My wife and I took a short vacation in North Carolina last week. We always seize the opportunity to grab breakfast at Chick-fil-A whenever possible (their breakfast burritos are the best!). My wife picked up a local church ministry newspaper called The Journey. In it was an interesting story about Bill Graham’s grandson (Franklin’s son) Will. Like his father and grandfather, Will has gone into Christian ministry. I found the following paragraph interesting.
After traveling and preaching on every continent (except Antarctica), this self-proclaimed “Mountain Boy” returned home to Swannanoa believing “the U.S. is the hardest place to preach” for various reasons. “Especially in the South and the traditional Bible Belt, Christianity is very much cultural. Many non-Christians and even Christians are ‘functional atheists’ — saying they believe in a God but functionally, by the way they live, they are telling the rest of the world “there is no God” or “my God can’t help me”. They can be no different than anyone else. Cultural Christians need the Gospel as much as anyone.”
You can read the entire article here.
These comments coincide with some of my own experiences in the ministry (pastoring in Mississippi, for instance), and they mesh well with a book I’m currently reading: Michael Horton’s Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the America Church. Horton writes about the American church and the American gospel:
I think that the church in America today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups. … The regular diet in many churches across America today [is] “do more, try harder.” I think that this the pervasive message across the spectrum today. It can be exhibited in an older, more conservative form, with a recurring emphasis on moral absolutes and warnings about falling into the pit of worldiness that can make one wonder whether we are saved through fear rather than faith. Heaven and hell still figure prominently in this version. Especially on the “high holy days” of the American church calendar (that is, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Father’s Day, and Mother’s Day), often complete with giant American flags, a color guard, and patriotic songs, this sterner version of “do more, try harder” helped get the culture wars off the ground. At the same time, more liberal bodies could be just as shrill with their “do more, try harder” list on the left and their weekly calls to action rather than clear proclamation of Christ.
The United States (which I believe is actually the third largest mission field in the world in terms of numbered of unchurched persons) may actually be the toughest mission field in the world.
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