How Does the Church Become the Church in a Culture and Time as this?

“From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live.” –Acts 17:26

This summer we have seen decisions and much discussion on the new sexual revolution, religious liberty and racial issues. This has left many in the church with their head spinning. We ask, “How do we respond?” I believe that it is not faithful to respond by saying, “everything is falling apart!”. We are American who are dealing with problems in our time and culture. We are no more wicked or better than the generations that preceded us. And at least one generation in the past was worse, remember when God only found one family living for him then He flooded the world!!!!! So things have actually been worse before.

• Understand and believe that God only created one race of humans and only died for one race of humans. I wish I could say that the church and our nation is all healed over racial issues, but the shooting in Charleston, South Caroline recently proved that wrong. The young man had a demonically fueled hatred for those of a different skin color, which breaks my heart, because the Bible does not teach hate for differing skin colors. The Bible makes clear in the verse above that we all came from one race and that Jesus died for one race. 

• Be Prepared to Receive the Sexual Revolution Refugees. The sexual revolution that is before us has placed the church in a unique position. Never before have we been so opposite the culture in our understanding of sexual ethics and expectations. The sad reality is that to chase our own fulfillment through sex or any means in the ends is empty (Ecclesiastes 2:1). We must be prepared to be welcoming but not affirming of those who struggle in these areas. We are called to lead by example a life lived for Christ as the way.

• Remain faithful to what we have been handed down. With the cultural sand shifting beneath our feet, we now find that there will be many more opportunities for persecution than any time in recent memory in the United States. This is not all bad, in our afflictions we will be filling up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. We will also see those who are nominal Christians fall away form the church, bring about a purification. As one believer recently told me, “Christians are a lot like tea bags, we are most useful in hot water!”