Buildings, Bottoms, Bucks & Celebrity Bigshots
In looking back on the history of America as a Christian nation, the 20th century will stand out as a time of rapid decline despite its extensive growth in numbers, buildings, and monies. I like to refer to it as a time of buildings, bottoms, bucks & celebrity bigshots.
Yet, at the same time the Church's moral influence has waned. Instead of influencing the culture toward Christendom, the opposite is happening. The Church has increasingly become enamored by the way the world does things. Afterall, since America is all about business, we need to run our churches like businesses, with boards, accountants, bookkeepers. Pastors are to lead their churches like high-powered CEOs, but with the gentile touch of a docile shepherd. No sharp rebukes!
When dealing with the errant, pastors are to become compassionate counselors, comforting and assuring their clients that all is forgiven, even if nothing is repented. At the same time, he must maintain his role as the primary authoritative Bible teacher, presenting Scripture with both the highest doctrinal accuracy, albeit humorously and without ever making people uncomfortable. The metric of a good sermons is that it always sends people out the door with a smile. Most of all, he must not offend, lest someone stop attending, giving, or saying anything bad about the church. When it does happen, profuse apologies must follow, and quickly. It's still OK to speak about sin if you keep it vague and generic. Do not be too specific about things like habitually engaging in sexual immorality, LGBTQ+ behavior, or abortion. At all costs, don't say that people who do such things without repentance will certainly go to hell; even though Paul does. [1Corinthians 6:9-11]
It was a non-observant Jewish writer by the name of Neil Postman who first began to figure out why all of this was happening. He attributed it to Radio and TV. Prior to their advent, preaching was local. Pastor's spoke to their friends and neighbors. True, they often lived uncomfortably and unfairly in glass houses; but they also could not avoid knowing "the condition of their flocks, and could not help give careful attention to your herds [Pro 27:23]
Postman reasoned in Amusing Ourselves to Death, written in 1986, well before the digital age,
"There is no great religious leader who offered people what they want. Only what they need. But television is not well suited to offering people what they need. It's "user friendly." It is too easy to turn off. It is at its most alluring when it speaks the language of dynamic visual imagery. It does not accommodate complex language or stringent demands. Consequently, what is preached on television is not anything like the Sermon on the Mount. Religious programs are filled with good cheer. They celebrate affluence. Their featured players become celebrities. Though their message is trivial, the shows have high rating, or rather because their messages are trivial, the shows have high ratings. I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.
Getting stuck in the mud is always a lot easier than getting unstuck. So, how does the church get unstuck from the trough it's currently in?
Although he passed away over 60 years ago in 1961, many then and now, recognize AW Tozer as a modern-day prophet. Soon after World War II he foresaw that America in general, and the Church in particular, was changing, and not for the good.
Sadly, few today know anything about his words or his works. You can still find his classic books like The Pursuit of God, The Knowledge of the Holy, and God's Pursuit of Man and many other impactful books. He clearly had a prophet's foresight to where America was headed morally and spiritually. Consider one such excerpt from 70 years ago:
“If the church in the second half of this century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay, and asks no questions; nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone.”
“Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes, [and I pray God there will be... many], he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce, and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom. Such a man is likely to be lean, rugged, blunt-spoken and a little bit angry with the world. He will love Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other. But he will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.”
I know that God gives us all the necessary degree of grace to be that kind of person. What we lack is not grace, but desire. The choice is ours.
As Jesus warned...
the... seed... sown among the thorns... heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choked the word, and it becomes unfruitful.... the seed sown on the good soil... hears the word, retains it, accepts it and, perceivers in it... bearing fruit 100-fold.” [Mark 4:18-20]
If the American Church is to enjoy a resurgence, it will require a strategy quite different from its current commitment to ‘buildings, butts, budgets, & bigshots.' Rather, we must follow that oft repeated, well-worn platitude from 2Chronicles 7:14. It's God's version of the Great Reset:
If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
It still can happen!