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Kristin sat in the back row of the Barnsville Baptist Church. Her head was spinning. Her heart was heavy. Most of the people noticed when she entered the sanctuary doors exceptionally late. None of them realized that it was a miracle she was even there. She was desperate. Her toddler was restless. This was his first church service too.

“I never should have trusted him,” she thought to herself amidst the inquiring eyes and the obvious whispers of the church goers. “What am I going to do now?”

The musicians stopped playing. Everything went quiet as the pastor climbed the steps to the stage. Of all the possible moments, this would be the one in which her son dropped a toy. And of all the possible ways it could fall, it of course hit the metal leg of the chair he was sitting on. The whole sanctuary probably heard it. In fact, she knew they did because of the sudden stern looks she received from multiple angles. “I don’t think they want me here. This is so embarrassing.” She hoped that trying out this church thing would help her somehow. Now she felt more anxious than ever.

It wasn’t long until one of the ladies bustled up to her, leaned in, and informed her that the church had a children’s program. “I can walk him back there for you,” she offered. Kristin felt awkward, but tried to hide it while politely turning down the offer. There was no way she was going to let her son out of her sight. Not after what they had been through. He’s all she has right now. She couldn’t help but notice how annoyed the lady looked. “She must of been trying to get him out of the sanctuary. Is he a burden for them?”

A few minutes later, as the pastor was preaching, Kristin’s son started whimpering. In his restlessness, he had bumped his head on the chair in front of him. Not hard. Just enough to startle him and make him cry. The pastor must have heard it because he started losing focus and peering back toward the noise. It was obvious he was trying to keep a calm demeanor, but his eyes and body language told the story. He was annoyed. She saw the people shaking their heads. She felt the stares. Her anxiety became worse. She was tensing up.

As all toddlers do, the boy began to sense his mother’s tension. As a result, he became more anxious too. As his restlessness increased, the disapproval of the people in the sanctuary became more obvious. She began to feel panicked. “What do I do? Do I stay and endure this? Do I leave and possibly make a bigger spectacle? Everyone will be glad if I get out of here.”

The pastor was just starting his second point as Kristin carefully shifted out into the aisle. As she carried her son out of the sanctuary doors, she thought to herself, “I still don’t know where to go, but I don’t think I can go here.”

After Kristin left, the people who were annoyed now felt relief. The pastor noticed she had left, but was happy to be able to finish his sermon uninterrupted. The church strategized on how to better persuade parents to bring their children to the nursery and children’s church. Meanwhile, Kristin never stepped foot through the doors of a church again.

That was twenty years ago. No one knows what happened to Kristin or where she is now, but one thing is obvious to everyone in the area. If you drive by the Barnsville Baptist Church, you will notice they have changed the sign. It use to say, “All are welcome.” Now, standing like a judgment in front of the old, abandoned building it simply says, “For Sale.”

Last night’s performance by Kid Rock has caused a stir on Christian social media. It’s not that hard of a feat. We get stirred up very easily.

Here’s the issue causing the tension. TPUSA billed their half-time show as a family friendly alternative. Kid Rock opened his set with a throwback performance of “Bawitdaba”. Anyone familiar with the song’s lyrics understands why people may take issue with it being aired at a “family friendly” event. Then again, it’s Kid Rock. Did anyone seriously think he was going to come out singing kumbaya and Chris Tomlin songs? The wisdom of including that song at the event can be debated. No problem. But throwing out the beauty of what happened throughout the set is a mistake.

For those getting bent out of shape about the performance, I have a prescription for you. Take one Philippians 1:15-18 and chill. You’ll feel better in the morning. None of us can determine Kid Rock’s heart. But we can admire the message that was clearly and artistically conveyed. And us Christians would greatly benefit if we would pay attention. Let’s take it in steps.

Step 1: The Old Man

Kid Rock comes out and begins the song proudly shouting his “name”. Then he performs his old song. This is only speculation, but I found the performance of “Bawitdaba” a little odd. He didn’t seem really into it. He barely sang any of the verse, seeming selective of which parts he wanted to put the mic up for. And he appeared kind of uncomfortable, like he was getting through it to make the point, but his heart wasn’t in it like it used to be. I think that was all part of the point. He has publicly professed his faith in Jesus Christ in the last few years. Singing that song would be like reliving his old life before salvation. It’s an uncomfortable song to listen to for people with the Holy Spirit. It seemed to be an uncomfortable song for him to sing. However, just like it is necessary to occasionally bring to mind who we were before Christ, it was necessary for him to briefly revisit his old self. You cannot tell the story of redemption without acknowledging what you were redeemed from.

Step 2: The Transition

The song ended abruptly in a weird place. You would expect to revisit the chorus one more time. Kid Rock ended the song shouting the last line of the verse, “So get in the pit and try to love someone.” We will revisit that line later. After that abrupt ending, and in the midst of the chaotic intensity, there appears a calming instrumental melody. It’s almost as if the peace of that melody interrupts the chaos and stops it in its tracks. It was a jarring experience. If you were watching, you found yourself transported very unexpectedly to a place of peace and rest. Something has changed. It has changed all of a sudden. And it has calmed the raging waters of what was just happening. It was an artistic expression of the moment Jesus speaks the words, “Peace be still,” into the chaos of the lost person’s life. And it was beautiful.

Step 3: The New Man

After the melody is over, the host announces the next artist. It is announced as if this is a new person taking the stage. “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome our brother, Robert Ritchie.” For anyone not familiar with Kid Rock’s real name, it appeared to be a new person. This man was calmer, more at peace. He barely even seemed like the same guy. He is no longer going by his false name. Now he is wearing his new name. It is the name God gave him. It is the name he has kept hidden under a false identity for years. He is a new man with a new name after being interrupted by the peace Christ brought into his life. And he does not hide it. He ends the song with his own added words, “There’s a book that’s sitting in your house somewhere that could use some dusting off. There’s a man who died for all our sins hanging from the cross. You can give your life to Jesus and he’ll give you a second chance…till you can’t.” This whole set was a demonstration of the second chance Jesus gave to Robert Ritchie, and an extension of that gospel offer to everyone listening. It was more powerful than most of the sermons I have heard.

