It seems to me that people in America are uneasy about the future of the Republic; I keep hearing this expressed in the media as well as by friends and family.  This morning, on a local radio show out of Davenport, IA the two hosts were agreeing that the country is going the wrong way.  I only mention this because normally they just argue; one is liberal the other conservative, yet on this they agree.

I had a long conversation with a dear friend yesterday in which he expressed his very gloomy outlook for the future in this country, and I had to agree with the things he cited as examples.  His views ran primarily in the political direction, and his concerns centered around the fact there doesn’t seem to be any leaders who are waiting to step up and turn things around. Who would argue that leaders are abundant these days?  Nobody I know, and I haven’t heard anybody in the media making that case either.

Our culture is in decline, so are many of our institutions.  Our economic outlook isn’t very good, and our political situation would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

Root Causes

Unlike the people I’ve been talking to and hearing in the media, I don’t think we really lack political leaders, nor do I really think there is some kind of conspiracy lurking out there in the shadows somewhere; I think our problems have an entirely different root cause.

I have this crazy idea that the root cause of our national problems (and this may well apply to other countries) is something that plagued the ancient Israelites too.  You see, in the Old Testament, whenever the people of Israel strayed from God’s ways, He sent them wicked leaders.  Their cultural, moral and political problems all came from their spiritual sickness.  If they followed God, things went well.  If they turned away from Him (spiritual sickness) things went badly. Now that I’ve said that, please don’t go wild on me, because I’m not suggesting that God is wreaking divine vengeance upon us all over the place!  What I am pointing out is that when a Nation turns its back on God and His righteousness, bad developments occur because people behave badly. In the case of Israel, God sent them wicked leaders, and the situation became so obvious that people often repented and returned to Him.

So what’s the cure?

The cure is actually very simple, or so it appears to me.  It is so simple that very few people see it…

As Christians, who live under the New Covenant that our Lord established by the shedding of His blood, we have certain covenant imperatives. A covenant imperative is an academic way of saying that we are commanded by God to do something.  The covenant imperatives of the New Covenant all revolve around one simple command which is the command to make disciples.  Making disciples has two sides to it.  First is bringing people into relationship with Jesus Christ, and second is teaching them to become His disciples… and what do His disciples do?  They make even more disciples!

How long has it been since the church as a whole has done this effectively in the United States?  (Those of you in other countries might want to ask this question about your own country)  We know one thing for sure, the American church lost about half of the baby-boom generation, and subsequently things haven’t improved.  During this time, the influence of the Judeo-Christian view of life has diminished to the point that it is almost a joke in popular culture.  There is no coincidence to the fact that during this same period of time, everything has been slipping in American society.

Therefore, I have a question that I hope everyone will prayerfully consider:

What are you deliberately going to do today to make disciples?

And tomorrow, the next day, next week, next month…?

That is the cure for cultural, economic, and political decay. There’s lots of work to do, so let’s all get busy!