Church Revival Won't Happen Until...

 

I was given an assignment recently to write on the biggest obstacle facing the church over the next 20 years.

To be honest, it might not be possible to name a single biggest obstacle as there are numerous candidates. I’ve written about many of them here or spoken on them in Think Deeper or Who Let the Dogma Out? podcast episodes. Examples include theological minimalism, feminism and weak men, misunderstanding leadership, the youth dropout rate, and more.

But since that content is out there, I wanted to go in a new direction with this article.

So, for today’s purposes, the biggest obstacle facing the church is:

We have to develop a willingness to be hated.

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We have a desperate need for a turning of the tide, but we have to realize that that kind of change never comes with universal applause and adoration. In fact, it’s going to come with a heavy resistance we’re going to have to fight through.

And if we can’t get comfortable with the world and even some in our own churches thinking we are the most repugnant, backward, offensive people they’ve ever met, we’re not going to have the spine to speak the truth.

Let me be clear—I am not saying we should seek out these confrontations. We’re all familiar with that type of guy who kicks the dog until it finally bites him, giving him the martyr complex he desired all along. We should not be that person.

However, simply speaking the truth in a culture that hates the truth will get you hated. Jesus promised this to His apostles in John 15, and they proceeded to live out that reality the rest of their lives, as portrayed in the book of Acts. Even within the church, Paul had people casting him as a bad guy and had to ask them, “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16)

The resistance they met led a number of converts to either abandon Christianity and turn back to Judaism, or to develop an appeasing, compromising version of Christianity in which they could confess Jesus AND Caesar as Lord.

Our temptations are no different.

Many will see Christianity as horribly distasteful and run away, even many who have converted. Others find a way to merge Christianity with every government- and culture-approved opinion, giving them the sense of assurance they seek without ever having to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.

Many individual souls will be lost because they are not sufficiently grounded in God’s strength.

But not only does this cost us on an individual level. An unwillingness to be hated, or a refusal to be the “bad guy” costs whole churches as that’s where the doctrinal slide begins. Satan preys on the emotional threat that we’ll be disliked for taking a stand.

Consider, for a frivolous example, the participation trophies everyone loves to criticize.

One day a parent saw a kid crying after losing the big game. “He tried really hard and has nothing to show for it! Let’s get the losing team trophies, too!” At this point somebody should have said that no, the agony of defeat is the greatest motivator for trying harder and coming back better next season. All the greats suffer defeat on their way up and use it as a stepping stone.

But the dad who said that would be portrayed as the heartless opponent of the crying kid. The other parents who know he’s right aren’t going to back him because they don’t want the wrath of the shrieking accusers calling them out, too. They let him be the bad guy as they all let the bad idea win.

“What kind of parent wants to see a kid cry? Don’t you have a heart?”

This same scenario plays out culturally and within our churches over and over and over as the slide into heterodoxy and irrelevance continues.

Somebody pushes for something that everybody knows is wrong (acceptance of sin, changes in worship, changes in Biblical leadership, soft-pedaled preaching, you name it). Nobody wants to be the bad guy who tells somebody “no” and potentially drives them away. And anybody who does take that stand is abandoned by everybody who is too cowardly to stand with him or her.

Some will privately “amen” the stands, but won’t risk the cost of doing so publicly. But while private support is nice for a moment, in the end it doesn’t matter if everybody leaves you on the battlefield to fight alone.

To sum up, our biggest motivation has stopped being “What pleases God?” and became “What will keep me from being hated?”

Satan runs this play until enough people develop a backbone to draw a line in the sand. And that’s why this is our biggest obstacle in the coming years. We have to find more line-drawers who want to be right with God more than they want to be liked.

Are you willing to be the “bad guy?” If not, you’re part of the problem and not the solution.

The only way to rouse people out of their state and rouse churches and the culture out of their decline is to speak truth and call them to repentance where applicable.

Tell the world their pronouns and sexual preferences are invalid and unpleasant to God. Tell the members of your church they are fully expected to faithfully attend and get involved, and will be visited and confronted if they won’t. Get over the idea of “winsomeness” as a strategy to win over people who are opposed to God. Tell people the hard truths culture is hiding from them. Tell the men of your congregation what it looks like to lead their homes, and tell the women that “wearing the pants in the family” feminism is unpleasant to God. Be willing to say “No” to the new idea someone’s really passionate about but would detract from the church’s goals.

And when you do these things, expect backlash. Expect people to leave. And realize in that moment they’re leaving because you did something right, not something wrong.

We are to feed the sheep, not appease the wolves.

Jesus knew this when He stuck to His message and drove away thousands in John 6, and then circled back in John 10 to say that His true sheep will know His voice. And, He knew it when He did not back off a single truth though the Jewish leaders were lining up to kill Him for it.

Jesus knew how to be hated. His apostles watched and learned, and so they know how to be hated, too. The prophets before them were well-acquainted with being hated.

But every success in Israel and the church was won by those who did the right thing no matter how much it cost them. Any success we’re going to have in the coming decades will require people who are ready to be hated while they push things back to where they need to be.