SINGLE SERMON SERIES
CULTURAL TRENDS THAT CHALLENGE THE CHURCH
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 7, 1991
MATTHEW 5:13-16, MATTHEW 28:19-20
The church of Jesus Christ in western Europe has failed. Less than 5% of Western European population attends church. Historians tell us that Western Europe has entered a post-Christian era. In the first, second, and third centuries, Christianity blazed through Western Europe. Like a fire through a dry forest, men and women embraced Jesus Christ. In the fourth century, the Roman empire itself declared Christianity the official religion of the land. In subsequent centuries, western Europe became the epicenter of the Christian movement. From Western Europe missionaries went forth with the gospel to what they called the four corners of the earth.
In the 20th century, the church of Jesus Christ in Western Europe, has retained its theological orthodoxy, but lost its spiritual power. The church of Jesus Christ in Western Europe has failed to understand or relate to the culture and the peoples to which it has been called to serve and minister. There are people today who are concerned for America. They’re concerned that we ourselves might enter into a post-Christian era. They’re concerned that the church of Jesus Christ will lose spiritual power. They’re concerned that the church of Jesus Christ is failing to understand the culture and people to which it is called to minister. This morning, on this 4th of July weekend, I’d like us to focus on three trends occurring here in the United States of America and the challenges that confront the Church of Christ.
The first trend is the disintegration of families in America. George Washington is called the father of our country. He was of course the first president of the United States, the commander of the continental army, and the hero of the Revolutionary War. If it had not been for his mother, he might have fought on the other side of the war. When George Washington was 14 years old, he was a proud British subject. His family was faithful to England for 600 years. At the age of 14, George Washington saw that giant war vessel flying the Union Jack. Something moved in his heart and he decided he wanted to join the British Navy and fight for England all over the earth. Historians tell us that he actually took his belongings and put them on that vessel. He was ready to leave the colonies to go and fight for England by joining the British Navy. At the last moment, his mother came on board that vessel and she brought him back home and resolved in her heart that she would, from that day forward, redouble her efforts in rearing him. Just a moment, a brief moment in history may have changed the course of history if George Washington had joined the British Navy.
Certainly, he never would have led the Revolutionary forces to American independence. Rather, he might have fought on the other side. George Washington was one of ten children reared by deeply committed Christian parents. Though George Washington was only 11 years old when his father died, he never forgot his father’s faith. George Washington read his Bible daily throughout the years of his life reading it twice a day, morning and night. Daily, he prayed on his knees throughout the years of his life. You see, strong families tend to rear strong children. It’s always been that way. Families aren’t so strong anymore. Indeed, the family is disintegrating.
George Washington lived in what historians call the agricultural age that extended to 1860. The major sociological unit was the extended family, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. They all lived, played and fought together from 1860 to 1956. Historians tell us, when the world entered into the industrial age, the major sociological unit was the nuclear family. You had mom and dad, and you had the children, sons and daughters. Now it is said, we have entered into a new age called the age of information.
The major sociological unit is the fractured family, particularly here in the United States of America. Millions of American families have no husband and no father. Divorce is rampant in America. Parents have placed everything in anything above their families and above their children and a generation of children are floundering. We live in a nation where families have step relationships. In many families there are now stepfathers, stepmothers, stepsons and stepdaughters. We are told that by the year 2000 in the United States of America, only 25% of the nuclear families will not have step relations. The challenge to the church of Jesus Christ is great. There are many families in our country where kids are reared by a single mom or dad. Sometimes there’s a live-in dad or mom. Some children are virtually reared on their own with no parental involvement. The challenge to the Church of Christ is great. The last thing in the world I would want to do this morning is renounce divorced people.
The Bible tells us divorce is caused by sin. The Bible tells us God hates divorce, but God loves divorced people because God loves all people. The church of Jesus Christ must minister to those who are divorced helping them to find healing, direction, strength and hope. It’s hard being a stepfather and it’s hard being a stepmother, stepson, or stepdaughter. The church of Jesus Christ must minister to fractured families seeking to keep them functioning and vibrant. Christian families might rear their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, but most of all, the Church of Christ is called in a preventative way to keep families from fracturing. We must remind parents that their careers are not as important as their children. We must remind children that their peers are not as important as their parents.
