New doctrine for a falling church?

Not everyone is wringing their hands about the looming “fiscal cliff” America is supposedly racing toward and may soon go tumbling over.

That’s because some just don’t believe it will be as bad as it’s made out to be. Others prophesy impending doom for our nation if something isn’t done quickly. One celebrity pastor recently stated the President “… is paving the way for the future reign of the anti-Christ.”

Many among those who are laden with consternation are “conservative Christians.” Their twitter feeds and Facebook timelines are littered with railings against the President and Congress, and are flowing with great expressions of worry. Not faith, but worry.

Such are some of the responses regarding the financial well-being of our nation.

But what about the “spiritual cliff” this country has already hurled itself over?

We’ll be anxious, worried, loud, animated, exacerbated, and demanding about our country’s fiscal condition, but we have very little concern or urgency about America rapidly becoming a “post-Christian” nation.

Oh, there are several who talk about the decline of Christianity in the U.S., but instead of doing anything about it, they are making a home of it. Pastor, theologian, and author Leonard Sweet recently posted this question on Facebook: “Has declineology become a new doctrine of establishment Protestantism?”

Discussing the decline of the church is now en vogue. It’s a topic at a variety of conferences, new books are flowing off the presses about the subject, and social media is trending on the issue. But that’s the problem: we’re just discussing it, wringing our hands about it, and pointing fingers over it. Few are doing anything productive about it.

Some are trying to respond intelligently with biblical guidance. Fans of celebrity preacher Francis Chan try to track what he’s doing going door-to-door in San Francisco’s tenderloin district to tell people about Jesus in an effort to make disciples. Chan has joined forces with another celebrity pastor, Dr. David Platt (author of the best-selling book “Radical”), for the Multiply Movement (the website is http://www.multiplymovement.com/). Others are making efforts to do more than engage in “declineology.”

Like the church I visited with yesterday.

It’s not a big church, less than 200 people. But it is growing spiritually and numerically, and it’s leaders are passionate about making disciples. That’s why some of it’s leaders spent yesterday together praying and seeking the Lord’s direction on new steps for discipleship. This group of disciples are examining themselves regarding their efforts of making disciple-making disciples. They will be back at it again next week to pray and plan further regarding how they can better be a church that makes new disciples, and disciple those new disciples to be disciple-makers.

There’s our hope.

When the local church returns to the purpose Jesus Christ gave it — that of making disciples — then we have real hope of surviving our plummet over the spiritual cliff.

Are you a disciple maker? Is your local church a congregation of Ambassadors for Christ who are making disciple-making disciples? Or are you engaged in declineology?

Scotty