Get in the Pit and Try to Love Someone

We want our churches to be overflowing with Robert Ritchies, but we need to remember they will come to us at first as Kid Rock’s. Where did the gospel interruption happen? In the middle of unanswered questions, topless dancers, crackheads, meth, crooked cops, shots of Jack, etc. He was in “the pit.” He was in the places that make the snooty church type’s skin crawl. He was the kind you don’t associate with because you would be embarrassed if your pastor saw you hanging with him. You want to bring the gospel to the lost? You want to fill your church with Robert Ritchie redemption stories? You will find them in the pit. It is where you were found. You don’t have to participate in the things that go on in that world. But you can’t shun it either. You are not going to find them at the church potluck or the outreach program. You are going to have to venture out into the dark. But we are the light of the world. Lights were meant to shine into the darkness, not hide from it. Are you ready to see lives changed and people made new? Then “get in the pit and try to love someone.”

I am brainstorming two new book ideas and I would love to have your input!

Book Idea #1

I am planning to write a book on worry, anxiety, and fear. The reception for The Dark Night of the Soul was very …

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The term “multicultural” has become something of a buzzword in the last decade. For many companies, churches, institutions, and politicians it has been flaunted like a badge of honor. However, it is an incredibly dangerous experiment that is doomed for disaster. I want to share two reasons why.

Danger in the Understanding of the Word Itself

Multiculturalism is already wrapped up in tension and misunderstanding before it even enters the discussion. Most people hear the word and mentally apply it to something entirely different. This is one of the most insidious tactics of the wickedness of our age. Those who intend to shape the narrative imply incorrect definitions of words while strategically placing them. In doing so, they kill the discussion before it can even begin. My title is an example of this. I’m sure there are people who will read it and immediately think, “That’s racist!” The problem with this is that culture and ethnicity are not the same. The reason you thought that (if you did) is because you have been conditioned to misapply words by the strategists of the day. You have been conditioned to have an automatic visceral reaction around certain terms without thinking critically about the definition of the terms themselves.

It would be helpful for us to clarify this confusion by giving a proper definition of culture. In his book, The Mission of God, Joe Boot notes that culture is derived from the word cultivation. The Latin verb colere “refers to tilling the ground in order to grow things” (Joe Boot, Mission of God, Page 368). A culture, therefore, is a type of civilization that has been planted and cultivated according to deeply held moral and intellectual values.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

The concept is simple. If you place two different people in the same car each with their own steering wheel, things can go downhill very fast. Now, imagine those two people have very different ideas of where the car needs to go. It won’t be a simple disagreement. Say goodbye to the car and the people in it. This is multiculturalism. The only difference is that there are way more steering wheels than just two.

The Muslims have a very different agenda for this country than the Christians do. African ghetto culture is driving in a very different direction than the primarily European suburban culture. There is no shortage of people from Hispanic and Indian cultures that have brought third world lifestyles to our shores and now have forced them on the people who are trying to maintain a higher standard of living. Countless semi drivers are operating on our roads without being able to read the English road signs. And many more people are operating vehicles of all sizes according to the road rules (or lack thereof) of where they came from. I’ve lost count of the reports I have heard from all over the country of fatal hit-and-runs, where the driver fled the scene because they did not want to get deported. In many of those cases, the authorities did nothing because they knew it was not a legal citizen. Houston, we have a problem.

We are either going in one direction together or we are crashing. A nation cannot survive without having one culture shared and pursued by its citizens. Up until recent times, that is why America has been so successful.

We have been, from the beginning, a European, Protestant Christian nation. Anyone who wished to come join us was expected to do so legally and then to assimilate into our culture and become one of us. Recently, however, the world has been bringing its various cultures into our borders against our will and trying to force us to assimilate to them.

United We Stand, Divided We Fight

Culture is not as innocent as just competing ideas. Culture is not neutral. It is territorial. Let’s continue with the illustration of the car with multiple steering wheels. Everyone in the car is trying to steer in their own direction. They all know this can’t work. They all believe their way is the right way. There is only one way to prevent the absolute wreckage that is coming. One driver has to win. The others have to submit or get kicked out of the car. Make no mistake. When you survey the competing cultures in our land today, only one will be left standing. If the nation does not totally collapse, it will be because one of the cultures waged war on the others and won, thereby becoming the one culture driving the nation.

For those of us who can remember our country before the turn of the 21st Century, we are well aware of what is happening. My culture, the culture I grew up in, is gone. I’m not sure what this culture I’m living in is, but it’s not mine. It’s not the one I was raised in. It’s like I moved to a foreign country that I never had any interest in living in. But the only problem is that I didn’t go anywhere. I’m an American. I stayed in America. I did so intentionally. I love my country, but I don’t recognize it anymore and I miss it terribly. I hope I can have it back one day. If not for me, at least for my children. It feels like I and the culture I love have been kicked out of the proverbial car.

Right now, if you turn on the news, you will see what is going on in Portland and elsewhere. There are multiple cultures that have been existing in our nation for a long time. They were allowed to come in and do as they please. They were never required to become Americans. They were never expected to assimilate into our social norms and values. Now they are being told they must leave. And we are all getting a front row seat to what happens when you let multiculturalism fester too long before challenging it. It may lead to civil war. I hope I’m wrong. But the people who want the steering wheel will not simply let it go when requested. They will fight you.

For the Love of Our Home

If you are like me and you miss the America you once called home, let me say this bluntly. We only have one chance at getting it back. We cannot be silent about the overthrow of our American culture and values. Silence is defeat. Silence is submission. Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for not letting other cultures rip away the country you love. This is our country. Speak up. No other country would let other nations flood their homeland and stand by as their beloved culture gets ripped out from under them. You either become an American and join our culture, or you stay in your own land and culture. Our children will raise children here and we will fight to ensure they are raised in the same America we remember before it was taken from us.

This is the follow up to my previous post. I asked this question, “What if I told you that there are solid churches in various parts of this country that are teeming with young godly families?” These posts are borne out of my observations of biblical churches that have somehow attracted, and kept, young families without compromising biblical doctrine and practice. It’s time we deal with the second and third observations.

Observation #2: They Have Established an Intentional Culture

Ok, I get it. Hearing that, you are instantly prone to defense mode against any semblance of seeker-sensitive Christianity. The seeker-sensitive movement did a lot of damage, but it also left a lot of valuable lessons. This is something they got right. This is something solid, biblical churches should aim for as well. That is, if we want to have any life or energy in our churches. We don’t bare the nickname “the frozen chosen” without reason.

Culture is a big deal. It is what takes a random group of individuals and turns them into a united family pursuing one goal together. If you have it, it’s beautiful. If you don’t, all manner of chaos is likely. As Christians, we already have one huge advantage in our culture building. We are all united in Christ. We share the same Savior and we are indwelt by the same Holy Spirit. That unites us as a global people. However, the local church takes a little more. For a local church, the question must be answered as to how that reality will be lived out on a daily basis in the midst of the congregation and to the world around it. Answer that question and you will know what kind of culture you want to see in the church.

