I propose that where East Africa is under a stronghold of poverty, America is under a stronghold of distraction brought on by a need for self-entertainment, mainly through technology.
This self-entertainment is search for happiness that can only be found in God. The former craze for Harry Potter was a craving for the supernatural, which God has naturally put in the heart of everyone. I mean, Jesus Christ, is the most supernatural being in the universe. Hello!
In part, the church has failed to demonstrate this to America. I am guilty myself.
Wherever I preach, I see that the unchurched are more anxious to see the authentic Christ, than what the church is to demonstrate Him.
Many times, we, the church think that it’s an “us against them” war.
We think that the unchurched is our enemy, and we cower into our Christian ghetto, playing our Christianeeze lingo and delving into Christianeeze activities.
The church feels that it has to protect and isolate itself from the onslaught of the unchurched. I found this to be a lie. The onslaught is we and our imagined fears.
Many might not want the religious Christ, or the Christianezze expressions, but when you present Christ and yourself in an authentic and loving way, everybody wants to listen to what you say you have.
Mostly everyone wants a blessing, a prayer, a word of prophecy, and all want to be heard.
Many don’t understand Christ, but most are searching to connect, to witness authenticity, to relate with whole and happy people, and see the power and glory of God.
If I am not ashamed of Christ, I encounter very little rejection. People are drawn to bold and unashamed people.
The church has become a Christian ghetto and God wants us to leave it and go to the harvest field which is white unto the harvest.
We Christians needs to be so God absorbed, so God impassioned, healed, and liberated, that Christ becomes excessive through our lives, drawing people to Him. He is the most lovely and delightful of all Beings! If people would only know. That’s the job of the church, to present Him as all-powerful, wonderful, and charming.
Rom 8:19 For the creation ( America) waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.
I propose to the church then, that America is aching to see the reality of the resurrected and all-powerful, all magnificent, and all beautiful Christ Jesus through the life of the believer. Unless, we the church become intently fixated upon God, engrossed and obsessed with Him, this will not happen. The price of having Christ magnified, liberated, and resurrected through our lives, will cost the Christian everything. It’s the hardest thing, but equally the most amazingly fantastic.
Who will step up to the plate and do this, when humanity has so very, very, few good leaders to emulate and such a desperation for good role models, Christ Jesus being the ultimate one.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 