I will admit it, I have stunk at blogging this year. In previous years I have had a drive to communicate my ideas and thoughts from scripture, but this year I have dreaded my time writing to wesfaulk.com.
I think the key reason for my lack of zeal in blogging has been an emotional exhaustion towards the blog itself. I would study scripture, meditate and write what I thought was a creative doctrinally sound piece only to have it argued over online by those who saw scripture differently than I do. The work of writing and defending an idea week after week wore me down to the point that I grew a certain amount of disdain for my blog. It just became an exercise in futility to me. What wore on me most of all was that I was’t out on a ledge in what I communicated or said. I simply communicated what scripture plainly said and tried to illustrate it with a story of some sort.
At least I thought I was standing in the truth.
The most recent PEW research study showed that the American church is in rapid decline, or at least thats what the headlines read. Once you looked a bit deeper though, it was startling to see that scripturally fundamental churches weren’t in decline. What is shown is that nominal believers and liberal churches are growing farther and farther from their more conservative counterparts.
AHA!
I wasn’t crazy. The friction I felt from people on my blog wasn’t that I was off, but instead was a symptom of what is happening now in America. Much like a snake shedding its skin, the church is growing away from those who are no longer are connected to its core. It is seeing churches and people fall away who no longer believe in the authority of scripture.
What has prompted this post was my study for this weeks sermon. In the sixth chapter of his first letter to Timothy, Paul describes two kinds of teaching in the church. The first was teaching that led people towards the service of God seen in godliness. The second is of a selfish approach to church that led people to “a craving for controversy” and a “godliness as a means of gain”.
Perhaps this is a picture of the road the American church is walking today. In a day when Christianity is no longer the expected culture, churches have been faced with one of 2 choices. They can hold to scripture, lead people against the grain of culture to pursue godliness or they can continue to dilute the church away from its core.
As I get the opportunity to pastor the church of God, I will to the best of my strength lead it to follow Christ and pursue godliness. As to my blog, I have no clue what the future holds. Thanks for reading.
