No Longer Self Evident: Are We More American Than Christian?

As we conclude this podcast companion, we look toward the future and how we recover our distinction of being Christian more than American. We will need to have new leaders, new models, and a renewed focus emerge if this is going to happen.

One of the greatest challenges for the modern American church is defining spiritual growth. For too long we’ve made it about our comfort and not our calling, and about knowing about God rather than knowing God. We must return to the basic relationships of a Gospel community if we want to truly grow spiritually and not just numerically.

Here’s a difficult truth Jesus teaches us: We can say the right things with our mouths, and do the religious things with our actions, and yet still lose our souls. It’s about where our treasure is - and we must determine if our soul’s treasure is in the American dream or in God’s eternal purposes.

We see the kingdom of God consistently break into our world in the small places. Small is significant to the God who came as a baby in a small town to a small tribe. The spiritual significance of small should not be overlooked for the cultural relevance of big.

Missionaries that go overseas do ministry differently than most American churches. One big reason is they don’t view the country they are in as a Christian nation. Another is they certainly don’t spend money the same way we do. So why don’t we do ministry like missionaries do when that’s what Scriptures tell us we are?

Too many times Christians live our lives in insular ways. We can find ourselves in a “church bubble” - especially as leaders. But it should be quite the opposite. Our example is of course Jesus, who did his most significant ministry outside of the religious settings of his day.

Cultural Christianity is almost dead. Next, Celebrity Christianity needs to die. We’ve created a church culture that celebrates the stage while Jesus celebrates sacrifice. We must make a change.

Jesus and Jonah. Both used by God to accomplish his purposes. But one willingly embraces God’s love for others. And the other begrudgingly does what God wants. Which one do we typically look like?