The Most Crying Need of the Church in America Today
Written by Paul Dean
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
We talk a lot about advancing the Kingdom of God in the culture in which we find ourselves by God’s providence. At issue is the church being the church and being salt and light. Of course, it is difficult to impact our world if we are missing some things vital to the invasion as it were.
A question was put before a number of evangelical leaders recently: what is the most crying need of the church in America today? The answers were pointed and striking. Consider part of D.A. Carson’s response: “But if the context of the question focuses on “in America today,” such that there is an implicit comparison with other places (e.g. Rwanda, France) or times (e.g. America in the nineteenth century), then one thinks of the sweep of challenges particularly characteristic in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century: rising biblical illiteracy, relativism steeped in the more extreme forms of postmodernism, formulaic forms of “evangelical” belief characterized by neither delight in God nor obedience to him, the seductive power of the strange mix of secularization and assorted “spiritualities,” the perennial invitation to live in fear or be snookered by visions of imperial strength, the world awash in an astonishing diversity of entertainments to fill up all the moments when we are not being seduced by either power or sex, and much more of the same.”
We will consider the issues raised by Carson as well as other issues from other thinkers. At the same time, we will ask the question of you.
On today’s edition of “Calling for Truth,” we’ll have a conversation about the most crying need of the church in America today.