The leadership of these churches have answered the culture question. They have then answered the question of how. Culture does not just happen. It is built. It is intentional. It is cultivated (which is actually the concept that the term “culture” comes from). When I walk into a church, I can pretty quickly sense whether a church has a genuine culture or not. If it does not, chaos is inevitable.

Young people want to be a part of something. They want to raise their children in a meaningful culture. They want to sense that what they are participating in matters. If it feels to them like nothing more than a regularly scheduled religious exercise, they will be out quicker than they came in. Is it any wonder that young families are gravitating to the churches that have intentionally built (i.e. cultivated) their culture?

Observation #3: They Have Established an Intentional Environment

This observation follows the last. If you know what kind of things you want to mark your church’s culture, you can adjust the environment in your church to facilitate it. I am a Millennial (I think) father of four, so I have personal experience here. Love it or hate it, the condition and layout of a church’s facility tells me all I want to know about the prospects of my family’s future involvement there. If I walk in to drop off my child at the Sunday School class and I notice the mold spots in the ceiling and the old, mildewed carpet that was installed in the 1950s, my family will politely leave after the service and never look back. That Sunday School room told me everything about the culture of the church. Renovate that mess!

One church that did this very well was near to my hometown growing up. They were big on fellowship and community. It was intentionally part of their culture. When they had the opportunity to build a new building, they built that culture into the structure itself. The doors into the sanctuary were inside the building. You had to go through the main room in order to get to it. No other way. The main room was set up to invite fellowship. When you entered that room, you just wanted to sit on one of the couches and hang out. Yes, they had coffee (I can hear the gasping of the reformed elite. Their disapproving glares are piercing to the soul). The layout of the building almost forced fellowship to happen in an organic way just by trying to get in and out of the sanctuary.

If your otherwise biblical church is struggling to attract and retain young families, maybe these are some of the hard questions you should ask. Do we have a culture? Is it intentional? What have we done to define and cultivate it in recent years? Do we even know who we are as a church body? What does our environment communicate to young families entering the building? How does it (or doesn’t it) foster the culture we are trying to build?

What if I told you that there are solid churches in various parts of this country that are teeming with young godly families? The likely reaction would be something like this. “Of course there are! It’s because they do all the sounds and lights. It’s because they don’t preach the hard truth. It’s because you can just show up and leave without being known by anyone. It’s because it’s flashy.” You can imagine the rest of the reasons often given. And, yes, those kinds of churches are out there. You can usually find them downtown by either following Google maps or the sound of the Ted talk coming from the stage.

However, the churches I’m referring to are quite the opposite. They are quite simplistic in their setup and approach. They often preach the harder truths that even the “hardnose” conservative style churches won’t touch. They are actually very personal with their congregants. And their worship is far from flashy. They often sing hymns and the Psalms. Their music is often driven by congregational singing as opposed to praise band performances. Instead of Sunday morning being filled with the silence of a stuffy library, the cries of babies and the shifting around of children reverberates off the walls.

What a thought! Solid, biblical churches full of young families without having to cave to the kind of syncretism that the popular mega-churches are often guilty of. I know, it sounds like I’m telling you unicorns exist. But I promise, these churches are out there, and they have something to teach us if we really want to solve the problem of the missing generations. Let’s dive into some observations on what they are doing right. Ine this first post, we will consider observation #1.

Observation #1: They Know the Times

There have been a few different shakings that have happened in society in recent years. Notable among those are the rapid advance of secularism, the Marxist agenda, and the Covid pandemic. Not to mention the corruption being exposed from basically every corner of our society at breakneck speeds. These things have come so quickly and consecutively upon us that no one is able to evaluate what is happening before the next thing happens. I believe the people most affected by these things are the younger generations (Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z). While many in the older generation sit in their Bible studies celebrating the fact that they won’t have to put up with this stuff much longer, the younger generation is left to dread the dark ages approaching over the horizon.

We are watching as all the assurances our parents gave us about life as Christians in America turn out to be no assurance at all.

As we see this brooding social despair overtaking our futures, we are met with brisk wags of the finger from our elders because, obviously, it’s all our fault. But we see it differently. We see that the former generations watched as the match was lit and the building started to burn. However, they decided to simply continue watching and doing nothing about it. After doing so, they handed down the embers and blamed us for the wreckage. Because, after all, it is currently in our hands, not theirs.

Parents of young families today find themselves with incredibly heightened anxiety; the kind that their own parents could only imagine in their nightmares. More than ever, they need somewhere to turn. They are seeking a community of likeminded people. They’re seeking out the kind of brothers and sisters that will have their backs if things hit the fan. If everything really does collapse in our society like it seems to be, they need to know they have people in the trenches with them. This is a major reason why the younger conservative generation is drawn to people like Tucker Carlson, Matt Walsh, and Jordan Peterson. They are talking openly about the issues they face.

When we hear that a generation of people are needing somewhere to turn, our knee jerk reaction is to cry out, “That’s what the Church is for!” Of course, we are right. But the problem is that so many churches have proven themselves not to be a place to turn. Young men and women have consistently heard the leaders of churches and ministries talk negatively about bringing up politics. They have been reprimanded anytime they mention anything that could be deemed “political” or “conspiracy.” The excuse often given is that those kinds of conversations can turn people away from the gospel.

Young people are not naive. They have developed the art of seeing through the smoke and mirrors.

They know that most (not all) pastors who use that excuse are simply avoiding conflict. They won’t stay for that. That pastor and, by extension, his church will not have their backs when the world goes upside down. If you want examples of this, think back on the Covid years and how so many church leaders quickly silenced any conversation that included dissent to the status quo. Now try to remember if the reaction was the same when people were discussing Covid in agreement with the status quo.

I’ll cut to the chase. Among biblical, solid churches (remember, not mega churches) that are somehow full of young families (and growing!), I’ve noticed a trend. Their leaders are boldly and openly dealing with the issues of the day. Even better, they are applying Scripture and theology to all of it. They are not ashamed to “get political.” Quite the opposite. They are helping their members develop a biblical worldview to navigate politics and public life. They are demonstrating that the Bible is sufficient to address what is happening. And they are doing what they can to guard their people from invasive laws and unbiblical overreaches from the powers that be.

The second a leader boldly addresses a polarizing issue, with no apology, standing on the authority of Scripture, the young man listening suspects, “Here is a man that will be in the trenches with me.” As soon as he sits in a gathering where likeminded Christians are openly discussing these things and praying over them, he determines, “This is a community that will have my back when the trial comes.”