The Bible tells us that in the end times children will rise up against parents and the hearts of parents will grow cold. The Bible tells us at the consummation, God will call the hearts of parents to their children and God will call the hearts of children to their parents. The Bible warns that if parents do not turn towards their children and children to their parents, God will come and destroy the land. These are serious times. Here in our nation, the family is disintegrating and the call to the church of Jesus Christ is clear. Focus on the family. If the family unit disintegrates in the United States of America, this society will not long endure.
The second trend in the United States is one known to all of you. Judeo-Christian values are eroding. On July 2nd, John Adams, who was to become the second president of the United States, was gathered with men who declared independence from England and gave birth to a new nation. John Adams clearly believed that July 2nd would be celebrated in all the centuries to come as the birth of the United States of America. Of course, July 4th has turned out to be the day in which we celebrate this nation’s birth. But it was on July 3rd, he wrote this letter to his wife. “July 2nd, 1776, will be the most memorable epic in the history of America. I’m apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to the Lord God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade shows, games, sports, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward and forevermore.” As a nation we have indeed celebrated the birth of America with parades and illuminations. I don’t think it has been done so well in terms of devotion to the Lord God Almighty. There is no doubt that our forefathers and mothers were committed Christians. They anticipated that as the decades and centuries went by, men and women would look back on the birth of this nation and give praise to God with grateful hearts.
This past 4th of July, my wife, kids, friends, and I went to a place for a 4th of July celebration. It was the same place we’d gone to for a few years, and had a wonderful time as a family. This time things were different. They had a program with two comedians who told jokes that weren’t very funny. In fact, they were gross, graphically sexual, dealing with drugs and sex. Of course, families were gathered and the show would not have even been appropriate for an adult nightclub. The jokes were so crude. After the comedians performed the featured musician got up and performed. His final two songs were unbelievable. They were gross and crude. One of them dealt with masturbation and the other dealt with a 24-hour sex binge. I think the hardest thing for us was looking around the crowd and seeing nobody cared. In fact, they all seemed to be enjoying it and were drunk carrying their babies out of the venue. At one moment, in the midst of the crowd, a girl stood up and started taking her blouse on and off with everybody cheering her on. We were sitting there thinking, “how can this be?”
We know the people who own this place and they are wonderful and love Jesus Christ. I’m sure they were just as stunned as we were when they saw what took place. The truth is the program was run by a local rock radio station. We live in a society where there are many people who are without morals. They do not have the ethics and the values that are taught in scripture. People have rejected those ethics in many sections of our society.
Bob and Allison went to Fiddler’s Green for a concert and took some friends. They were stunned when the group that was performing had everyone stand up and shout in unison, “let’s get drunk and screw.” I think sometimes we’re sheltered. Many of us live Christian lives where we’re not aware of what’s going on in society. It’s a scary time for our nation. The call to the church of Jesus Christ is to be salt and light on the earth. Certainly children are not going to receive Judeo-Christian values in the public educational system anymore. Certainly children are not receiving Judeo-Christian values when they go to the movie theaters or watch TV. In 1990 the average American watched thirty and a half hours of television a week.
Many churches today are not teaching Judeo-Christian values. Judeo-Christian values are eroding within the mainline Protestant denomination. Recently, a task force report on sexuality that came through the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA recommended premarital sex, homosexual sex and extramarital sex as loving. Now of course, the United Presbyterian Church in the General Assembly rejected that task force report. We can all be grateful for that. But the amazing thing is that the ministers who drafted that abominable report were not even chastised. They should have been removed from the denomination for moral and theological heresy.
There is a book I’ve been reading recently called The Day America Told the Truth. Sections of this book have been substantially covered by the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post. The book takes the moral pulse of America during the 1990s using state-of-the-art research techniques. I don’t know how accurate the studies and surveys are that are recorded in this book, but I know this, if it’s even half true, it is scary. You can’t read this book and see the attitudes of men and women across America and not conclude that we’re in trouble. For many people in this nation, Judeo-Christian values have been thrown out the window. There’s another book that I’ve read recently called Changing the Way America Thinks. I highly recommend it. There are some great ideas and concepts for the Church of Christ in this book. As Christians, we need to infiltrate the fabric of society, the educational, political, and social arenas of America that we might be salt on the earth and light in the darkness.
The Bible says judgment begins with the household of God. There are many people in our country and in the churches of America who call themselves Christians and frankly aren’t living for Jesus Christ. They’ve been much impacted by the culture and conformed their thinking to the culture. It is a critical time for the church of Jesus Christ in America. I believe at the close of this century, as we approach the dawn of a new millennium, Jesus Christ is going to call his people to holiness and he’s going to separate the sheep from the goats. The Bible says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. So you may prove what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect.” The Bible says, “As obedient children do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he was called you as holy, be holy yourselves and all your conduct for it is written, you shall be holy as I am holy.” The call of the church of Christ is to sanctify the saints that they will be light in the darkness and salt on the earth.
