hate-filled atheists is that they know the bible better then we do. I submit to you that they are right. While atheists meticulously pick apart the bible for the purpose of arguing it, a good many Christians go weeks without picking it up, except on Sunday morning. It is because of the lack of sound biblical knowledge that we cannot discern the spirits. False doctrines get a wide berth when the bible is ignored, because that's where the truth is. It is a tragic indictment against the church that most of our knowledge of Christianity comes from things such as the Left Behind movie series. The bible tells us to study to show ourselves approved, yet study has become a distant concept, almost lost. Christians in North America rely largely on their preachers to spoon feed them biblical knowledge, expecting to acquire the discernment and knowledge they need as a Christian in one hour per week sitting in a pew. Some Christians believe in evolution, which is remarkable considering the flurry of creation science that God has provided us with; real science that affirms to the very T what the bible says about a literal six day creation. Christians like Ken Ham, a biologist, work overdrive to prove to Christians with the truth of creation, and become flustered when Christians either choose to ignore it, or not even bother to study it. Evolution and Christianity are polar opposite ideas, so opposite, that they are not compatible in any fashion.
Christians in the western world possess little knowledge of early church history, the reformation, or of any Christian literature penned throughout the last 1900 years. Forget apologetics, we cannot defend the bible because the vast majority of us don't know it well enough to defend it.

Witness

Perhaps the greatest indictment that can be made against the church today is its failure to do in practice what it proclaims in word. Notorious anti-Christian author Christopher Hitchens stated in his book "God is not Great" that the most profound evidence that would verify genuine Christianity was if Christians practiced what they preached. A divorce rate in the church equal to that of the world only serves to lend credence to that notion. I honestly despise having to agree with him. Many Christians simply do not behave in a manner that embodies biblical teaching. Not living what you proclaim makes a mockery of the cross and assigns little needed hypocrisy to Christianity. Non-believers need to see something in Christians which is different. They need to see our light in a world of darkness, and Jesus said that false prophets are known by their fruits. Coincidentally, Christians in general are known by their fruits, and if those fruits are rotten then our witness is utterly useless. If we drink, swear, steal, and lie while professing to be Christian then we have made a fool of Jesus Christ. Christianity in North America is 3000 miles wide and one inch deep. It is broad but it is shallow. Perhaps the scariest three verses in the bible are Matthew 7:21-23, where many will say "Lord Lord", yet Jesus will say he never knew them. That's frightening because he's speaking to people who claim his name. Is is unreasonable to assume that he says this because the people claiming his name have not lived for him genuinely? The gospel will not be taken seriously by the lost if the people presenting it live or act no differently then they do.

If we are afraid of correction and examination then we make void what Paul said in 2 Corinthians:

5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 2 Corinthians 5:5
If we love Christ, and love one another, then we need to pay greater attention to the state of the church, and if it is in crisis then we need to act, both in truth and in love.

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