"Maybe we're not Christians"

The following quote is from an article I read a few years ago by an author whose name I'll share at the end of this post. When I read it, I copied it immediately for a lot of reasons. Namely because I agree with the sentiments the author expresses but also because of the irony of who it is who penned them. I re-post this segment here because I am troubled by something: I have been an evangelical Christian for 31 years now, 24 of which I have spent either training for ministry or working in it. During that time the songs we worship to have changed both in content and in style, the meeting places where we gather to sing those songs have been radically modernized, and the delivery systems by which we disseminate the message have exponentially increased. We are relevant, contemporary, casual, accessible, non-judgmental and we have Wi-Fi. If you worship at a newer evangelical fellowship there's a good chance that the theater seat you sit in will have a place to put your coffee mocha that you picked up in the foyer. But are we living any better?

If the experts are right, though we have bigger über-churches where the saints can gather to share a worship experience in a pristine thoroughly modern facility, Christianity in America continues to decline despite all our best efforts to “grow” the Church. Our marriages fail as frequently as our pagan neighbors' do, we have many of the same financial problems they do and live, in some cases, as poorly as they do. In fact, often we look just like them. For someone who makes his living by serving as the pastor of a local fellowship, I can't help but wonder why as an aggregate we seem to have so little influence on the American landscape. Well, here's how one guy answers that question (you should know that his audience is primarily pastors and other ministry-types):

When Martin Luther lamented at the end of his life that he might not be justified, he must have seen something dark in himself in relation to the Scriptures, something that we in the modern church might be overlooking. The Scriptures say that we are to be known as followers of Christ by the evidence of our love for one another, but we’re not (see John 13:35). The Scriptures say that we are not to boast about what we have or what we have done, but we do (see Jer. 9:23-24). The Scriptures say that in the last days people will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money, and we are (see 2 Tim. 3:5, NKJV). Very often we charismatics rejoice in the power of God, and rightly so. But we subject ourselves to ridicule when we boast that we are not among those “having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5). We claim that we have spiritual power and others don’t because of our openness to accept and operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But our words fall short when our marriages don’t work, our children are wild and disobedient, and we refine the art of giving and receiving money to the point that we could qualify as the experts in greed that Peter warns about in his second letter (see 2 Pet. 2:14). We have a credibility problem. We have some wonderful churches, but increasingly, people do not seek to be connected. We have some outstanding para-church leaders, but others are seen as self-satisfied right-wing crusaders who wouldn’t hesitate to banish the Supreme Court, establish a Christian theocracy, and use the power of the state to force the non-compliant into godly living. We have some wonderful givers, but many of them have become seduced by the major donor departments of ministries who have convinced them that if they will fund one more Christian project, then the world will become a better place. Thus, churches are discouraged, para-church ministries preach to their own choirs rather than finding their intended audiences, and God’s money is squandered on projects that don’t work. It is no wonder that the secular world is hesitant to look to Christian leaders for realistic answers to today’s problems. They think that we are just another special interest group, and I doubt that they see us as bastions of wisdom and insight. Salt and light we are not.

Maybe we’re not Christians. Maybe we’re just the most popular religion of the day, using the power of persuasion, the force of our numbers, and the strength of our money to advance our ideology. Maybe we just believe whatever makes sense to us by default, and we don’t truly—as individuals and as communities of Christians—seek to be genuine disciples and to do God’s work of caring for the fatherless and the widow of our day. Could we be Pharisees? Our own books, television programs and prophecies should make us wonder. I believe that we all know and love the Word, but we live in earthly vessels with a fallen nature. We feel and see the hopes of the Spirit within, but we also end up doing the very things we do not want to do. When we preach, write, lobby, raise money, build, broadcast, threaten, sue and spin, we present conflicting images that don’t stand up very well against the tests of time and scrutiny. We are confusing the world, other Christians, and our families. This isn’t something that can be changed with a list of practical exercises. This is something that has to be dealt with deep within us by exposing ourselves to the wisdom of the Scriptures, to one another, and to God. 

 - from November 2003 issue of Ministries Today, a leading magazine for Charismatic ministry leaders.

There's more to that article but these two paragraphs touch on the matter at hand – if we are as Christian as much as we say that we are, then why does it seem so many of us live so badly? Could it be, as this individual suggests, that for all our noise to the contrary we really have yet to believe? In thirty years those first disciples went from Jerusalem to Rome with missionary zeal. Even after the martyrdom of Stephen when many of them fled the city in fear of their lives “wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus” ( Acts 8:4, Msg). If I really believe that time is short, the Lord's return is near and with him comes blessing and reward for those who who have remained faithful and “...anger and fury on those who, in selfish pride, refuse to believe the truth and who follow what is wrong” (Rom 2:8, GWT), why do I choose to live not as a citizen of the Kingdom to come but as a worldling very much at home here?

Oh, yeah. I didn't mention the author yet. These words were written by Ted Haggard before the scandal of 2006 when he admitted to being unfaithful to his wife by having sex with a male prostitute as well as using recreational drugs. When the news broke after initial denial of the same, he admitted as much and resigned as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs. According to his website, he submitted to the leadership of NLC and followed their counsel for restoring his marriage. After being out of the pulpit for several years he returned to Colorado Springs to begin St. James Church where he pastors today. Honestly, if I lived in that city and was looking for a fellowship to worship with I don't think it would be my first stop. But having said that if he were speaking from the pulpit of Refuge this Sunday and reiterated these very words, I would offer up an “Amen.” Because he may just be right: maybe we don't live well or Biblically because we may have “gone down the altar, knelt [Tebow-style is how we do it now] and prayed the prayer” but it's just so much talk. That we still seem committed to the same agenda we have professed to renounce demonstrates that in reality we have not really repented of our unbelief and are therefore not saved.