Young men and women are full of dread and confusion. They see all the corruption and it is clear to them how it affects them and their families. They see the illegal immigrants bringing waves of crime throughout their towns. They see their children faced with gender ideologies everywhere they turn. They see the state threatening to take them away if they won’t let them get gender-affirming surgeries. They see how close we are to the iron fist of communism and/or the impoverished depths of socialism. They see how close their children are to dying on foreign soil at the whims of corrupt politicians. They fought and struggled - they were demonized and cast out - because they didn’t want to inject unknown substances into their children’s bodies. The list could go on. Then, when many of them tried to talk about these very real monsters they’ve been facing, their churches told them, “We don’t talk about that here.”

The churches that are talking about those issues and helping their people walk through them are attracting young people left and right. These families want the unfiltered truth and they are flocking to the churches that offer it.

Are you a church leader struggling with getting young families in your church? Know they are out there, and they are looking for leaders who will candidly and openly address the demons encroaching all around them. When you stop “staying out of politics” and start using Scripture to guide your church through it, you might be surprised by the amount of young people that come flocking.

Stay tuned for observation #2.

I recently came across a helpful illustration for understanding a nation’s border. View the border of a nation as its face. This illustration conveys peculiar identity. Just as the face of a man identifies him and separates him from other men, so the "face,” or border, of the nation ought to separate it from other nations.

Assimilation

A nation is a nation precisely because it has its own unique system, culture, values, governance, and framework.

To open the borders to anyone without qualification or process is to forfeit the identity of the nation.

If there is no assimilation into the shared values, language, and culture of the nation, the result will be such a "melting pot" that there will be no shared value, language, and culture at all. Therefore, the nation loses the things that make it a particular nation in the first place.

Concentric Circles

Cultural units make concentric circles. At the core, there are families. Every family has its own home, culture, and rules. Though we are called to be hospitable to outsiders, it is reasonable and expected that we would require any outsider who enters our homes to abide by the rules and standards of the home.

It is also reasonable and expected that we would not leave the front door hanging open, thereby allowing anyone who likes the comfort and possessions of our homes to enter. In fact, in doing so we would be endangering the members of our homes and, therefore, neglecting our primary duty as protectors of those placed under our care.

Priorities

The family is the first and most intimate of the concentric circles. A man’s family is his first priority. Whenever a stranger poses a potential threat to the safety, purity, or wellbeing of his home, the man is obligated to prioritize his home to the neglect of the stranger.

His home has a border. Within it, there are people, values, culture, possessions, and comforts that he must guard. While he should seek hospitality, he should only do so when it poses no harm to his first responsibility, which is his home.

The Wider Concentric Circle

As the concentric circles go out (community, state, etc.), we arrive eventually at a nation. A nation, like a home, has a border. Within it, there are people, values, culture, possessions, and comforts that we must guard. While we should seek hospitality to the refugee, we should only do so when it poses no harm to our first responsibility — our nation and its citizens.

We should only bring in the immigrant in order to assimilate into the already established norms within our borders.

We should refuse the immigrant when there is potential threat to the safety, culture, values, comforts, and wellbeing of the nation and its citizens.

We must be willing to vet the people trying to cross our borders lest we become a faceless nation.

Originally published on Medium.

Every society has a heartbeat. Under every social order, there is an invisible pulse that drives its visible manifestations. One of the clearest places where we see this pulse manifested is in the legal system. This is especially true in nations like the United States, where the people vote for their own representatives and lawmakers. If you want to know the heart of a society, start examining its legal system. You will find the heartbeat somewhere under all that technical legal jargon.

The Civil Law Reveals the Heart of a Society

The civil law, along with the severity of its various penalties, reveals a society’s heart. What we call crime, and the varied severity with which we treat it, exposes our collective values. For example, murder is one of the highest crimes in civilized nations. As such, it carries with it the strictest punishments, whether execution (preferable) or life in prison.

The severity with which we punish the murderer speaks volumes about how we value human life. This is why we punish murder more strictly than we punish theft. The heart of our society is that a person is worth more than material goods. Theft is not acceptable, but the thief can be restored to society. The murderer cannot be restored to society. They both took something that wasn’t theirs to take. However, the murderer has taken what he can never return.

There are many ways that our current legal system reveals an ugly picture of our cultural heartbeat. The most obvious example is abortion. The federal government along with many state governments are trying to codify it into the law as a right. For some fifty years now, we have been shouting through our legal system that we value some lives more than others. Countless women and abortion providers, along with those who encouraged and aided them, have taken what they can never return.

What does it say about our view of human life when we support and celebrate the practice of discarding it? At the same time, many of these same women want you to go riot in the streets whenever a life is taken in one of our cities. Of course, not just any life, but a life that the media and politicians tell you to care about. Our social hatred for murder is not based on the value of life, but on political agendas and narratives. That is why some lives are mourned and spark national outcries, while others are discarded proudly.

We respond to some murders by saying, “How dare you take that life!” We respond to others by saying, “How dare you try to prevent us from taking that life!” The value of life is no longer important to our society, and it shows out in our current legal code. It is no longer whether life is valuable, but which life is valuable. We have a rotten social heart.

God’s Civil Law is a Revelation of His Heart

With this in mind, it is no leap in logic to say that we can look at the civil law which God gave to Israel, and there we can find His heart. In His law, He reveals His heart and His intention for the heart of His people. Sometimes we forget that God pre-packaged and handed an entire civil, legal, and penal system to His people. We have lawmakers, but He was the original Lawmaker. Did He give His legal system to His people as an overbearing taskmaster, or as a revelation of His own heart? The latter is true.

As you read the laws and matching penalties God detailed for Israel, ask yourself what they reveal about God’s heart. What do they say about His view of human life? What do they say about His view of a person’s right to his own property and his responsibility toward his neighbor? What do they say about how God views the responsibility of the men of His society to care well for the women? Ask yourself how God tells His people to treat sickness and disease, and what that says about human dignity. The questions could go on. Ask these kinds of questions and you will never read Leviticus the same again.

This kind of thinking leads to an important question. If God’s heart is revealed in the legal code He gave to His Old Testament people, is that legal code still relevant today? Christ came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it. God does not change. His heart does not change. This brings up the question of theonomy. Should nations pattern their legal systems after the Old Testament law code of God?

I believe theonomy in general is inevitable for the Christian. The question isn’t whether you will be a theonomist, but what stripe of theonomy you are going to hold to. If the heart of God is revealed in His legal system, can we really justify throwing the whole thing out? We can debate what transfers over and how, but at the very least we must work at extracting the heart of God in the Law and applying it to our own.