In conclusion the third trend occurring here in America is the reality of Christianity itself diminishing in this nation. The night of April 18th, 1775, a man named William Dawes left the city of Boston and went out to the countryside to proclaim a message and sound a warning regarding the British. William Dawes took with him Paul Revere and along the way, they picked up a third man named Dr. Samuel Prescott. The three of them rode through the countryside sounding the alarm, “The British are coming!” They were ambushed by a British patrol and Paul Revere was taken captive. William Dawes escaped and made his way to his house. Dr. Samuel Crest Prescott took his horse, jumped the fence, escaped, and he continued on and he completed the task. Prescott went throughout the countryside sounding the alarm that the British were coming. Paul Revere has received all the credit. Decades later in 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem which made Paul Revere famous. When Longfellow wrote, “Listen, my children, and you’ll hear the midnight ride of Paul Revere, what Paul Revere began, Dr. Samuel Prescott finished.”
In a sense, all of us as Christians are called to go out to the countryside, cover the land, and sound an alarm. We are called to sound a warning that judgment is coming. We’ve been given good news, a wonderful message to proclaim throughout this land that salvation is available through faith in Jesus Christ. This country is a mission field. If the church doesn’t wake up and realize that, we’re going to lose the battle. The overwhelming majority of men and women in America are not Christians. Surveys show on a deeper level, most men and women in America don’t even understand what the Bible means when it speaks of a Christian.
Most people in this country think a Christian is just someone who believes in being good and they’re not sure what “good” is. Most people in this country think a Christian is somebody who goes to church on Easter and Christmas, or that a Christian is an American, but they don’t understand what a Christian is. They don’t understand that the Bible says a Christian is someone who has been born anew. A Christian is someone who has come to believe in Jesus Christ as their personal savior from sin and has committed their life to the lordship of Jesus Christ. There’s a great task ahead of us, a great mission field in which we live. We’ve been called to reach the unreached for Jesus Christ. That’s really the burden of this church. We long to reach unreached people for Jesus Christ and build them up in Christ.
We want to see people fall in love with Jesus Christ and find joy and eternal life that only he can give. If you belong to this church, hopefully this burden is near and dear to your heart and you stand with us and you want to see people all across this country come to know and love Christ because you know that Christianity is diminishing in this land. I’m not a pessimist. I believe in the power of God and I believe that by the grace of God and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can make an impact. Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth. He said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”
Sociologists tell us that there are three groups of people in American society. There are baby boomers. Those are people who were born between 1946 and 1964. There are pre-boomers, people born before 1946; and, there are baby busters, people born after 1964. All of you fall into one of these three categories. We want to reach all for Jesus Christ. It’s a challenge and we hope you’ll stand with us. Sociologists tell us that these three groups don’t think alike. If they go to church, they don’t look for the same type of churches, they look for different styles. Some church growth institutes, such as Fuller School of World Mission suggest that churches today ought to be focused on reaching one target group. They say if you do that your church will grow. However, I don’t think that is right. As I read the Bible, the Church of Jesus Christ consists of all people, young and old, all colors, red, yellow, black and white.
All socioeconomic groups are supposed to come together in the family of Christ. In faithfulness to the word we want to reach people in this community regardless of their age, social economic status or race. We want to reach all for Jesus Christ that all might love and serve Him. Do you share this burden with us? Do you really believe true Christianity is diminishing? Do you believe this is a mission field? If you do, you’re going to share Christ with others. You’re going to invite people to come to church. They may hear about Jesus Christ here and we hope that you can trust when you bring people here, they’ll hear the gospel and truth presented in such a way that they can relate.
We try to have various styles of music as people have different tastes. We have contemporary and traditional music. If you’re sitting there and you hear something you don’t like, you’ll have the joy of knowing that there’s others in this room who love it and that Christ is working and the kingdom is served. You’ll have a broader vision of reaching this community for Jesus Christ. In this time where the family is disintegrating the church of Christ is called to focus on family. Judeo-Christian values are eroding. The saints are called to holiness to be light and salt on the earth. As Christianity is diminishing the call of Christ is upon us to reach the unreached peoples for his kingdom’s sake. Let’s close with a word of prayer.