We live in challenging times and the days ahead will be no easier. For me, the particular concern at hand is the globalization of Islam and its exponential growth worldwide. By the time I am 67, just 28 more years, it is projected the global Muslim population will equal the global Christian population.
The post COVID world of 2022 looks different than the world of 2019 and by 2050, the skylines of small towns across the US will have minarets competing with steeples. Is this a cause for concern or an opportunity?
In my mind, it is both. God is bringing Muslims to the US in droves providing opportunities for the Gospel that have never been seen in the history. We have an amazing opportunity to point Muslims and others to the only Savior of humanity, Jesus Christ. On the other hand, the growing influence of the religio-political system of Islam will provide unique challenges in the realms of education, government, and the fabric of our society.
Yet, beyond the challenge of Islam, I believe one of the greatest issues affecting the future of the Church revolves around the integration, or lack of integration, between the mind and the heart, between knowledge and piety, and between thinking and doing.
Having ministered and lived out the faith in several Evangelical churches here in the US, I have benefited from the Church’s focus on loving Christ, talking to God in prayer, and reading the Scriptures. Our relationship with Christ is priority and central which is what piety is all about and such piety drives the direction of our lives.
However, what seems to generally be lacking is a resolve to use the mind to deeply think upon the critical issues of our day and formulate intelligent, biblical responses. Responses to issues such as totalitarianism, government control, the claim that ‘gender’ is socially constructed, the rise and influence of Postmodern Theories such as Colonial Theory, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, and in my case, the global influence of Islam. It is not that the Church does not respond in some way to these issues but the responses are usually lacking and superficial, that is, a form of protest without good reasons.
To be clear, my challenge to the Church in 2022 is to THINK and to use its mind and time to investigate these critical issues by study, reading, and comparing what these issues teach with what the Bible teaches. Who is up to such a task?
May the next 100 years be filled with Christ loving, praying, Bible reading Christians who are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ! AND, may the Church be a thinking people who lead their cities and communities to respond to our ever-changing culture with the never changing truth of Scripture.
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