Seismic Shifts

"And when they prayed, the place where they gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness." Acts 4:31

For the last several decades, it has been common to hear America described as a “post-Christian nation.” This does not mean that America can never turn back to some of its Christian roots. But, it means that what used to be Christian-based cultural norms are no longer norms today.

Let's just say that someone fall asleep in 1960 and awakened in 2022, that person would awaken to seismic shifts in our culture that would shake that person emotionally and spiritually. For example:

• Doubled divorce rate.
• Tripled teen suicide rate.
• Quadrupled rate of reported violent crime.
• Quintupled prison population.
• Sextupled percent of babies born to unmarried parents.
• Sevenfold increase in cohabitation (a predictor of future divorce).
• Soaring rate of depression — to ten times the pre-World War II level by one estimate.”
• The Supreme Court redefining the definition of marriage to include homosexuality.
• The Olympic icon Bruce Jenner would be named Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine and, as a woman, would run for governor of California.

What a world that person would wake up to!

Gerald Sittser in his book Resilient Faith wrote powerfully, "The fact is: Christianity in America is declining, in both numbers and influence. The culture is changing, and we must therefore recognize that we live in a world very different from the one that existed even half a century ago during what appeared to be the “golden age” of American Christianity.

You probably sense the change and observe the trends, too. You know about the decline of mainline churches; the lack of growth in evangelical churches; the rise of “dones” (Christian dropouts) and “nones” (those people who refuse to identify with any religious tradition);...the creeping loss of religious freedom; the growing dominance of secularity in the public square; the deterioration of traditional morality in the entertainment industry."

Recent studies show us that nominal Christians are declining as a percentage of the population. They are either leaving Christianity or switching to churches that proclaim the Bible as the Word of God, demonstrate greater vitality, and demand more from their members. It appears that being Christian in America is becoming increasingly an “all or nothing” proposition.

Put another way, people are looking for the real deal, for something worth living for and dying for, for a truly transformation message. So prodigal believers, half-hearted followers of Christ are now starting to look again for an uncompromised and unashamed call to devotion.

So, while America is rapidly becoming less and less culturally Christian, there is a rising and growing remnant that understands that to follow Jesus was and always will be “all or nothing.” 

So this really excites me! Just think, if we continue to proclaim, "it's all or nothing" and live "all in" for Jesus, then we get to be apart of the next new shaking I believe is just about to happen in America. This will bring another seismic shift in our culture that starts in the church and then to the rest of our country! Yes, I'm talking revival!

God Bless you,

Pastor Dave