PASTOR'S PERSPECTIVES: SEEKING CHURCHES TO BE INSTRUMENTS OF TRANSFORMATION

We preachers entertain fanciful thoughts that unbelievers scan public statements like this, hungry to fill some spiritual deficiency in their lives. Plenty indeed are hungry. But the fact is, fellow Christians, you and I are mostly alone as we read this.

Society is paying little attention to what we say, whether from the pulpits, in the media, or on the street. Badly needing a salty church, secular America has taken a bite -- and found us too bland.

This comes at a time when our culture cries out for a deliverer. It is adrift without moral anchor: witness emotion-tweaked jury decisions like Menendez. As well, polls on abortion can yield opposite opinions on the same day from the same people -- by fooling them with emotional language.

America is indeed decadent, but it is not our business to make a lost world act like a saved one. It is time to take care of our own spiritual affairs so we can be instruments of transformation.

How does the Church stand with the American public? Watch a few comedies as America laughs at Christians usually portrayed as bigots, hypocrites and fools.

It is not just the fault of a culture rebellious to God. It is more the fault of the superficial, anemic Church. Researcher George Barna says that for all the noise of megachurches and nonstop renewal meetings, there are today no more American Christians than there were 10 years ago.

Let us face the facts. No matter how lively we seem to be on Sunday, in the general scheme of things, the American Church is only shuffling Christians from one building to another, often irrelevant even to its own children.

Present society shows little of the rejuvenation of Christian revival seen in times like 1905 Wales or 1740s America. Bars and brothels closed, not by law, but because no one came. Mines were packed with prayer meetings.

We scream about perverse entertainment and the fragmented ex-family. Yet we forget that "all power on heaven and earth" was given to Jesus -- and to us; yet we stand powerless. Our leaders will be accountable for their poor moral example, but, Church, you and I are accountable for having such leaders. The march of decadence continues, and most theologians with a historian's eye refer to this era as "post-Christian."

There are exceptions. Some are coming to Christ. A few churches are packed with Baby Boomer's kids and grandkids (Generation X and the Millenials) -- even when their parents are absent.

And the Lord's church is very healthy in some parts of the world. In the 10-40 Window (a broad swathe of unreached North Africa and Asia) the last few years have seen dramatic results. Demographers say that Christian Pentecostalism is the fastest growing nonpolitical movement in human history. Some countries touched by revival in South America and Africa are sending missionaries here.

But our Church remains in a hold-the-fort-Jesus-is-coming operation, regardless of what is being said in the safety of sanctuaries. We are meant to be a pervasive Christ-like guerrilla force, ever neutralizing the enemy and converting the populace.

Mike Woelk is pastor of Livingway Foursquare Church at 1244 Bloomfield Road.