Some will say, “Yes, but the Law is for God’s people (the Church), not for whole nations. It is how God wants His people to live.” For now, I will give one simple response. At the least, we should still want as much of His legal standard as possible applied to even the secular societies within which we live. Though the culture may not be regenerate, only good can come from applying the heart of God to it. In doing so, the Spirit may even draw men to Himself. In doing so, the Church only stands to have greater freedom and opportunities for the advance of the Kingdom.

Near to the Heart of God

If the legal and penal code of a society is the manifestation of its heart, and the Law of God is a revelation of His own heart, then the logical conclusion follows. The more a society aligns its laws with that of God’s, the closer that society comes to His very heart.

First, when a society aligns itself with God’s Law, it evidences that there are enough regenerate persons within it to have caused that to happen. Ten righteous people would have made the difference for Sodom between God’s judgment and His patience.

Second, when a society aligns itself with God’s Law, the Gospel of God is not only something that the Church proclaims, but also something that permeates the atmosphere. For an individual, the jump to converted Christian out of a pagan ecosystem is much more extreme than the step from a Christian ecosystem.

Third, a society aligned with God's Word will experience greater measures of common grace. If you live in such a society, whether you are personally regenerate or not, you will experience the goodness of God as a natural consequence. Even the lost, whose eternal state lies in misery, will find their temporal state to be sweeter. As a side note to this, those who still reject Christ in the midst of such a Christian ecosystem display an even greater tragedy, as they have no excuse. In their cautionary tales, one can hear the echoes of Hebrews 6:4-8.

May we see our nation return to the heart of God in its legal system. And may we work in every way possible to affect that change.

Introducing The Afterthought - On this episode, “Even Atheists are Waking up to the Good of Christian Culture.”

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We have heard all the alarmists warning about overpopulation. Too many people in the world, according to the “experts,” will stretch resources too thin and hasten the so-called environmental crisis. There are good theological reasons for ignoring the global warming fearmongers. We will get around to talking about those reasons later. In the meantime, there does appear to be a coming population crisis. However, it is quite the opposite of what the media and politicians are presenting. The coming crisis is one of depopulation, not overpopulation. And it looks like it could be quite drastic. There are several reasons I suspect we could see a pretty sudden population freefall in the coming years.

Delayed Marriage

It is no secret that young people are delaying marriage far longer than ever before. Many are even waiting until they are in their thirties. What does this mean for the population? It means that once the couple settles down and starts a family, the woman’s reproductive window is much shorter than in past generations. Less marriage time in that reproductive window means less reproduction. We can all understand what that means for the future.

Birth Control

I know what you’re going to say. “But birth control has been around for a long time.” Yes, it has. However, in tandem with the delayed marriage issue, it’s use has multiplied exponentially. Before, women used to be on and off of birth control throughout their 20s depending on the couple’s family plans. Now, many women are on indefinitely during that time. As research has developed, we have realized that most of these birth control methods are abortifacient, not preventative. In other words, God begins a life and we snuff it out for our own convenience.

Abortion

This one is self-explanatory. Millions of lives that would otherwise be among us are, in fact, not among us. We murdered them. Though Roe was passed in the 1970s, the abortion numbers accelerated significantly in the 90s and 2,000s. That generation would be the ones starting families and having babies right now. The problem is that we submitted them to mass genocide. Only a fraction of them are here now. And for the reasons discussed in this post, only a fraction of those left are reproducing at a healthy rate. They are having their own abortions, delaying marriage, and over-using birth control, among other things.

Family Breakdown

The family mindset has gone out the window. Men don’t care about fatherhood, and many women are unconcerned with motherhood. Raising children is not even on the radar for many in the younger generation. Family-mindedness has been replaced with self-centeredness. Children are seen as a hindrance to the good life instead of a vital part of it, which is an inversion of the traditional view.

The LGBT Problem

According to a January NBC News article, nearly 30% of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ. If that is true, a significant portion of the young generation will be either unable to have children or will be severely hindered. Not enough people are considering what the gender reassignment procedures are doing to future birth rate prospects. It also goes without saying that gay and lesbian people will not reproduce at near the rate of straight people. In these circumstances, one has to fight against nature in order to do so.

Suicide and Premature Death Rate

The suicide numbers among the younger generations are noticeably higher than previous generations. In addition to this, an alarming number of them are dying unexpectedly. Whether one attributes it to Covid, the vaccine, or something else, the numbers don’t lie. Among that generation, both the suicide and sudden death rates have skyrocketed.

Infertility

Another thing that has skyrocketed in recent years is the infertility rate. This can be attributed to different things. These include an increase in stressful lifestyles, overly processed foods, the Covid vaccine (the stats show an increase in infertility and still births in those who received the shots and boosters), and drug and alcohol use. This is a sad reality of our time. Despite all the advancements in reproductive science, more women are unable to get pregnant now than in previous generations.

A Unique Opportunity for Christian Growth

As we read these things, it can produce a large amount of anxiety within us. For the Christian, there is no need for that. If we play the long game, the Church will once again have an overwhelming majority in our culture. And the long game may not be so long after all. If the things we are seeing play out, we are one generation from the liberal-minded corner of our society cancelling itself out. They are raging right now. They seem really powerful right now. They have the numbers right now. But there won’t be many to replace them as they age. The Christians, however, can turn this thing around within a generation’s time. How, you say? By obeying God’s Word.

“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28 and 9:1)

Think about it. If the wicked are not reproducing enough to replace themselves, they will decrease significantly in a generation’s time. If the Christians are reproducing faithfully and training their children in the Lord, they will increase significantly in a generation’s time. And the scales flip just like that. It is not an easy task to raise a brood of children in a hostile culture like our own, but it is worth it. If we play the long game well, our grandchildren’s generation may begin to taste the glory of a Christian culture once more.

I will be doing a regular short podcast segment called “The Afterthought” for full subscribers. These episodes will cover additional thoughts bouncing off the themes in the articles. This is the first.

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I opened up a recent post with this statement:

In response to this statement, I received a question from a reader. She said, “So why can't the people inside see it?” The answer to that deserves another post. There is something more underneath the question. It is indicative of the consternation that many in America are experiencing. I believe those of us on the inside (the citizens living in the midst of our social wreckage) can see that society is in shambles. It seems as if we can't see it because many of us are not responding to it with any sense of urgency.

