Why Is the Church in America Shrinking?

 Let me start out by saying this is a complex issue, you can't just point out one or two things and it is the silver bullet. There are also individuals much smarter than I am who have written and studied this problem extensively. I want to give you what I see as some of the biggest issues of the church, and suggest these are some of the issues we see.

We are living in a post-church age, where it is normal for people to not attend church. Most of the history of the United States, people just went to church. In the 60s, there was a shift that began and over the next 60 years, church enrollment has declined. The Jesus Movement of the 70s helped some, and some organizations like Promise Keepers have worked to support outreach, but the trend continues downward. I think there are some things that have supported this.

First, churches are pretending like it isn't happening. Most churches have continued on as if things are great, and there have been very few adjustments. The adjustments that we have made, I don't think, have been the best. As church membership has fallen away, many of the smaller and medium-sized churches have died and closed their doors, and we have seen the rise of the mega-church. I am not here to bash on the mega-church, it has done a lot of good, but just as much harm. It has created a culture of "consumer-based" Christianity, where the church is a combination of a concert, a nice message, some quality coffee, free child care, and a social gathering. Faith is not really required, and commitment is optional. Most mega-churches have a back door that is as big as the front door, and many of the people who attend never really commit and leave just as easily as they came.

The next problem is leadership. Not the leadership of the church, but the principle of leadership. Sure, leadership is important, but it has become the golden calf of churches. Leadership has become an idol, people love to be in charge. When someone wants to be in charge but can't, they go to one of a couple of places. They run for the city council or the school board. When that doesn't work, they find a way to become in charge of an HOA, and they find a leadership position in the church. So many places we find in the New Testament that leadership is supposed to be gracious, servant, giving, and gentile. That's not what we get, we have the CEO, Captain, General, Commander type leadership. I would dare say many church leaders do not know Jesus, they know leadership, and they just want to be in charge. Combine this with the mega church model, and you have leaders who want a big church, but not really Jesus. Joel Osteen, anyone? Without leadership who is sold out to Jesus, who is preaching Jesus, lives are not being changed, and the church is optional.

Next, gossip. In America, we love gossip. We have TV shows and magazines dedicated to gossip. In the church, we are more interested in talking about someone's struggles than we are about helping them through them. The culture at large loves it when a Christian falls. People right now know who Michael Tait is who have never heard of DC Talk or Newsboys. If you Google his name, the first thing you will see is the dirt and the gossip. Sure, we need to hold people accountable, but quietly and out of love and for the purpose of restoration. That's not what we do, we destroy people. We see people destroyed because of sin, and then we realize we have sin. I have messed up, and I don't want that plastered all over my church, do you? People stop going to church because they don't want their mistakes making the front page of the bulletin. People are afraid to be condemned.

My last point, we have left evangelism to the church. It used to be that people came to church to hear about Jesus, but not people aren't coming to church, so they aren't hearing about Jesus. We don't have outreach like we need, and church members are not sharing their faith. I know it's hard, that is why I wrote a book about it, to help make a plan and make it easier. It's still hard, but it has to happen. Christians have to find ways to share their faith outside the church, because people are no longer coming into the church. America has become more of a mission field than ever before, and we have to take missionary mindsets. People need to see their need for the church, because right now they don't.

Now, this isn't an exhaustive list, there are more reasons, and some that are church or area-specific. This is just a few places that I see big, glaring holes in the way the modern American church is operating. You can add lots of things, such as the way churches have abandoned the Bible, kids leaving after graduating, the moral decline due to social media, and all sorts of other reasons. My point is, these things we can work on in our churches today, and my prayer is to begin moving towards a society that values the gathering on Sunday morning for prayer, worship, and growth.

Be Careful Who Your Teacher Is

 During the 1st centry, there we no shortages of "messiahs". The Jewish people knew the Messiah was coming, but they got it mixed up a little. They assumed the Messiah would be a political leader, conquering Rome and setting Israel up as the strongest nation. In reality, Jesus came to conquer the empire of sin, not Rome, but that's another blog. Jesus was The Messiah, but many claimed the title. This continues even to today, where many claim to be divine, have special divine knowledge. Jesus told us this would happen. Paul and John both wrote this would happen. Leaders and false teachers have existed since the beginning. Today is no different.

I have an author's page on Tiktok, and the first comment I got was one of these false teachers. They decided to "correct my theology" and then spouted some crazy stuff about Christianity not having any connection to God. I am not sure if he was a Jewish mystic or just a strange Christian-Jewish hybrid or a gnostic, or just someone who watched too many youtube videos. The fact remains that heretics and false teachers are everywhere. They will attempt to tell you things that lead you away from the faith. They will attempt to connect parts of scripture in an intracit web to twist the truth to justify their belief system.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 Peter 2:1

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15

I'm A Good Person, So Will I Go To Heaven?

 This is probably the most believed thing for most Americans today. The belief that 1. our trip to Heaven is earned by good behavior and 2. we are good and deserve to go. Both statements are false. I can say that with no hesitation because the Bible say it.

No one is good. Don't believe me? 

“None is righteous, no, not one;
11     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.” Romans 3:10-12 (ESV).

Jesus said the same thing. He said no one is good but God. You are not a good person, nor am I. Sure, I do good things, but on my own, they are for me. I do good because I feel obligated, because it helps me feel good, because I get clout, to impress someone. We are all selfish, as deep as it goes. If we are not good, then what about Heaven? Can I be good enough to go to Heaven?

