Theological Thursday's (Part 1)
Over these next three Thursday’s we will be doing a series that some of you have emailed me about doing, Theological Thursday. I will be looking at three questions that have been posed to me and answering them for each of us to have a conversation over. I would love to hear feedback and thoughts on these questions from each of you.
Here is this week’s Question:
What is one major way the American Church has strayed from the Bible and Biblical Standards?
When I read this question, I thought that I was being set up and someone wanted me to find faults and issues in Christianity in America. But when I reread this question, I realized the question being asked of me. “What is one way that in American Christianity we have strayed from the Bible?”
I work with teenagers daily and I also study culture very in depth on a weekly basis and I believe that in America we have a big problem. One major way that we have strayed from the Bible and Biblical standards is that we adopted a model of Individualism. We have itching ears (2 Timothy 4:3) that need to be itched daily and weekly.
I have found that we run to whatever method, teaching, beliefs, or motives that make us feel good. Sadly, when we begin to do this, we start to seek a different Gospel and message then the Bible. I fear that we have left the Bible and have adopted a false narrative that makes us feel “good” instantly.
Let me provide some examples:
We have turned the church into a building and not a group of people. We have made the church about us and the building where we worship. The building is important, but the people within the building are the church.
We have made the worship service about Entertainment, American Dream, and Individual Prosperity. It has become a place where we can hide within our addictions and immaturity spiritually. (I love worshipping Jesus and exciting worship, but my spiritual walk is not based on me getting the Holy Ghost Goosebumps to determine if God moved in my life on that Sunday.
You get the point, but this is a huge battle and struggle we are facing right now in American Christianity. Yes, your Christian walk is based on a individual decision and walk with God, but your faith is not based on you! Your Christian walk and relationship is based on the work of Jesus Christ.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE HAVE TO SAY about our Christian Faith:
Stewardship (Matt. 25:14-30)
Glorifying God ( 1 Cor. 6:12-20)
Power of God (Proverbs 2:1-5)
Pursuit of God (1 Chron. 16:11)
Called to Work (John 15:19)
Serve the one true God (Joshua 24:15)
We are called to something greater in American Christianity. May we take the steps within our churches and our own lives to make sure that we are not making the Christian walk about a person and their feelings, but make it about the work of Jesus Christ within our lives.