When the individual American looks at the cultural situation, he knows it's broken. But then he looks to his left and right. To him, it seems like the others around him are indifferent, passive, and inactive, as if they can't see it at all. He asks himself, “If things really are as bad as they seem, why aren't people doing something about it? Why is everyone just going through the motions? Why do they seem so indifferent to what is going on?”

Most Americans are not ignorant of our cultural collapse, but an alarming number are suffering from some level of indifference. Let's take some time to diagnose the reasons for that indifference.

Isolation

The prophet Elijah, cowering in a cave, confessed what he perceived to be true to the Lord. “Only I am left” (1 Kings 19). In that moment, Elijah experienced an acute sense of isolation. He was alone physically. He felt alone philosophically. To be the only one who sees and believes the truth - the only one who refuses to participate in the paganism of the day - can be devastatingly lonely. This perceived isolation was enough to bring Elijah, the Baal crushing, miracle working man of God, to the point of wishing for death.

A lot of Americans are experiencing a similar thing. When it seems that everyone around you is either directly participating in the wreckage or blissfully ignorant of it, isolation sets in. If you feel isolated and alone, as Elijah did, your response is likely to be like his. You are likely to hide in your proverbial cave, content to go away quietly. But Elijah was not alone, and neither are you.

The Lord told him that there are 7,000 others who have not bowed the knee to Baal. This is what Elijah needed to give him strength and get him out of the cave. He then went on to anoint his prodigy, Elisha. Elijah awoke out of his isolated despair, anointed a prodigy, and began the work of passing down his mantle to the one who would have a double portion of his own spirit (2 Kings 2).

This is how the isolated wake up and arise out of their indifference. They must realize they are not alone. There are others who see the same thing they see. Once they come out of hiding and begin speaking up, there will inevitably be Elishas that start to follow. They, like Elisha, may very well go on to accomplish even more than those of us who have gone before them.

Lack of Knowledge

Another reason for the indifference that seems to plague our nation is a simple lack of knowledge.

Whoever controls the flow of information controls the knowledge of the public. If a ruling body can control enough of the public’s knowledge, they can gain control of public opinion also. Our opinions develop based on the information we have. Therefore, our opinions can be manipulated by limiting access to some information and making it easy to access the selected information.

This is why all the mainstream media networks seem to be carbon copies of one another anymore. There is a narrative coming from somewhere above them, and they are being obedient to their masters. Many Americans can tell something is very wrong, but they simply don’t know what. They see the trouble, but they don’t see the truth behind the trouble. The symptoms are obvious, but the disease is obscured.

In Hosea, God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). The way out of the destruction is to grow in knowledge. First and foremost, knowledge of God and His Word. Secondly, knowledge of the truth behind the wreckage we see. Thirdly, knowledge of what it will take to rebuild it.

The first step in gaining this knowledge is to pursue it. You can’t find what you are not looking for, and many Americans have been content to stop looking. Open God’s Word again. Dust off the constitution and read it. Get familiar with how things work. Then get honest about the ways in which we have departed from those norms. Knowing the disease is essential for coming to a cure.

Fear

This one is simple enough. Fear keeps a lot of people “on the inside” quiet and docile. People are afraid that if they say too much about what they see, and around the wrong people, they will be persecuted and cancelled. It is not an unfounded fear. They know it's possible because they've seen it happen.

To defeat this kind of fear, we have to trade self-protection for the protection of those for whom God has made us responsible. Most immediately, our families. If we refuse to speak up, our children and grandchildren will inherit a collapsed nation. They may inherit one regardless, but let's atleast make sure it's in spite of our resistance, not because of our absence.

Disillusionment

For many Americans, the kinds of things our eyes have been opened to have been simply unthinkable until now. When the things one typically sees in spy movies and political thrillers start happening in real life, there is a shock phase. The unsuspecting citizen is thrown into disillusion for a season, not being able to accept this is all really happening. People in this position are not in a state of indifference. They are in a state of shock. The shock will wear off, at which point their true approach will take shape.

Distraction

Even more than the previous years, 2024 has been whiplash so far. There's no time to come down from one scandal before we are thrown into another one. A constantly distracted populace is unable to focus on any one problem long enough to solve it. So, nothing gets solved. Nothing actually changes. So, the people who are not as alarmed as you are about problem “A" are “missing it" because they are too busy being alarmed about problems “B" through “Z.” And they are probably wondering why you are not as alarmed as them at those things.

It's like a mass form of culturally induced ADHD.

Individualism

We are an individualistic culture. We have been for a long time. As such, we have lost our understanding of community. In such an individualistic culture, people might see all kinds of concerning things, but they won't act unless it affects them personally. Many, instead of being blind to what's happening, are simply lethargic because it hasn't landed hard enough in their own living room.

Conclusion

As I said in the introduction, most Americans are not ignorant of our cultural collapse, but an alarming number are suffering from some level of indifference. Hopefully this diagnosis has helped some to clear up the reasons for that indifference.

Those were the words of Juvenal, a Roman satirist in the late first to early second century. The point he was making was haunting, but clear. The ruling powers of Rome knew how to entertain the people. They also knew that if they could keep the people preoccupied with consumption and entertainment, they could keep them from revolting.

Aside from God Himself, the number one source of accountability any government has is its own people. If enough of the population takes a stand against the state, the state is powerless. America’s founders understood this and embraced it. It is the heart of the second amendment. The armed public is enabled to defend itself efficiently in the event that the state trespasses where it ought not be.

The Roman Empire understood this as well. They, however, did not embrace it. They found a way to keep the people at bay. They gave them bread and circuses. If you can turn the populace into consumers and spectators, you can rule them largely unchecked. You can get away with almost anything. In fact, you can actually rule them through their entertainment and consumption.

The Roman examples of this strategy can be quite extreme, which shows just how effective this approach can be. The Roman Colosseum is still visited and applauded by the masses to this day. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. In many ways, it has even been romanticized. Think of the many movies which include a scene of a couple falling in love in Italy with the colosseum somewhere in the picture.

We so quickly forget that in that very colosseum our brothers and sisters in Christ were burned alive and forced to fight wild beasts before the gawking spectators. The masses watched as Rome extinguished countless souls for whatever reason they deemed necessary; and they were entertained.

That was Rome. America is better than that, right?

This is a good place to let you know that Andrew Isker's book, The Boniface Option, is a must read. He offers good guidance for navigating what he calls “Trashworld.” Get it here:

• The Boniface Option (*This is an affiliate link, meaning I get a small commission if you make a purchase through it).

