Christian. What does it mean? Many in America would state it as being religious, or believing in God, but are they truly saved? Are they God's disciples? With the increase of secular views instituted at every corner, one viewing America from the outside would hardly associate it with a Christian background. So the question is, what can we do?
Everything within this world is here because God planned it so. His authority over our lives helps to guide us. With this increase of secular views, there must be a reason why it is so. The trials God presents to us each and every day can bring us closer to Him, if we lean on Him through it all. If, during this new period for us Christian Americans, we depend upon God and let Him show through us each and every day, we too can thrive despite our numbers and the attacks.
One of the issues today I think is that the church tries to appeal to the world. Worship has definitely changed over the years from "traditional" to "contemporary". The bigger churches can use numbers and statistics to their advantage to draw more people in. However, in the more colonial period to the Great Awakening, churches were not used as much to draw people in. Some churches would only allow you to attend if you were already Christian, making the point of the church different from today's. The way to draw people to Christ then was through the people, living distinctively different lives, and being open about why they were different, and through that strike a longing in some peoples' hearts to "be different" too. The secularism of the church today now almost defeats the purpose of living differently to some who are not Christian. Yes, for some, it will draw them in to later be saved, but others see that if the church is conforming to the ways of the "popular", what makes Christianity so special? If it is just like attending a concert, or the preacher waters down the Bible to make it less offensive, it isn't showing the true distinctiveness the church really has from the world.
As Christians, our purpose is to serve God, and bring others to Him. As Americans, our purpose is to demonstrate love and no abuse of our freedoms, and to uphold our government despite whether or not we agree. With the church conforming, we lose some of our purpose as Christians, and our American side is "boosted" as we are now "equal with" everyone else. To really thrive as a religion under attack, we must demonstrate the truth, and be distinct so others can see why we're different, just as before. The relationship aspect of our religion binds us all together as brothers and sisters, a close knit family, and we can use this to show secular America and the world why they would want to be close to God as we are. Battle on, I'd say, by using God and showing His truth, without conforming to the world to make Christianity "appealing". Show the pure Lord and His pure word, however offensive or harsh it might be to some (because you can't always please everyone), because it is truth, and it needs to be heard. We shouldn't camouflage our Christianity in the world's disguise, show it and say it, and they will come.
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