The State of the Church 2016 - Barna

The State of the Church 2016 - Barna

https://www.barna.com/research/state-church-2016/?mc_cid=ca2c49eb35&mc_eid=afce33c83c

The information that is brought forth in this report is based on statistics that are not necessarily accurate. For instance, the number of people that call themselves Christians appears to be much higher than the actual number of people that have had an actual born again experience through faith in Jesus Christ.

I performed my own "research" with an anonymous poll at a church camp I directed last year. The questions were designed to feel out the world view of the campers. Most of these kids came from what we might consider to be Christian homes and most attended a church regularly.

I was shocked at the results, but they very closely matched some of Barna's research. Most thought that good works were the qualification for heaven. Most thought that there were multiple ways to God through various religions. It was as if they all believed in a very mixed up mess of Biblical ideas and worldly philosophies, all at the same time, and without the ability to see the obvious contradictions.

What I did not ask that I saw on Barna's poll was a question about the time that these teens spend in the Bible. I am amazed to see that less than 15% of Americans regularly read the word, let alone study it. I am also concerned that we lack solid Biblical preaching and teaching in the body...especially teaching. We have many preachers, but we so often lack teachers. We need both.

Frank: Agreed about the system. I recently talked with a pastor who reached the end of his rope and almost quit ministry. He is now trying to implement team ministry in his church. He wants to quit being entirely supported by his congregation, add a couple more men to co-labor with, and all of them work part time. It was refreshing to see the shift in his thinking and I believe his church will greatly benefit by it.

As to the spiritual condition of the teens, I am sure some were and some were not. I have found though that even among those who are truly born again, there is a lack of knowledge in some key areas, and I know it is because we have done a poor job of teaching in these areas.

I run into many men and women who are born again, but they have not been taught the importance of intimacy with God and time in His word. To be totally honest, my life gets so busy sometimes that my time with God suffers and I suffer as a result.

I wonder how many times we have just failed to teach a new believer that he or she is entering into a vibrant and vital relationship with God through Christ that should be full of intimacy with God and of the power of the Holy Spirit, and instead have just taught them that they are now "saved" and that their purpose is now to try to "live a clean, Christian life" and tell others about Jesus. Understanding who we are and what is God's purpose for our life makes all the difference I think.

I see exactly where you are coming from, and I do not disagree. Let me see if I can express it this way.

I remember being born again at age 8. The weight of the world was lifted off of my little shoulders and I had a strong witness of the Holy Spirit that I was born again. But I was raised in among people who had become pretty legalistic in their walk with God. I loved God with my whole heart and I sought God. But it has only been in the last few years that I have really begun to have a revelation of what intimacy with the Father looks like. I read my Bible for years. I prayed for years. I had a strong relationship with God that was evidenced by much fruit. But there was much to learn about what God really desired out of my relationship with Him. Perhaps I am more dull-headed than most and it takes more to get through to me.

I will be honest. God and other men did have to teach me how to love my wife. We have always had a good marriage, and served God together. We have always been close, but I am learning more and more each day how God would have me love her, usually by not loving her correctly and learning from my mistakes.

I am not minimizing the power of the Holy Spirit in any way. He is so precious and His work in my life is so absolutely amazing. But He only has me to work through, and sometimes I don't get it. I have begun praying in the last few years that God would truly reveal to me my identity in Him. I have been coming to that revelation more and more and it is transforming me. But ten years ago I was not there yet. We are changed from glory to glory. Our understanding becomes more and more clear as we walk with Him.

The preaching and teaching that we receive has the capacity to empower and to handicap. I believe a man can be born again, have the witness of the Spirit of sins forgiven, love God with his whole heart, and yet be taught in such a way as to cause his spiritual growth to be stunted and his maturity delayed.

I do totally agree that many times we give people a false sense of salvation and many are not truly born again. In fact, sadly, that may be the norm in the American church rather than the exception. We have them come forward and say a prayer, repeat a prayer in a service, or in some cases actually come to an altar and shed a tear because they feel badly about the mess they have made. But because we have never taught them what salvation is, they have never truly offered themselves to God as a living sacrifice, repented, and been born again.

But I have to stand by the statement that we cannot "learn," or be "taught," intimacy. We can learn how important it is, but actual intimacy comes only through experience.

Maybe those were the words I was looking for. We have not taught the importance of intimacy. You are right. The act of intimacy comes only through experience.

Brother Frank writes....

"Brother, what part does the Holy Spirit play in His relationship with individual saints? Do you really believe that genuine saints, new creatures in Christ, people who have encountered Jesus, really need to be taught to read the Bible and to be intimate with Jesus? How can one teach a person that she or he is entering into a vibrant relationship? If it has to be taught then perhaps or probably it was never experienced in the first place. Brother, did someone have to teach you to love your wife? Was there no passion until someone came along and told you that you must be passionate about her? Do you see where I am coming from?..................bro Frank"

Amen, I agree...I have seen that those who truly are born of God have a desire and hunger to read the word! They won't to learn and obey the teachings of Christ.

They will also desire to hear the Word from an anointed servant of the Lord. They will heed the warnings and corrections that come from the Word of God.

Hebrews 12:4-10 (KJV)
4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

They are so many who have professed... but do not possess a true relationship with Christ. I have been preaching the gospel since 1990 and have seen several saved and go forward bringing much fruit that glorifies our heavenly Father. I have also seen many not going forth bringing the fruit of a Christian. This has always concerned me...but I will by the grace of God still proclaim the gospel of Christ believing that there will always be those who will be saved.

I desire to be filled with all the fullness of God. I still believe that God can do the impossible...that Jesus has all power in heaven and in earth. That all power lives in me and that signs and wonders will always follow my ministry that I have received of the Lord until he comes or calls me to that blessed home he has prepared for His own.

Blessings,
rbanks