For the majority of my life, the United States had stuck closely to Christian principals. We are in a new age now. As more and more of those so called Christian’s have started to change their beliefs, it has put additional pressure on Christian’s to know how to respond.
With a great divide on things like abortion, LGBTQ, vaccines, etc, I can’t help but wonder how we got here and what we (Christians) can do about it.
Don’t get me wrong, Christians have been persecuted since the very man we follow proclaimed he was God and the apostles followed in His steps, but in my lifetime in America, it seems like things are shifting more rapidly than I expected.
It seems as if the first time in our history that so many commonly held Christian beliefs are being challenged at such a large scale: gender, immigration, religious liberties, and marriage.
So what has happened? Has it always been like this? Am I more mature now so it’s more apparent or am I just more aware?
I don’t think so. I believe there has always been people challenging Christian ideologies in this country but I believe it has increased significantly lately. Look at this graph from pew research. Look at the massive drop in those who identify as Christian over the last ten years.
I’m speaking in general terms but I believe we have lost sight of our great calling. We have made church more about the service and less about relationships. When church lacks relationship, it reduces the likelihood and desire for me to go.
When churches started doing online services, we immediately lost the relationship building aspect. I believe we saw a large drop in attendance online because church is built on relationships.
Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying, gathering for worship is great and the Bible calls us to do that, but when you throw a sermon up on the TV, yell at your kids to sit down and shut up (although hopefully more kind than that), and expect to remain committed, I highly doubt that worked for most people. I know for myself, if our church had not opened back up to in-person, I likely would have led my family to a different church because we believe the church is about vertical AND horizontal relationships. It’s about our relationship with God and with others.
By the time churches opened back up, a good amount of people had already left the church and didn’t have a desire to return because they lacked quality community.
When it comes to the controversial topics previously mentioned, what is a Christian to do? Do we go the Florida route and force our beliefs on others? Do we vote and call it a win when things go our way?
I’m all for defending the truth but I think we do it in the same way that Jesus called us to do it over 2,000 years ago…by making disciples.
Making disciples is hard, I would love for a study to be done on how many in the church feel they have ever made a disciple and compare that with those that left the church.
Discipleship takes commitment, time, energy, likely money, vulnerability, humbleness, and courage. I believe this is exactly why God gave me an idea, to build out a suite of resources to help those in their discipleship journey.
Walking back through most of my life, I was the lukewarm Christian that Jesus says he would spit out of His mouth. I was perfectly content knowing that I accepted Jesus as my savior but not changing myself or my sinful tendencies to more closely follow his plan for me. Over the years, I started doing various things to stretch my faith like joining community groups, attending some deeply theological studies at different churches, and reading an array of Christian books.
These were great, I could build my knowledge but didn’t have to put myself out of my comfort zone. God loves that I keep learning about Him right? He doesn’t ever want me to talk about my knowledge with others. And then my life changed.
An elder at the church asked if I wanted to go through a discipleship program. The intention of the program was not that I just continue to build my knowledge, instead the intention was that I would lead someone else through it. I accepted.
I took a big leap of faith for me and I led someone through the class. That person that led someone else where I got to see some of the fruits of my labor.
It was this program that set me on the course I’m on today. I have decided to start my own company, helping others in their discipleship journeys.
There are many ways to disciple others but all of them come back to relationship. Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing my plan.