{"id":4560,"date":"2025-04-17T09:13:42","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4560"},"modified":"2025-04-17T09:13:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T13:13:42","slug":"where-do-we-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/17\/where-do-we-go-from-here\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Do We Go From Here?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0<\/em>

The sneaky thing about history is that it\u2019s always happening.

It may feel entirely safe to curl up in a comfortable chair with a good book that describes the heroes and villains of the past \u2013 the men and women whose wisdom or foolishness, courage or cowardice, faith or faithlessness, made all the difference in the shaping of our world.

But as soon as we close that book, we\u2019re faced with the reality that the Great Play isn\u2019t over.

We\u2019re the ones who are now on the stage, called to say our few lines and required to play our small parts, even if we\u2019re quite uncertain where the story is supposed to go next. Only the Director knows for sure.

What we do know is that this is a compelling moment. Regardless of our political convictions, we can all know we\u2019re alive during a time in which the foundations of American life are being seriously shaken.

Will these changes bring about greater happiness, greater turbulence, or something in between? Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping was once asked about the impact of the French revolution (1789-1815). He memorably replied, \u201cIt is too soon to say.\u201d

Likewise, those who trust that God alone rules the cosmos are free to take the long view of things.

But what about the present moment? As our Lenten series comes to an end, what does it mean to be faithful at this hinge point in history? \u00a0

It can safely be said that modernity (and its close cousin, secularism) remains Christianity\u2019s greatest challenge. Modernity has brought incredible blessings. It\u2019s hard to imagine the average church without indoor plumbing, electric lights, and printed bulletins. Instead of merely reciting Andy and Red\u2019s conversation about hope in the movie The Shawshank Redemption<\/em>, the preacher can press a button and show the film clip on a big screen. That\u2019s powerful.

Years ago I saw a poll that asked church attenders, \u201cWhat would you rather have \u2013 an interesting sermon or air conditioning?\u201d Eighty percent chose air conditioning. Having experienced the blessings of modernity, it\u2019s not easy to let them go.

But modernity has also inflicted grievous wounds on Christianity.

It\u2019s hard to live in a modern culture and not be seduced by its emphasis on impressions instead of substance. Secular societies tend to over-value speed and efficiency. Noise crowds out the kind of quiet contemplation that is crucial for spiritual growth. Modernity is confident that success can always be measured \u2013 it can\u2019t \u2013 and acts as if reality can usually be reduced to a set of principles \u2013 a bankrupt idea if there ever was one.

Most challenging of all, the modern West has concluded that believing in God is now entirely optional. Multiple versions of the Good Life compete in the marketplace of ideas, and belief in an invisible world is no longer required to pursue truth, meaning, relationships, sexual fulfillment, or purpose in life.

Christendom, in other words, is so far gone you can\u2019t even see it in the rear view mirror.

How should followers of Jesus respond to a culture that seems increasingly secularized? History suggests there are four options.

Withdraw<\/strong>. This was the choice of the Desert Fathers in the third and fourth centuries after Christ. Men and women seeking spiritual integrity retreated to the wilderness in order to avoid the pollution of a sinful world. For a long while, withdrawal was also the choice of most American fundamentalists. Just 20 years ago, a movement called Christian Exodus attempted to take over the state of South Carolina, one town at a time, until a critical mass of voters could approve seceding from the Union. The state would then have become a separate Christian nation.

Withdrawal always sounds redemptive until it\u2019s actually tried. There\u2019s a reason Jesus calls his disciples in John 17 to stay in the world, not abandon it.

Compromise<\/strong>. If we can\u2019t beat them, we can always join them \u2013 or at least modify our beliefs and lower our expectations. This was the pathway of many mainline Protestants in the 20th<\/sup> century. Denominational leaders discarded the uniqueness of Jesus and demystified the Bible.

Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr aptly summarized this revised Gospel: \u201cA God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.\u201d Unsurprisingly, mainline Protestants have been steadily declining in number since the 1960s.

Dominate<\/strong>. This was strategy of the medieval church. Christians, for the good of society, should exert temporal power. An updated version in America might be legislate. <\/em>Those on the Left or the Right should elect enough of their own tribe to ensure that the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, and 50 statehouses pass and enforce laws that mandate compliance with their perspectives on every aspect of human life.

Suffice it to say that current efforts to live out this option have not endeared most people to Christianity.

Jesus may still be popular. But those attempting politics in his name have not inspired admiration.

Why is there so much pain and polarization in a culture that used to cherish at least a marginal respect for the religion associated with Christ? \u00a0

In his 2011 book Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em>, journalist Ross Douthat suggests that what used to be a vibrant Center of institutional Christianity \u2013 both Catholic and Protestant \u2013 has now become weak and fractured. Christians gradually stopped believing in the basics of the Apostles Creed, or never learned those basics in the first place.

That\u2019s why Oprah Winfrey can look like a spiritual giant by promoting self-help books, and why film director James Cameron can make a splash by announcing the discovery of the bones of Jesus \u2013 a claim quickly dismissed by every archeologist on the planet. When the Center is weak and fails to hold, fringe religious options begin to look normal.

That leaves us with the fourth option in responding to our modern, secularized culture. Where do we go from here?

We Live Faithfully as Resident Aliens<\/strong>. We take seriously, in other words, the fact that we have dual citizenship. As God\u2019s daughters and sons, we belong to this world. We must not abandon it, make compromises with its frailties, or try to control everything that happens. If the history of Christianity has taught us anything, it\u2019s that each of these strategies is seriously flawed.

But because of our trust in Jesus, we carry another passport. We are members of a kingdom that can only be found (at least for now) in human hearts. The New Testament describes this reality as living in<\/u><\/em> the world while not being of<\/u><\/em> the world.

With God\u2019s help, we can choose to have a visionary identity<\/em> \u2013 serving the God who is actively working to heal this broken world \u2013 rather than a reactionary identity <\/em>\u2013 trying to reclaim some version of the past that can never again become the present.

Do Christians need a voice<\/em> to help call people to life with Jesus in our culture? Yes.

But do we need to recreate a favored status<\/em> in order to make that happen? We do not \u2013 for the simple reason that we already have everything we need.

At the height of the Reformation, Martin Luther was moved by the opening verses of Psalm 46: \u201cGod is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.\u201d

Was there a way for his congregation to sing those truths?

Luther ultimately penned one of history\u2019s most famous hymns, \u201cA Mighty Fortress is Our God.\u201d

As you reflect on the turning points in your own history \u2013 the ones that lie behind and whatever ones still lie ahead \u2013 may God remind you who has always given you the strength and security to face every one of them.

All along, it\u2019s been Him.<\/em>
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0 The sneaky thing about history is that it\u2019s always happening. It may feel entirely safe to curl up in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[884,300],"class_list":["post-4560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-history","tag-modernism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4562,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions\/4562"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}