American Bread and Circuses

With each passing generation, the influence of the minds and hearts of the populace derives more from the entertainment industry. If this were not true, then why would anyone take seriously the political rantings of celebrities and social media influencers? They are now perhaps the most influential people in our society when it comes to public opinion on political issues. In addition to this, the press has also developed an entertainment approach. Their mission is no longer informing the public. It is now grabbing and keeping the public’s attention. That creates a slippery slope from reporting to propaganda. Bread and circuses.

The branding and advertising of major companies is no longer geared toward appealing to the public to drive sales. It is now geared toward desensitizing and teaching the public to embrace ideologies. So, while you are consuming that bag of Doritos or enjoying their ads, you are also being taught that the trans pedophile they platformed is normal, and even kind of cool. Mark my words, the only reason Doritos fired that person was because the people weren’t ready. They went too far too soon. Meanwhile, Disney continues to make sure that anyone who wants to be entertained by their movies and parks has to be at least okay with viewing homosexual acts and concepts. The masses continue watching the movies and visiting the parks. Bread and circuses.

The closest abortion center to me is located less than one block from a Chik-Fil-A. It is right next to a Mattress Firm. While you are selecting your next king-size mattress and eating a good meal, there are children being brutally murdered in plain sight. Right there. On that very same block. Right where you are. It probably doesn’t even cross your mind. Why should it? Your belly is full and you will get good sleep tonight. Bread and circuses.

Every year, the most widely watched stadium event, aside from maybe the Olympics, takes place in one of our American cities. Thousands cheer from the stands at the Superbowl and millions watch it online. Friends sit around in living rooms cheering for their teams. Many churches even host watch parties (profaning, in my opinion, the Lord’s Day). The sad reality is that the Superbowl sees one of the largest increases of sex trafficking of any event. In addition to that, based on recent discoveries concerning Epstein and the elites, at least some of that trafficking could probably be tracked to some of the very people in positions of power in our nation. But we continue watching, cheering, and waving around our big foam fingers in the stands. Bread and circuses.

The Romans had the Colosseum. We have our own colosseums in cities all over this country. Wake up and see it. That’s the first step. Call it what it is. Bread and circuses.

Click below to read a practical follow up post:

Once your eyes are opened to the circus (addressed in the last post), what do you do? Here are some thoughts.

You don’t have to accept it

The culture may be trying to feed you a narrative. Everyone around you may be believing it. That doesn’t mean you have to. Wherever you see false narratives and ideologies, you can refuse to go along with it. You can refuse to expose yourself to it. Yes, that means there are things you may have to miss out on. It means you will take some losses. But the only way the leaders of the circus will give up the schtick is by the people refusing to come.

Be vocal

When people ask you why you are not watching that movie or participating in that activity, tell them. Tell them boldly.

Vote out the ringleaders

We still have a mechanism in this nation for controlling who is in power. Use it. Get yourself to that voting booth and vote for the person who is most likely to end the charade. Do not apologize to anyone for it.

Learn to disregard angry reactions and emotional manipulation

People can get mad over all sorts of things, but if you really want them to go postal, mess with their entertainment. The bread and circuses are considered sacred, but so were the idols in Judah. That didn’t stop Josiah. It shouldn’t stop us.

I highly recommend Joe Rigney’s new book for dealing with this concept:

• Leadership and Emotional Sabotage (This is an affiliate link, meaning I get a small commission if you make a purchase through it).

Reject the current wicked ecosystem and create a righteous one

Begin living according to a different norm; the norm of Scripture. If you begin walking carefully as the Scripture instructs you to, you will make waves. There will certainly be a visceral reaction. When you are walking against the crowds, there will be no end to the collisions.

Some, however, will wonder where you are going and what you see in the circus that has turned you off. Those people may not be far behind you. Every soul that follows your example is another empty seat in the tent. Every empty seat diminishes the power the circus has over the people.

Bury yourself into God’s Word

You’re going to need it. It is a double-edged sword. But it’s only useful to you if you’ve studied it and know how to use it. When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he offered Him his own version of bread and circuses. With each instance, Christ beat him back with these three words: “It is written.” You must seek to master what the Lord has written in His Word so you are prepared to beat back the enticements in the same way.

Know that you are not alone

It may seem that way, but you are one of many for whom the bread has lost its flavor and the circus is no longer entertaining (1 Kings 19).

Western society is in shambles. Everyone can see it. The foundations have been removed and the feeling of instability is palpable. Among the most important of those foundations is trust. One cannot have a high functioning society without a trusting society. And there can only be a trusting society if there is trustworthiness among its leaders and institutions. That trustworthiness is something that is sorely lacking in our day, and its importance is being exposed by the breakdown in its absence. These are some of the symptoms of a society without trust, all of which we see in our current western context.

Anxiety

We are an anxious society. Anxiety naturally arises from perceived instability and unpredictability. If you want to pinpoint where our cultural anxiety comes from, you need to find that instability.

If you ask anyone in America what the next year will bring, you are likely to receive an unstable answer. Why? Because our leaders and institutions have consistently proven by their actions that nothing is off the table in the pursuit of their aims. People are anxious because we literally have no idea what our nation is going to look like tomorrow.

Anger

A large portion of our society lives on the edge of an angry outburst. People will armchair quarterback politics for a long time, but there is a breaking point. There comes a moment when the quarterback leaves the chair and decides to do something about it. It’s a slow boil, but the resulting eruption can be disastrous for a nation. That boiling point is usually reached for the individual when the politics are creating devastating consequences in his own personal life.

For example, when he is not allowed to be at his dying mother’s side because we have to “slow the spread” of an overhyped virus. Also, when he has to bury her without a funeral because the “experts” say it’s too dangerous to be around people. And don’t forget that this person is watching his money run dry because his family’s monthly groceries are now more than his mortgage. Of course, there is also the fact that at any time he knows his sons could be forced to go die in some war overseas; a war that he doesn’t even believe in, and that he knows is corrupt. And that is not to mention the fact that his neighbors had their child removed from their custody because they refused to allow her to have gender reassignment surgery. Another person in his neighborhood was recently killed in a hit and run by an illegal immigrant.

At some point, the dam is going to break. He may or may not do the right thing. But he will do something. We have seen these breaking moments often in recent years. Riots, cities on fire, vigilante justice, violent marches, and even groups taking over police stations and turning them into neutral zones. We’ve seen all of these things in America in recent years. We are an angry culture.

Division

Division has happened in our society on both a large and small scale. There are clear national divisions. Conservative and liberal. Black and white. Straight and LGBTQ. Vaxed and unvaxed. But the worst divisions are on the smaller scale. Families, friends, communities, and even churches have been fractured over these issues. Because of our loss of trust, no one knows where we are going. That means the direction of the country is up for grabs. Therefore, there is a tug-of-war on both the national and local level in the attempt to control that direction.

