I started this article about 5 years ago when I was under the distinct impression that the Worldview changes happening in the United States were going to put leadership in the federal government that would be actively anti-church.  I was preparing my own thoughts and actions to have lines drawn in the sand that a biblically sound church could not cross – and in failing to cross them, would have their status in the US changed.  

I began to have to ask myself questions I had never asked myself before.

Then, things turned out very differently, and this article sat and gathered dust on my computer desktop for the last 4 years.

Now it is overdue, and I apologize for how long it has taken… and I also kind of apologize for its length, but this is a very important topic to me.  This article is about the future of the Church in The United States… its doom or its flourishing.

This is strongly connected to my thoughts about the wordview shift that is ongoing.

Except for the consequences of government changes, this is not intended to be, in any way, a partisan article.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.

America wasn’t founded to be a “Christian Nation” but it certainly was founded on the basic and fundamental principles of Christian and Biblical teachings integrated with Greek & Roman philosophy… and a little bit of everyone else they could learn from.

For 244(ish) years, American Christians have had an amazing blessing:  It was relatively easy to be a good citizen of The Kingdom of Heaven and a good citizen of the United States of America simultaneously. 

This has not been the case for many Christians anytime or anywhere in the last 2,000 years.  In fact, it seems like it has been an incredible anomaly for a Christian to be an “approved of” member of their society or culture… much less to fall within the approval of their governmental system… all while living life as a Christian.

It is even more rare to imagine a society in which claiming to be a Christian was considered some kind of advantage!  The idea that being a Christian offers some kind of “social capital” is certainly an historical oddity.  

I don’t think we will get there in this series of articles, but that truth has created its own serious problems!  It has made it difficult for many Christians to live as the third team on the field. They end up worshipping, or even just following, one side of the culture or the other. This is a mistake for Christians.

There is a dangerous, toxic version of Christianity common here in Tyler, Texas, that even transcends the lethality (and lethargy) of Cultural Christianity (“I am a Christian because I am named after an apostle or have a home church or wear a cross”) and that is Congregational Christianity (I am a Christian because I have been a member of several or one church and my uncle paid for the Fellowship Hall). 

Congregational Christianity adds the false idea that being a Christian is some kind of Social Club to the toxic idea that God’s Church is something that we rightly “possess.” We steward God’s Church; it isn’t ours in any sense beyond that.

But I am digressing and need to get back to my topic… though false version of Christianity are worthy of attention for sure, but that is a tale for another time.

Historically for Americans, the gap between in the world and of the world has not been very great at the surface level. This is changing already in most parts of the country… and this change will create a crisis for many Christians, and the crisis is probably overdue. This conversation is meant to help facilitate that for some of you…