Culture vs. the Church

     Why is the church declining in the 21st century instead of growing? Is the message of the gospel no longer relevant to today's society? These are both interesting questions that must be addressed for the church to continue with it's existence in this day and age. To be clear, the church may shrink but it will never go away. Jesus declared that, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18 ESV) As long as there believers who believe in an recognize the Son of God there will be a church. The issue then is the decline of those who recognize Jesus. Sure there are many who can identify Him as well as go to church but there is a decline in those who have had the revelation of who Jesus is by God.
     This decline has led to the decline of the church in the 21st century due to the culture of society being embraced by those who attempt to become a part of the church. The message of the gospel has never become irrelevant but it is those who try to be on both sides of the fence. To truly be the church one must let go of the influence of the culture to embrace the culture of the Kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul declared, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:1–2 ESV)
     For the church to maintain it's identity it is important for it to strive to change to where it reflects the nature of Christ and embrace Kingdom thinking. When this begins to take place, those who are part of the modern culture can see the message of the gospel in effect by the lives of those in the church being changed. That means that the gospel message is about transformation of our minds so that we can be a part of the Kingdom of God. As assimilation must take place for immigrants to fully integrate into a new country assimilation must also take place for Christians to be the church. The church will always stand and the gospel message will always be relevant. The question is will the church fully assimilate into the Kingdom of God or will it continue to straddle the fence?

Real Faith

What is faith? Most look at faith as believing God for a desired outcome to a problem or for something you want. This is the farthest thing from the truth. Faith is simply believing that God exist and that you trust and rely on Him to do what He said. Life was never promised to be one of pure comfort but it has some adversity mixed in. Learning to trust and rely on God in all situations is a challenging thing to do but if you are willing to take the challenge, you will not disappointed. First, you must know what God said in order to take Him at His word.