America is in trouble

• America, because of an anemic Church here, is, indeed, in trouble. But it doesn’t have to be. A move back to the narrow path of Scripture, or not?

“America is in trouble. Because the church is in trouble. We are more concerned with appetite and comfort than we are in the Truth.” 

Those opening lines were spoken by a board member of a missions organization I am a part of. That’s not just an untoward slap at our nation. It is, as I have learned across decades, the common assessment of most evangelicals in this nation about the status of faith in the Western world. 

And what is at the root of this problem? Ask twenty experts and you might get twenty answers, but they would probably include ease, comfort, and a lack of persecution; suffering is not the natural habitat for Christians here in the US. And when that habitat is not conducive to healthy spiritual growth, the state of the church is affected. Not all of us: not the the ones who take seriously the “deny yourself, take up your cross” challenge of Christ. But far too many avowed Christians are spiritually anemic.

Years ago I was conducting a radio interview with a Chinese author who had written about the church in his home country. It was largely an account of how the number of believers was steadily increasing, even as the weight of government and law enforcement was marshalled against the burgeoning house churches. At the end of the interview, I offered to intercede for China, its churches, and our brothers and sisters there. “Should I pray for the lifting of persecution?” 

“Oh, no!” he exclaimed. “Persecution and hardship and injustice is what keeps our doctrine pure and makes the gospel attractive.” I was stunned. Yet the vitality of the persecuted church poses a strong indictment of the comfortable Christianity familiar to so many of us. 

A prominent missiologist has remarked that he, like many others in his field, had expected Africa to become the center of the worldwide Church, given the explosive growth in evangelism and discipleship there. “It should have been the African Church, but the prosperity gospel ruined that trajectory. The leadership of the Church belongs to any large movement that has decided we need to get back to the Bible.” He is now convinced that China will fill that role in the decades to come. 

Dr. Gary Maxey, founder of West Africa Theological Seminary, has particular insight as a citizen of both the United States and Nigeria: “Our school wants to start a renewal of orthodoxy and holiness and scriptural Christianity to regain the hope of our nation for the world. We shouldn’t be surprised that it is the hard places of the world that may well lead the world in the future. But wherever there is a robust move to biblical Christianity and especially Christ’s call to ‘deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus’ will see spiritual vitality.”

America, because of an anemic Church here, is, indeed, in trouble. But it doesn’t have to be. A move back to the narrow path of Scripture, or not? 

Decisive action needs to be taken.