by Jims | March 2nd, 2010
I remember moments of torture at my grandparent’s house. The seasons of suffering were the result of two sources of entertainment, and I use that term very loosely. Sitting on the rough, wool-woven cushions of their couch, I endured the agony of the pseudo-utopian personae of Lawrence Welk on one channel competing with the eerily familiar scenes of Hee Haw on another channel. Turning the knob (no remotes back then) back and forth was my job. I was truly suffering for the seniors in the room as I dialed the knob back and forth. On one channel an effeminate presentation of peaceful bliss that did not exist in my world. The other channel echoed the wretched sounds of “Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep dark depression excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have not luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me.” The scruffy quartet of moonshine laden rednecks resulted in laughter from my grandparents and a smile from me not only to appease my elders but also to hide my pain. I could have gone outside and played ball, but in an attempt to please my elders, I just sat and endured the false sense of reality on one channel and the message of hopelessness on the other.
My actions then model much of what is occurring in the church today. It seems that the message of the Hee Haw rednecks is reverberating in our churches today. A popular evangelical leader stated this week that we have lost the culture war, but I know many soldiers of the cross who are continuing to wave the Sword of the Lord and hold high the shield of faith. Newsweek magazine recently reported on the decline and fall of Christian America, but I see people being born again every week and a new generation of passionate evangelicals rising to the top. Our President noted in an address before world leaders that America is not a Christian nation, and with that, I would have to agree in part. Many of my contemporaries chided the President for such a comment, but do we really want to wave the banner to the world that America is what a nation looks like when Christ is honored among its citizens? I don’t think so.
Believers should not be so concerned about the politician’s assessment of our national religion, but rather concerned with the message of hopelessness that seems to be growing among evangelicals. Gloom and despair appear to serve as the starting point of our commentary on our nation’s spiritual future. Should we not be reminded that in a season of reprehensible moral decline, God ignited a fire of revival in our nation in the early 1700’s? Should we not recall the immorality and godlessness of our nation in the 1960’s that was shattered by God moving in the hearts of hippies and awakening a generation in the Jesus Movement? Gloom and despair should be the furthest emotions from our hearts, for it has been in spiritually low seasons just like now that God has awakened nations.
A by-product of the gloom and despair in the church is the me-centered believer that consumes himself with the “agony on me.” I cannot remember a time in nearly 21 years of ministry, nor any period of church history in which existed so much whining about how the world does not like the church; nor have I ever seen so much effort put towards making the world love the church. Let’s face it, Christianity that is popular is not New Testament Christianity. A church that is favored in the eyes of the world is a church that has compromised the very core values on which it is built. Jesus said that if they hated Him, they, would hate us. Paul said that if we live godly, we will be persecuted. Agony on me? Great! What a wonderful joy to be considered so much like Christ that the world despises and hates me.
Just as I sat on my grandparents couch and endured the false sense of reality on one channel and the message of hopelessness on the other, so too do many church members. So many people under the banner of Christianity have isolated themselves from society, entering their church cocoon that they have developed a false sense of reality. Others under the same banner have turned within themselves, simply unable to handle the absence of admiring eyes and popularity. Both groups are the same at the core. They choose to stay in their house of deep dark depression and excessive misery when they should be engaging the culture. A believer that engages the culture cares not if he is loved, laughed at, or tortured, but only that Christ is honored.
