Ineffective Christianity

We live a world of increasing immorality. What was once considered rude and inappropriate behavior in public is now encouraged and celebrated. What would have caused a person to die from embarrassment is now the thing that causes them to gain great recognition and achievement. Our world is messed up even though Christians have been trying to change the course of things since we woke from our slumber following the banning of prayer in schools and the crushing loss of Roe vs. Wade. So why does Christianity seem to be so ineffective in changing the moral fiber of society?

Perhaps it is because we are approaching this from the wrong angle. Christian author and theologian C.S. Lewis has some great wisdom that he shared about just this topic:
Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought the most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you get earth 'thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither. (Mere Christianity Book Three, Chapter 10)
This is not to say that as Christians we should not involve ourselves in the moral and social issues of our day, I for one will continue to take a stand for God's values and against those which are contrary to His, but as Christians we need to be sure of the fact that we are focused on the Kingdom of Heaven first and foremost so that we can allow the morals, the values, the goodness of God to flow in us and through us and to spill out of us as we witness to a world that values only those things which bring them the most in the here and now. Remember that the first command after we have been instructed to put on the full armor of God and to take up the Sword of the Spirit was that we are to STAND. When we take a stand for God He will do the work of changing the hearts of the people. Where are the courageous men and women who will stand for God? "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15, NIV)

Comments

ESG Graphics said…
I think that if we were less feminine in our churches and taught people to be bold and crazy/weird for God we would be better off. We don't disciple any more, we offer "seeker friendly" Sunday School. Move from milk to meat and see what happens. Would it be better to have 75% fewer people in church, if those 25% left were on fire and discipled?
2:51 PM
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