See, attitudes toward God have even changed in our culture. A few years ago, there was an article in The Atlantic. The writer talked about how someone asked him about his religion.
He was about to respond and say that he was an atheist, but he stopped himself. He said, “I used to call myself an atheist. And I still don’t believe in God, but the larger truth is that it’s been years since I really cared one way or the other.” In that moment, something struck him, “I was an apatheist. Meaning, I was apathetic toward the question. I don’t really care about the question of God.”
See, for the first time in history, our culture has the luxury of not caring about this question and getting away with it. It’s called the Gravedigger Effect.
We have done so well in the west we can just sit at Starbucks, sip our latte as an educated person, and just philosophize about ideas. You don’t have to deal with questions about things like God, meaning, origins, morality, and destiny.
Here’s the point. As church leaders, we have to think like missionaries into this different world. We are literally dealing with cross-cultural missionary thinking.
Another thing about our culture is that our private worlds are in crisis. Things like anxiety, loneliness, bullying, addictions, and obesity are on the rise. Life expectancy is declining.
What does the church do about this state of the soul in the western world? We have to really believe, and then properly communicate, that the answer is Jesus. The answer is life in the Spirit. The answer is the gospel.
See, this is the posture the church needs to take: a Spirit-led mission that’s not just trying to save people from bad doctrine, but also trying to save them from the problem of their souls.
We’re trying to help people with the things that make them not want to wake up in the morning. People have no idea how to face the day. This is what the gospel actually answers, and the church has to be able to live it out so the world can see it.
