Has the Culture Influenced a Spiritually Ignorant Generation?

In an article entitled "Evangelical Christian Leaders Fear Teen Believers Abandoning their Faith", Laurie Goodstein writes, 

"Despite their packed mega churches, their political clout, and increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.  

"If current trends continue only 4 percent of teenagers will be Bible-believing Christians as adults. While some critics say that the statistics are grossly exaggerated, there is widespread consensus among evangelical leaders that they risk losing their teenagers."

Barna Group Says "The Nature of Churchgoing is Changing"

"While tens of millions of Americans attend church each weekend, the practice has declined in recent years. According to our 2014 tracking data, overall church attendance has dipped from 43% in 2004 to 36% today. But beyond a dip in attendance numbers, the nature of churchgoing is changing" states the Barna Group. 

"Regular attenders used to be people who went to church three or more weekends each month—or even several times a week. Now people who show up once every four to six weeks consider themselves regular churchgoers."

Liena's Prayer: Counting the Cost In Syria

Liena's children counted the cost to follow Jesus

This past week I was struggling with discouragement. I don't believe it is merely coincidental that personal trials become complex when we shift our gaze off of Christ. It's easy to blow things out of proportion and minimize how self-centered our struggles really are.   

I found my wakeup call through the testimony of a woman in Syria. Liena and her family turned down offers of asylum in Western countries after civil war broke out in Syria. They knew the cost that might be required, but they chose to remain as witnesses to their Muslim neighbors and as an encouragement to other Christians.

Contrary to Osteen's Humanistic Message, Bonhoeffer Calls Us to Die to Self

Deep within us there rages a battle to be like God. This self-made image in our hearts begs to be identified as master and lord of our universe. The flesh wants life to revolve around itself, Not Christ. But Bonhoeffer begs the Christian to realize, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Victoria Osteen's message justifies my natural fleshly desires: "Just do good for your own self. Do good because God wants you to be happy. When you come to church, when you worship Him, you’re not doing it for God really. You’re doing it for yourself." 

At the very core of her message is a humanistic philosophy.

Victoria Osteen Preaches, "We're Not Doing it For God. We're doing it For Ourselves"

According to Victoria Osteen, wife of megachurch speaker and author Joel Osteen, “I just want to encourage every one of us to realize when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God—I mean, that’s one way to look at it—we’re doing it for ourselves, because God takes pleasure when we’re happy,” she declares in the undated 36-second clip with her husband standing by her side and nodding. “That’s the thing that gives Him the greatest joy…” 

Her sermon has gone viral as the Christian community protests its humanistic and scripturally antithetical message. 

Experiencing Rest in a Time of Busyness

"When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk. The challenge is not merely to make a few bad habits go away. The challenge is to not let our spiritual lives slip away." -Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem

My life is crazy busy. 

I wake up at 5:00am every morning and work 8-10 hours a day.  

When I'm not sleeping or working, I'm squeezing time in my day for my family, talk to my boyfriend at night, and meeting up with friends for early morning coffee chats. 

Three Reasons to Choose Your Resolutions Carefully

"I said to a man who stood at the gate of the year: 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown'; and he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way!'" (quoting from a poem by M. L. Harkins)

It's January 5th. Assumedly most of you have already created your New Year's resolution list. Your resolve is high and it feels good to practice new disciplines and meet new goals...but what happens to that resolve by the end of the year? Why are we so quick to create a list of good things, only to fail by December 31st?