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For the past several decades, American mainstream Christianity has been undergoing significant change. Many churchgoers are troubled and bewildered by what they see—commercialization, political infighting, corruption and abuse, watered-down doctrines, ineffectiveness. Increasingly, the corporate church is seen as irrelevant in today’s complex world. Moreover, young people in particularly are turning away from church in record numbers.
Why is this? What is happening in our churches?
In her book Quitting Church, Julia Duin argues that “something is not right with church life” today. She says that modern churchgoers are increasingly disappointed by what they consider to be a lack of genuine spirituality. “The problem seems to be the church itself…. [People] have given up on the institution” (p. 18). Duin argues that organized religion has become dysfunctional, that its role in the lives of believers lacks focus. Today’s church seems focused on culture—fads, creative marketing and “packaging.” Worship services often border on entertainment. Then there are the turf battles, splits and schisms—and the liberalized teachings. While many churchgoers are oblivious to what’s happening in the mainstream church, Duin writes that there are those Christians who simply want a “return to a faith that is authentic, relevant and applicable” to modern life (p. 20). Meanwhile, there is a steady decline in church attendance. Churchgoers are beginning to look elsewhere—and they are finding God outside the church.
In particular, many churchgoers are hungry for truth. Instead, they are bored each week with lifeless sermons and watered-down teachings. Dismayed, they watch as the truth of the Bible is slowly but surely subverted. American churchgoers are now facing what the church in England has long been subject to—liberalism. Back in 1993, The Prophetic Observer, a fundamentalist evangelical publication, warned of this growing trend:
“The [Protestant] church in America is under attack! The source of this attack is not primarily humanism, secularism, or agnosticism from without, but liberalism from within. Liberalism within the church is eating away at the core of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. Christianity in America today is facing the same ‘downgrade’ that the church in England faced 100 years ago in the days of [the renowned evangelist] Charles Spurgeon.
“Spurgeon said: ‘We live in perilous times. We are passing through a most eventful period; the Christian world is convulsed; there is a mighty upheaval of the old foundations of faith; a great overhauling of old teaching. The Bible is made to speak today in a language which to our fathers would be an unknown tongue. Gospel teachings, the proclamation of which made men fear to sin and dread the thought of eternity, are being shelved. Calvary is being robbed of its glory, sin of its horror, and we are said to be evolving into a reign of vigorous and blessed sentimentality, in which heaven and earth, God and man are to become a heap of sensational emotions; but in the process of [this] evolution, is not the power of the gospel weakened? Are not our chapels emptying? Is there not growing up among men a greater indifference to the claims of Christ? Are not the theories of evolution retrogressive in their effect upon the age? Where is the fiery zeal for the salvation of men which marked the nonconformity of the past? Where is the noble enthusiasm that made heroes and martyrs for the truth? Where is the force which carried nonconformity forward like a mighty avalanche? Alas, where?’
“If something is not done to stem the tide, the [growing] wave of liberalism will engulf our nation as it did England at the end of the last century” (Published by Southwest Radio Church, Oklahoma City; November 1993; emphasis added).
Indeed, England has been reduced from the leader of the greatest empire in modern times to a nation dying of moral deprivation—because God has been systematically eliminated not only from all public affairs, but from the church as well. America, it seems, is not far behind.
Satan the devil—who is busy deceiving the entire world (Rev 12:9)—is quite subtle and clever in his attack against Christianity. Working from within, his “ministers” appear as “ministers of righteousness” (II Cor. 11:15). Yet, many teach liberalized (if not outright paganized) doctrines that lull churchgoers into a spiritual stupor.
As a Christian, you need to wake up and take note of what is now taking place within mainstream Christianity. Are you concerned about the spiritual apathy and malaise that seems to have taken root in the church? Is your church failing to meet your family’s spiritual needs? Are you starving for real biblical understanding? Are you wondering, “Where is the love of God?”
If so, this book is for you. Lord, What Should I Do? addresses these timely issues, emphasizing how Christians can and must defend themselves and their families against the forces of evil that would destroy the truth of God. Moreover, this book points the way for churchgoers looking for alternatives to the one-size-fits-all corporate church experience.