What’s the Plan?

The leaders of the western world are foolish, but they are not stupid. Why would they want to drive their societies into anxiety, anger, and division? It’s simple really. In order to reshape a clay figure into something different, one must crush the figure and drive it into chaos for a time. First, society has to become anxious, angry, and divided. Then, once people are desperate enough, the leaders can produce a plan that guarantees stability, peace, and unity. Of course, this plan will ultimately give them more control and access. When a person is desperate enough for symptomatic relief, they will accept anything to that end regardless of the long-term consequences.

The first step in this process was simple. If you want to drive a culture into desperate instability, you must first remove God from it. Once God is removed, there are no remaining moral absolutes. There can’t be. The culture then plunges into moral confusion and chaos. Once this has peaked, the state is all too ready to step in as the new god, bringing its own promises for redemption and restoration. This has all happened before. Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. In 1983, the Russian historian, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, penned this reflection of the Soviet Union:

We want to be a high functioning society again. We want trust restored in our culture, leaders, and institutions. There are many steps to be taken to that end and it will not be an easy process. But the first step is basic. We need to put our culture back under submission to God. When we left that position is when the chaos began. Otherwise, the state will inevitably step in to become an imposter in that sovereign role. We will then inevitably go the way of societies like Hitler’s Germany and the Soviet Union. The state promises salvation to their people only to become their oppressor. These regimes always crumble, leaving generations to put the pieces back together.

I believe there is still time to turn the ship for our nation, but it’s running out fast. Let us use the time we have. Let us determine that we will not forget God and we will not allow the state to replace Him. Instead, we will demand that the state remember and serve Him also.

As a lifelong Southern Baptist church member, there are certain texts that have been permanently etched into my mind. Matthew 28:18-20 is certainly one of those texts. In my experience, it is the one that preachers like to whip out when their congregations aren’t evangelizing as much as they would like. Sometimes it is used to inspire a boost in baptisms across the denomination’s churches. It also has served as a motivational text to twist the arms of church members when they have failed to volunteer for the new and exciting ministry programs. I have sat in services where you can almost tangibly feel the collective eyerolls of the congregation when the preacher/speaker reveals that he is speaking on the Great Commission. They know what’s coming. They are about to be told that they are not telling people about Jesus enough. They are not inviting enough people to church.

Is that what it all boils down to? Just handing out tracts and inviting people to church?

I believe the standard modern handling of the Great Commission has been problematic. In order to address this, I would like to take a brief walk through the text. This is part one of that walk.

Drawing a Comparison

In Matthew 28:11-16, there is a comparison drawn which shows us what set apart the recipients of the commission. At first, we hear of the soldiers and the chief priests working out a complicated arrangement in order to serve their own interests. The soldiers obeyed the voice of the Jewish leaders. Their arrangement was filled with bribery, self-preservation, deceit, falsehood, and slander. This is a perfect picture of how the wicked world works. This is how the lost world pursues their goals.

After this, we are given the simple account of the disciples’ behavior. It is meant as a contrast, which is why the verse (v. 16) begins with the conjunction, “But.” The disciples obeyed the voice of Jesus. While wicked men were slandering them and spreading falsehood, they were simply obeying their Lord. This will help later with our understanding of what it means to “make disciples.” Disciples obey Jesus.

The Great Commission is entrusted exclusively to disciples. Camp there for a second. It is the practice of many modern churches to “commission” anyone who is willing. After all, ministries need volunteers and outreaches need participants. Did Jesus go around to all the towns and villages with a sign-up form asking people to participate? He gave His commission to eleven men whom He called, and who obeyed His voice.

When new converts come into our fellowship, we should not be too hasty to put them to work. Let us first train them up in obedience to Christ. It is healthy for them to be excited about their new life and to tell others about it. But it is not healthy to rush them through a spiritual gifts survey and throw them directly into a role.

This sounds odd to many evangelicals today. Many of us were raised with the assumption that the entire purpose of the Christian life is to get other people saved. If there is no more than that to the Christian life, then what could “training them up in obedience to Christ” even mean? If there is no more than that to the Christian life, then did Adam and Eve live a purposeless existence in the garden before the fall? There were no lost people to tell.

One prerequisite we should have before putting people in ministry roles is growth in Christian obedience. Of course, it takes time to cultivate that in the new convert. And, of course, every believer will continue cultivating it throughout their days.

Commissioning the Worshippers

Jesus commissioned obedient disciples. He also commissioned worshippers. Matthew 28:17 shows us the posture of the disciples right before the giving of the commission. They were worshipping Jesus. Before we challenge Christians to do something, we need to challenge them to be something. The seeker-driven environment in modern evangelicalism is filled with restless messaging. “If you’re not going on the trip, then you’re disobeying. If you’re not serving at the outreach, then you’re failing. If you’re not chasing lost people and ministry opportunities 24/7, then you’re not pleasing Christ.” And we wonder why the faithful remnant of the saints that are left today are so weary. They ran the rat race. They did what we told them to. Now they are exhausted.

It is ok for the saint to just “be” for a season. Be a disciple and a worshipper. That is enough. You don’t always have to be “doing” something. In fact, it is sometimes necessary for the weary saint to take a break from what they are doing for Christ’s kingdom in order to remember who they are in Christ the King.

Who Does the Great Commission?

This one’s important. The Great Commission was not given, in context, to every disciple of Christ at the time. If so, where was Joseph of Arimathea? Nicodemus? Where were the women? I think you get the point. Why did Jesus commission these specific eleven men? These were not just any disciples. They were soon to be the apostles of the Church, making up the foundation upon whom Christ would build His Church.

The Great Commission is the authoritative mission of Christ’s Church throughout time. Individual believers do not bare the weight of fulfilling the entire commission. Individual believers are not even expected to do everything in the commission. Otherwise, every church member would be responsible for performing baptisms.

It is the Church who does the Great Commission. Every believer, by way of being part of the Church, plays a part in it. But it should be understood that not every believer will do everything in it. Some will play their part in the more “radical” ways that have been popularized, like going on mission trips and serving in inner cities. Most will play their part by living a faithful life right where they are. In both cases, Christ is honored and His kingdom is advanced.

Modern evangelicals have hyper-individualized the Great Commission. But the Great Commission was given to the Church as a whole via the apostles. Therefore, if you are obeying Christ, worshipping Him, and taking part in the life of your local church, then you are faithfully taking part in the Great Commission.

Stay tuned for part two.

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