We are all familiar with this old saying when someone is said to be “fiddling while Rome is burning” which refers to the Roman Emperor Neo who by some accounts went to his tower and played a harp or lyre while Rome was burning. The phrase is used of one who is said “to occupy oneself with unimportant matters and neglect priorities during a crisis.” I assert that this is what many in the evangelical movement is doing today. Stay with me a moment while I explain.
Even a casual observer would have to acknowledge that our world and America in particular is changing and changing fast. While the politics of today fits into the changing story we are all living through it is more significant what is taking place in the Christian community. In nearly every aspect of life America has entered uncharted waters, at least for her, because other nations have passed this way before and the price on individual freedom and liberty has been high. The seeming demise of our free capitalist society, a shift in spite of our constitution from a representative and balanced government to a strong central and authoritarian type of government will both have profound impact on our freedoms personally and in the church to fulfill our mission. The high profile entertainment driven churches are rapidly changing and weakening our effectiveness in ministry. I have served the Lord for over forty years and do not recall a time when so many churches have been so irrelevant. This is happening while these churches are trying so hard to be relevant by acting more and more like the world that they are having exactly the opposite effect on their witness. Our discipleship and educational ministries are becoming less Biblical centered as we minimize our study of the Word. What I am saying is that all this is going on around the church and very much within the church community and yet there doesn’t seem to be a voiced sense of urgency. If our nation continues down the track we appear to have adopted the freedom to witness and seek to influence our societies values will be greatly hindered if not prohibited. There is likely to be less and less freedom to share the gospel in our politically correct world and more and more persecution for those who stand firm and true to God’s Word.
Recently I read an article entitled The Coming Evangelical Collapse by Michael Spencer. I do not know nor at this writing have I checked more into Mr. Spencer but in this article he nails some sad but true observations and makes some frightening projections for the church. From the perspective on CAMA and our mission to keep the Bible central in teaching and preaching let me share a couple. One very troubling but true observation is that “We Evangelical shave failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox from of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught.” Another is that “Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.” These two statements alone spell deep trouble for the church in the uncertain age we are embarking upon. The church must accept full responsibility for the failure to pass on to our own children our values and core doctrines of the faith. I submit that it is because we focused so much on the wrong things and let our own children and new Christians grow without correctly discipling them. Hence, these are a few thoughts on why I say the church has been fiddling while Rome is burning.
We will explore more of this subject in future blogs but for now let me close by saying God is not limited and He is able to rescue His church at anytime and will do so when He sees the purpose to do so. We are to be faithful in our ministry to others and blessable through obedience to God. If we do so He will use us and bless us whatever the circumstance we find ourselves in.
