those golden days of optimism. Not a
chance. Peter didn’t have to deal with
the secular media. Or Hollywood. Or
the LGBT agenda.
Instead, they’re praying that Christ
would return within the hour and save
them from the evil around them so that
their troubles would be left behind.
They might not get out much and
engage with their neighbors in need of
saving, but they will for sure mobilize
to get to the voting booths. That’s our
last stand.
But how will the recovery of something
we already know take us to places
we’ve never been? After all, isn’t the
proverbial definition of insanity doing
the same things over and over again
and expecting different results? For
this reason, we’re tempted to think
we need something new. We need
something to change. We need a
different method.
Isn’t the real issue that we haven’t
mastered the new media of our hyper-
technological age? Or that we need to
update our politics to fit the twenty-
first century?
Maybe it’s a leadership crisis. After all,
everything rises and falls on leadership!
If seminaries would just train pastors
to be better leaders, to staff to their
weaknesses, to get more in touch with
culture, and to understand and utilize
their enneagram number, our churches
would grow again. Right?
Sure—they might.
But with what type of growth?
Go into these churches and ask the
faithful attenders how a person can be
saved and you will likely get a biblically
reliable answer. They know the Sunday
School answer is Jesus. Ask them to
explain the gospel and they’ll likely
be two for two. This makes things
interesting, because I believe what the
church—you and me—needs most in
our present time is a recovery of the
gospel.
46 • Solutions
All of these issues are important and
deserve discussion, of course. But I
contend that what we really need isn’t
anything new.
Jesus said his gospel—the events of
God the Son coming to earth, living
the life that we were supposed to
live, dying the death that we were
condemned to die, and rising from