Is your church ready?

A few years ago the late Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler edited a book written by a number of Christian thinkers titled Is Your Church Ready?: Motivating Leaders to Live an Apologetic Life. An excellent book, it highlighted the need for church leaders to do more apologetical preaching and teaching in their churches in order to help their congregations better understand and defend their faith. It is a book on my bookshelf that I have turned to more than once.

In the times in which we live one of the greatest needs in the church is for believers to understand why they believe what they claim they do believe. I wonder how many people in our churches could give a sound answer to someone who asked, "Why should I accept the Bible as true when there are so many errors in it?" What would they say if they were asked why they believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the only way one can have a relationship with God? Could they give sound, theological answers to those questions, and dozens of other questions unbelievers might ask? I'm afraid not many could.

Lately, I've thought about what I would do if I returned to pastoral ministry. The answer I've come up with is that I would focus my ministry on helping my congregation go deeper into the Scriptures than many of them have gone before. The church in America is about to face challenges it hasn't faced before. We've been on the sidelines of society for a long time, and we're about to move even further away. Called to be salt and light to the world we were to influence the world for God. Instead, we have allowed the world to penetrate the church. Many of our people do not have a Christian worldview that is informed by theological thinking, and this is the case because they have not been taught sound theology. Too many have been spoon-fed a diet of secular thinking with just enough Scripture to make it sound right and be acceptable in our PC world.

Pastors need more theology and apologetical books on their shelves and less self-help and church management books. We need to turn our offices back into studies. We need to stop entertaining our youth and begin to teach them what Christians believe and how to defend those beliefs so when they go away to college they won't come back as atheists. It's time we take the second part of the Great Commission seriously and make disciples of those who are part of our churches.

Denominations need to develop curriculum that teaches solid theology instead of providing material that offers little of substance. Years ago when I was still pastoring our church was using Sunday school material from outside our denomination. When the denomination revamped its material it asked churches to commit to it for one year. I encouraged our church to make a two-year commitment as I was sure that it would have some bugs that would need to be worked out. After the two years was up we went back to the old material we had been using. Not a single class or teacher felt the material was good enough to keep using. A few years later our denomination did away with its educational component as if education and discipleship was no longer important.

Some pastors believe they have to water down their teaching or people won't attend their churches. Studies consistently find the opposite is true. Formerly unchurched people say when they began looking for a church they were looking for one that knew what it believed and was not afraid to proclaim what it believed. Christians serious about their faith want solid biblical teaching.

I encourage you to ask yourself the question: Is your church ready to defend its faith in today's culture? Can your members stand up to the challenges they are about to face as a result of their faith? If not, what are you going to do about it?

Have we lost our sense of a Christian culture?

On my Twitter account (@DennisBickers) today I link to an article written by a university professor who describes this generation as one who has lost its common culture. He describes the majority of his students as nice people who have learned how to take tests and pass their courses, but they have little understanding of Western culture. The majority have no idea of the things that have shaped Western culture.

As I read the article it helped me understand why so many Americans seem willing to elect a socialist to the presidency. They have no idea of the differences between socialism and capitalism. They do not know the history of how this nation has fought against socialism throughout its history. Obviously, they do not realize that socialism has not worked anywhere it's been tried. They may know how to take tests,make good grades and graduate, but they do not know, or even believe, that a capitalist society is far superior to a socialist society.

The second thing I thought about while reading the article is that the same complaint could be made about many who call themselves Christian. Many Christians have a worldview that is far more secular than Christian. We struggle to think biblically because we do not know our Bibles. We may know stories from the Bible, but many struggle to integrate those stories into their lives and their mindsets.

As we continue to lose our sense of a Christian worldview we also continue to exercise less influence on our society. It's difficult to be a light shining in the midst of a darkened world if our lights are so dim that they are indistinguishable from that darkened world.

Christians must begin to recapture a Christian worldview. This will not happen if churches continue to proclaim an easy-greasy gospel that is designed to offend no one. Such a gospel may go down easy, but it will sicken the listener, not make him or her well. Churches must begin once again to teach sound theology that exalts God and makes Him bigger and us less. Too many pastors are doing the opposite today in an effort to attract more people. That is a tragedy that is hurting both believers and the churches they attend.

Not only must our sermons and lessons be theologically sound, they must also be applicable to people's lives. Teaching biblical truth does little good unless it includes the admonition to "go and do likewise." The best sermons will always include application to the lives of our listeners.

There are many reasons the church is in trouble today, but one of those reasons is that many Christians do not understand their Christian heritage and culture. They do not hold to sound theology, and they do not know how to relate what they do know to their lives. This needs to change, and those in church leadership are the ones to lead that change.