Here is the fact. Jesus came, Emmanuel, God with us, the Divine Incarnation. God became a man, came to Earth, lived for 33 years, and then died a horrible, agonizing death to pay the penalty for sin. Know why He did that? It was to pay the debt that you owe because of the things you have done in violation of God's laws. He didn't do it just in case you aren't good enough on your own. He did it because you aren't. You can't earn Heaven.

Your sin is too great, and you have nothing of value. You can't make it to Heaven by your behavior. You need Jesus to get you to Heaven. Here is how it works. The Holy Spirit is going to show you (the Biblical word is convict) of your sins. Once that happens, you will understand what I am saying. You will see how holy God is and how far off you are. If that hasn't happened, I will pray that it does for you, and I recommend you pray and ask God to show you. To send the Holy Spirit to show you and convict you. Once that happens, once you see yourself for who you are because of the work of the Holy Spirit, you will cry out to God for forgiveness, and he will forgive you because of what Jesus did.

There are some Biblical things that go with this, like Romans 10:9, if you confess that Jesus is your Lord and savior and believe that He died and rose from the dead, you are saved (Dan paraphrase). This happens when you are convicted by the Holy Spirit.

He is the truth, and it is hard for lots of us. Many of us have been lied to, saying you can just choose Jesus. Well, you can't. We have been lied to that if we are good people, keep the commandments, go to church, pray, do all the things, we will go to Heaven. Well, you won't. This is the fact, and Jesus said it. Unless you repent, you will perish. Luke 13. You must repent, and good people don't need to repent, but you are not a good person. You are either a sinner or a sinner saved by grace.

The last bit of bad news, that after reading this, you still think you have been good enough to go to Heaven, your final destination is not Heaven. Church can't get you there, doing all the things won't get you there. Pray and ask God to show you that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, and when you are confronted with the holiness of God and you cry out for grace and forgiveness, then you can trust you are on your way to Heaven.

Let me know if I can pray with you.

Can you help me out?

 Hey everyone,

    So, as I have taken this journey of writing and blogging and publishing and podcasting and all the other things, I have found one thing I struggle with. Advertising. I am not much for self promotion, and I don't know how to help people find my resources. I want to do something simple today, if you will please help me out.

First, if you simply comment on this post, where you saw this post. It can be simple like "facebook" or "x" so I can see where my traffic is coming from. I am not asking you to subscribe or put your info, I am not using this for any other purpose, you can be anonymous, but I need help. I have studied English, Theology, and Education, and I don't know much about marketing.

Thank you!

Getting Back to the Focus- Let's Talk Theology

Hey everyone, I've used this blog as an outlet and platform to discuss various topics. I have not been ashamed to say that this blog exists to allow me to write and work on becoming a better writer. That being said, I do have an agenda, and that is to write about, think about, and unpack theological ideas. The title of the blog is "Woven Words and Thoughts" because one of the ways I understand the interaction between God and man, the divine and the moral, the holy and the profane, is something I call wovenism. It's not a new theology; it's an old theology expressed in different terms. I haven't written about it much; I've been all over the place, but it's time to come home, in a manner of speaking. Let's talk theology.

I want to start where things started for me. I was not always on the Calvinist side of the fence. No one really begins there, not those individuals who have an Evangelical background anyway. There is such an emphasis on choice, on personal responsibility, and the language we use is very much focused on the individual doing the work. We use words like "decision" and "invite" to give action to the work of salvation. In many evangelical presentations, God is passive, and the individual being converted is the active participant. God simply offers salvation, and we do the rest in choosing, praying, accepting, surrendering, following, etc. I was very ok with this for a very long time. I was very focused on evangelism; I was passionate about it, and I studied books like "How to Share Jesus without Fear." I read books I was involved in FAITH Sunday School Evangelism. I was involved in the FCA at my High School and the Baptist group (which has undergone three name changes, I believe it's now called Christian Challenge) in college. The more I read and studied, the more confused I became. Here is my confusion:

Whose work is Salvation? Can a person just choose to be saved? Does God have any role in individual salvation, or was it up to me, as the person sharing, and the individual to choose Jesus? That is how I acted, that I had to do all the things right, and if I did, the person would get saved. The problem was, I wasn't that successful. I shared the gospel with people who rejected it, even though I used all these methods from all these people who wrote books. I was struggling, maybe it was me, maybe I was a failure of an evangelist. I studied more, I worked harder, I even wrote a book. I upped my game, I used more pressure when I felt like it was needed, after all, this was the person's eternal life. One day, instead of looking at books about Evangelism, I decided I would read Acts to look for answers, maybe Paul could help. After all, he was the greatest missionary ever, right? Then I read this:

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. Acts 13:48

Here is the context. Paul was witnessing to the Jews, and they were rejecting the message, having Paul arrested or beaten, so he said, "Forget it, I'll witness to the Gentiles (non Jews). Then this passage, they rejoiced and the ones appointed to eternal life, they are the only ones who believed. Now I had questions: What does that mean? Appointed by whom? It says clearly they are appointed to eternal life, and some told me "that means that after they are saved, they are appointed to eternal lif,e" but the way the passage is written, that would require them to be saved, then appointed, then believe. Isn't the belief that God raised Jesus from the dead what causes you to be saved? Romans 10:9 seems to indicate that. So they were appointed first, then believed.

This reality started me on a journey of exploration, study, faith, and learning. I want to continue to share that journey with you, so it is time to get back on the path. I am thankful for everyone who joins me, please continue to respectfully interact with me, and we can learn more about God, faith, salvation, and the Bible together.