How long are we going to ignore the plague that is effecting the western church? What plague? Most Christians don't even see it because they are so intent on holding on to the past. Every time I turn around there is another article stressing the exodus of 18-30 year olds who are walking away from the church and God. And what is our answer? We need to sing "Revive Us Agian." We need revival in the church and the young people will like this song because it is upbeat. That is an actual statement I heard about recently.
The thing is people are seeing there is a problem in the western church but they are not willing to address the issues necessary to change the future. Instead we think if we go back to the good old days when the church and Christianity in the western world was healthy, that will bring about revival. I listened to a friend of mine speak online recently and he made a great point. "The church thinks it needs to get out of the seventies and become a church that is relevant today. However the reality is that the church needs to move from what it was three years ago because the culture shifts every three years." (not an exact quote) His point is that if we are operating the same way we were three years ago we are in danger of not being culturally relevant.
I've been told we need to pray more for revival. While I strongly believe in the power of prayer and believe it is the backbone of the church, prayer with no action from the prayer is useless. Here is what I mean. If I commit to praying for revival in the church and I am unwilling to be relevant to the culture then I can not expect God to move in a powerful way. Could he? Absolutely! He doesn't because we are not really serious about revival. What we want is our desires to be fulfilled in hopes that revival will occur. I believe God is not into answering selfish prayers. I mean Jesus in the Lord's prayer does say we should pray for God's will to be done on earth--not our will.
Our problem with prayer, with no action on our part, is that we are not really praying for revival, we are praying for church to become what we personally like and grow at the same time. So really the focus is for the church to move back rather than move forward. It is a selfish prayer and shows an unwillingness to line up with God's will.
We forget that there is a spiritual battle going on for lost people. The culture shifts because the enemy is constantly trying to make the church irrelevant to the culture. So the church needs to constantly be shifting to stay relevant to the culture. The message never changes but staying relevant means there will be constant change.
The question really becomes are you more intent on holding on to the past or are you more intent on reaching people who are far from God? The people far from God is getting greater and greater. First, because the population on earth has spiked dramatically in our generation. Second, because the church has selfishly decided the past is more important than people who may spend eternity in hell.
