This is the international distress signal in the event of an emergency. It is primarily used by aviators and mariners, but some police and firefighters also use the signal. If your aircraft or ship is going down, you send out this radio signal to seek help. While I am not trying to promote a spirit of doom and gloom, we must acknowledge that our ship is taking on water and will soon sink if we do not take the necessary measures to correct the problem. Numbers do not lie, and from the numbers we are in trouble. The Lord’s church in the United States is declining at an alarming pace. According to 21st Century Christian’s data compiled from 2003 to 2015, we lost 8.3% of our membership. Try to wrap your head around that for a moment. In a span of 12 years, we declined at a rate of 1 out of 12 members, nationwide. If this trend continues, in less than 150 years, the Lord’s church will cease to exist in these United States. Another alarming statistic is the fact that 50% of our children who leave for college become disassociated with the church, and of those who leave, only 33% ever come back. How did we get here, and how do we change this trend?
There are many contributing factors in this. The effects of a postmodern culture which denies the existence of absolute truth adds difficulty to the work of evangelism. Atheism and agnosticism have brought our culture to the point where science is now a god. Islam and other world religions are leading many away from Christianity. (Anti-) Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. have grossly undermined our communication skills as there is less and less human interaction. Add to this the general indifference to the Bible, and it is easy to see we face an uphill battle.
It is my humble opinion that the real reason for our decline is not these external factors, but it is our internal reaction to these factors. Most of these issues existed before the church was founded. For instance, Pilate was a postmodernist over 1900 years before the birth of postmodernism. After Jesus told him He had come into the world to bear witness to the truth, Pilate said, “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:37-38). The Psalmist wrote of Atheism when he said, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God” (Psa. 14:1). A great example of philosophical meandering is found in Acts 17:16-34 in the city of Athens, Greece. They were said to spend all their time either hearing or telling some new thing (vs. 21). They worshipped every “god” man could invent, and when it came to the true and living God, they tabbed Him “the unknown god” (vs. 23). The work of evangelism has always been an uphill battle, However, they did not let these challenges slow the work of evangelism in the early church, so why have we let it stall out our work?
I cannot speak for everyone, but I am convinced the difference is the level of buy-in they possessed versus the level we possess. In Acts 8:4, after Stephen was stoned to death and the disciples were scattered by a life-threatening persecution, all they did was run and tell someone else the gospel truth. Jesus was truly their everything, and nothing was going to shut their mouths. The only way we can keep this ship from sinking is to get rid of all the distractions and excuses we make, fix our eyes on Him and get on with the race He has given us to run (Heb. 12:1-2). We must no longer allow the sons of this world to be more shrewd than the sons of light (Lk. 16:8). We will have to answer if we let this ship sink.
There are many contributing factors in this. The effects of a postmodern culture which denies the existence of absolute truth adds difficulty to the work of evangelism. Atheism and agnosticism have brought our culture to the point where science is now a god. Islam and other world religions are leading many away from Christianity. (Anti-) Social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. have grossly undermined our communication skills as there is less and less human interaction. Add to this the general indifference to the Bible, and it is easy to see we face an uphill battle.
It is my humble opinion that the real reason for our decline is not these external factors, but it is our internal reaction to these factors. Most of these issues existed before the church was founded. For instance, Pilate was a postmodernist over 1900 years before the birth of postmodernism. After Jesus told him He had come into the world to bear witness to the truth, Pilate said, “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:37-38). The Psalmist wrote of Atheism when he said, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘there is no God” (Psa. 14:1). A great example of philosophical meandering is found in Acts 17:16-34 in the city of Athens, Greece. They were said to spend all their time either hearing or telling some new thing (vs. 21). They worshipped every “god” man could invent, and when it came to the true and living God, they tabbed Him “the unknown god” (vs. 23). The work of evangelism has always been an uphill battle, However, they did not let these challenges slow the work of evangelism in the early church, so why have we let it stall out our work?
I cannot speak for everyone, but I am convinced the difference is the level of buy-in they possessed versus the level we possess. In Acts 8:4, after Stephen was stoned to death and the disciples were scattered by a life-threatening persecution, all they did was run and tell someone else the gospel truth. Jesus was truly their everything, and nothing was going to shut their mouths. The only way we can keep this ship from sinking is to get rid of all the distractions and excuses we make, fix our eyes on Him and get on with the race He has given us to run (Heb. 12:1-2). We must no longer allow the sons of this world to be more shrewd than the sons of light (Lk. 16:8). We will have to answer if we let this ship sink.