{"id":3051,"date":"2010-09-22T03:07:40","date_gmt":"2010-09-22T09:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=3051"},"modified":"2010-09-20T13:27:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T19:27:10","slug":"1-problem-with-american-christianity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/1-problem-with-american-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"#1 Problem With American Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I know, just the title of this blog sets me up as a target, but I think it\u2019s worth it to tell the truth, at least from my perspective of the truth.<\/p>\n

Christianity in America is either doing ok, really well, or near death\u2019s door.\u00a0 If you read and accept as gospel everything that the bad-news Barna research group does, you\u2019re about ready to cut your wrists.<\/p>\n

I sat in a doctorate class taught by Dr. Barna about 15 years ago and heard him say that American Christianity from that point had 10 more years to radically change the way we do business or it wouldn\u2019t survive.\u00a0 Now that we\u2019re 5 years beyond that, I wonder what our learned brother is saying.\u00a0 From what I can read, not much more.<\/p>\n

It is amazing that most of what gets printed and read, is written by non-practitioners of the faith; that is in terms of pastors and leaders.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s professional observers, survey-takers, those who cast a disapproving glance at the American church movement who can tell you exactly what\u2019s wrong with it but have never been on the practical solution end of making good things happen, like so many others have and are doing.<\/p>\n

Before this sounds like a Barna-bashing blog, let me admit that there is something desperately wrong with\u00a0 American Christianity. <\/strong> It is the same thing that is wrong with Christianity around the world, it seems to me.\u00a0 And that is, most American Christians, (not all, I\u2019m not an expert, I don\u2019t go everywhere, I understand that, but for 4 decades now I\u2019ve been in the trenches dealing with literally tens of thousands of\u00a0 people) without exception, too many Christians I know, suffer from self-loathing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yup.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 Even though in Romans 8 it says, \u201cthere is no condemnation for those who are in Christ,\u201d we still feel condemned.\u00a0 We\u2019re afraid, we\u2019re alone, and we feel unloved, unwanted, and uncelebrated.\u00a0 Why?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s our nature.\u00a0 We are fallen after all, deeply wounded to the soul.\u00a0 And while we are redeemed, we are not fully redeemed.<\/p>\n

But let me ask you to come to your own conclusion by going on iTunes or any other neighborhood and listening to what\u2019s being preached on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 Most of it barely resembles the gospel.\u00a0 Some of it is good news.\u00a0 But good news detached from the foundation of Jesus and what He taught can hardly be called \u201cgood news.\u201d <\/strong> More like playing a sonnet while the Titanic sinks.<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019m not the only one who understands this and is trying to do something about it, but until we identify the problem and admit it, until we set aside our false bravado, until we get honest, particularly from the stage where most of our teaching is done, we\u2019re going to continue to live with a big elephant in the room.<\/p>\n

We should feel joy, peace, love, patience, energy, excitement, enthusiasm, and passion. <\/strong> This is our goal.\u00a0 This is what we seek.\u00a0 This is what\u2019s worth fighting for.<\/p>\n

And yet what do most American churches fight over?\u00a0 Well, you can fill in the blank.<\/p>\n

My friend, if you are in Christ, there is no condemnation.\u00a0 You are free, loved as you are not as you ought to be, and your future is secure. <\/strong> Today is a gift and you ought to embrace it and enjoy it.\u00a0 You have my permission.\u00a0 Most of all, you have Christ\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know, just the title of this blog sets me up as a target, but I think it\u2019s worth it to tell the truth, at least from my perspective of the truth. Christianity in America is either doing ok, really well, or near death\u2019s door.\u00a0 If you read and accept as gospel everything that the … Continue reading “#1 Problem With American Christianity”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3051"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=3051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}