Wake Up, Church

Wake Up, Church.

“Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds in the sight of My God.”

---Rev. 3:2

An early American story tells about Rip Van Winkle by Washington, Irving. It recounts the story of a man who falls asleep in the mountains and sleeps for twenty years. When he awakes he finds that everything has changed and that he has missed the American Revolution.

The U.S. church has been like Rip Van Winkle. We have fallen asleep and while we were asleep profound events have occurred. And our sleep has been far longer than 20 years.

The U.S. church during its period of sleep has been blissfully unaware of the new challenges that have risen in the world.

One of the challenges for the church is population growth. For instance the world population has been increasing according to the statistics below according to an article on Population Growth found in Wikipedia:

1802—1 billion
1961—3 billion
1974—4 billion
1987—5 billion
1999—6 billion

See the world population clock at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html
in order to check the current world population. At the time that this is written, it is in excess of 6.5 billion people.

Some of the fastest growing population areas are outside of the U.S. including China, India and the Mideast. Non-Christian religions, especially in India and China are expanding not through conversion, but through population growth alone.

Further, U.S. dollars and jobs are flowing steadily from the U.S. to other parts of the world. The manufacturing industry is step by step moving outside of the U.S. and going to the Orient. For instance, go to the local Wal-Mart store and start picking up products and you will see where they are manufactured.

U.S. oil comes largely from the Middle East and U.S. dollars are flowing in exchange for this oil in order to maintain large numbers of U.S. vehicles running.

In addition, U.S. corporations are burdened with increasing governmental regulations that result with them being inefficient when compared to their international counterparts. Competing, with one arm tied behind their backs, they are increasingly being outdistanced by their international competitors. In an effort to compete they are moving most manufacturing operations overseas. International investments are becoming more lucrative for investors and U.S. investments are becoming less attractive.

Yet the church sleeps on as momentous events occur.

As we trade our wealth for oil, this wealth flows to Islamic countries where there is no religious freedom. The church has not made an issue of this, because it sleeps.

Meanwhile, world religions have grown. Some of the statistics are as follows:

Islam—1.3 billion
Secular, Agnostic, Athiest—1.1 billion
Hinduism—900 million
Buddhists and Chinese Traditionalists—770 million.

In Islamic societies, there has been for years a spiritual Berlin wall keeping Christianity out. Those who convert are persecuted more greatly than under old communism. Yet the church has said little. Islam is tied to political power . Interestingly, in “Christian countries” people are free to convert to Islam. In Islamic countries, they forbidden to convert. Two different sets of rules.

We live in a double standard world. It is considered reasonable for Muslims to have state supported religion. However, if Protestants or Catholics did so today where the religious leaders ruled, there would be world-wide complaint.

Of course, as these population numbers continue to increase, we look around ourselves with bleary myopic eyes and hardly see no change at all. All of this because the church has lost its world vision for missionary work and evangelization.

The U.S. church has lost its vision because we have taken our eyes off Jesus Christ. We have been more interested in fighting each other than facing a hopelessly lost world.

We have built ourselves, large churches, akin to spiritual pleasure palaces rather than face the myriad of beliefs. We attend these churches, give to support to their large superstructures and return to life having paid our spiritual tithe so to speak. In return, we hope to receive some regular help from God for our problems.

How does one keep an international perspective. The Latter Day Saints have done it by sending their young men and women as missionaries to other parts of the world. An attorney I work with, for instance, has sent one of his children to Brazil to work there as a missionary for two years. That child will return knowing Portuguese and having a good feel for Brazil and Sao Paulo. In short, the young man will have an international perspective.

Other Christians allow their children to go on mission trips to foreign countries where they pick up a feel for another culture, some of the language and a knowledge that much of the world is far different than us. An emphasis on missions or world evangelism is important. We are instructed to “Go unto the entire world, making disciples “.

Like Rip Van Winkle, it is time for the church to wake up and be aware of what is going on around us. It is not a case of business as usual.

In the U.S. we deal with a growing drug crisis, national and international crime, an increasing prison population fueled largely, but not exclusively by, drugs and increasing abortion. Our society which at one time was based on God, if not Christianity, is rapidly being transformed into a godless society with a hedonistic and materialistic moral code. Instead of evolving into a more enlightened society we are falling back into more pluralistic and materialistic societies like the Greeks and Romans.

Rip Van Winkle drank the wine of the trolls and went to sleep. Our drink has been drugs, and entertainment. Pornography and violence have become our opiates Our books are filled with things that would have been abhorrent to earlier generations and the media must keep up serving new and unusual entertainment in order to keep the attention of the viewers. Video games must do the same.

And so while the church has been asleep, society is changing. And the change is not unexpected. It is changing back to its basic fleshly roots.

How is this situation to be remedied? To be frank, I do not have a good answer to this question.

However, I do know this. Sometimes, an event will cause us to wake up. We are jarred or shaken. It may be a wrong turn down a barrio. It may be an overseas trip. It may be having a child on drugs. But something wakes us up. It jars us out of our complacency. And we remember who we are. We remember that we are the Children of God, born from the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are the Family of God.

We return to the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. We return to prayer. We seek the face of God. We ask for the guidance of God.

The Holy Spirit will give us this guidance and will lead the way. We return to our spiritual roots-Jesus Christ and we follow the guidance given to us. Our love for Christ begins to transcend our love for ourselves, our families and our world.

I can not tell you what to do or where you will go. I can only tell you to seek God and He will be found. Follow God and He will lead you.

My prayer is that the church will wake up and return to its first love, Jesus Christ. In Christ lies our future and our destiny.

It is to Him we must return.