I’ll tell y’all why I have listened with such heightened interest to the @CTmagazine podcast on Mars Hill. It hasn’t been some sick need to hear about a church unraveling. It is because I’ve spent the last couple of years reading books about the history of American Christianity.
And because I’ve been involved up to my neck & maybe way over my head in it, I’ve been studying American evangelicalism in particular. I’m convinced that, though the threads are multicolored & distinctive, they braid together & have tangled into this current knot. Understand as I
say this that I could not possibly have been more involved: I am completely convinced that what we have on our hands is the result of a failure of discipleship. I don’t mean all our curricula has been wasted. We’re called to teach. It is imperative that believers study Scripture
diligently. I have no intention of not writing Bible studies. I’m saying somehow we’ve ended up with a Christianity that bears little resemblance to Christ himself. We’re a long long way from those early followers who understood it was going to be tough & knew how to suffer well.
We’re petty, offended by everything, mad at everybody, fixated on celebrating ourselves & redefining Christian liberty as freedom to do what we want no matter how anybody else gets hurt. Listen, I’m a believer in the church. I don’t feel cynical because there IS a remedy.
I don’t know how it looks in all its variegated forms but I know the elements are repentance & return & relearn. I just want to say I’m not hating on Mars Hill. The complexities of its story are many. It’s OUR story. But what our end goal should be in all our reading & listening
is how to best serve Christ by serving his church. American Christianity increasingly grew into something that does not look like gospel Christianity. That can change. I think it starts with poring back over the Gospels with care & prayer. So, I’m a broken record. But I love us.
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