{"id":28133,"date":"2020-11-15T16:38:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T21:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/?p=28133"},"modified":"2020-11-15T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-15T21:57:09","slug":"17-reasons-american-pastors-and-church-leaders-are-asking-and-answering-all-the-wrong-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/2020\/11\/15\/17-reasons-american-pastors-and-church-leaders-are-asking-and-answering-all-the-wrong-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"17 Reasons American Pastors And Church Leaders Are Asking AND Answering All The Wrong Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Pastors and church leaders are\u00a0currently\u00a0asking AND answering all the wrong questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Racial tension. \u00a0How much emphasis do you put on digital vs online audiences? \u00a0Biden or Trump. \u00a0Masks or No Masks. \u00a0Hand sanitizer. \u00a0Disinfectant machines. \u00a0Opening vs closings. \u00a0Trying to be part of the solution and not the problem by cooperating with the government. \u00a0What are the schools doing? \u00a0Immigration. \u00a0Education.<\/p>\n<p>These are the questions pastors and church leaders are <em>consumed<\/em> with. \u00a0While each must and should be addressed, the amount of time and energy dedicated to these problems is excessive and unhealthy in light of the real problem pastors and church leaders are dealing with. \u00a0Ironically, dealing with the real problem will be the solution to those issues.<\/p>\n<p>This problem facing the American church, one which if not dealt with, will lead it into complete irrelevance.<\/p>\n<h2>October Barna Study<\/h2>\n<p>On October 8th, <a href=\"https:\/\/churchleaders.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ChurchLeaders.com<\/a> posted a recent Barna study entitled <a href=\"https:\/\/churchleaders.com\/news\/383605-george-barna-another-reformation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Barna: We\u2019re Experiencing Another Reformation, and Not in a Good Way<\/a>. \u00a0The results were not just alarming, they were frightening. \u00a0In a study of evangelicals (people who claim to be Christians), the following are just some of the results:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>52% reject absolute moral truth.<\/li>\n<li>61% did not read the Bible daily.<\/li>\n<li>75% believe people are basically good.<\/li>\n<li>60% believe the Bible conflicts with their beliefs.<\/li>\n<li>54% are unwilling to define human life is sacred.<\/li>\n<li>50% claim the Bible is vague on abortion.<\/li>\n<li>43% believe Jesus sinned.<\/li>\n<li>58% believe the Holy Spirit is symbolic.<\/li>\n<li>62% of church-goers say it is important to have some type of faith.<\/li>\n<li>50% do not view sex outside of marriage as sinful.<\/li>\n<li>40% do not believe lying is sinful.<\/li>\n<li>48% believe in salvation through works.<\/li>\n<li>43% do not believe in a God-Given purpose for humanity.<\/li>\n<li>42% seek moral guidance from somewhere other than the Bible.<\/li>\n<li>34% reject marriage as only one man and one woman.<\/li>\n<li>34% approve of abortion if it spares the mother from emotional and financial hardship.<\/li>\n<li>36% fail to seek and pursue God’s will for their life each day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>The Greatest Crisis Facing American Pastors And Church Leaders Is Biblical Illiteracy<\/h2>\n<p>When you read the frightening statistics listed above you are left to admit the greatest issue facing American church is Biblical Illiteracy, not the items listed in this article’s opening paragraph. \u00a0A proper understanding of the Scriptures and the Gospel is the solution to today’s challenges. \u00a0However, Oprah, political affiliations, our friends, our experiences, culture, and even worse, our feelings are giving definition to our lives more than we are allowing the Scriptures to do. \u00a0As stated,\u00a060% believe the Bible conflicts with their beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>The seeker-sensitive movement, unhinging from the Old Testament, and minimizing what the Scripture says about the issues of our lives have lead to tragic results. \u00a0The people in our pews simply do not know what the Scriptures say. \u00a0But based upon the information provided, there is a harder realization we must embrace:<\/p>\n<h2>The Greatest Mission Field In American Churches Is Sitting In Our Very Own Sanctuaries And Auditoriums<\/h2>\n<p>60% of regular church attenders who claim to be Christians are probably lost. \u00a0Don’t believe me, when 58% believe the Holy Spirit is symbolic and 36% fail to seek and pursue God’s will for their life each day, we have to admit these people were probably never saved. \u00a0At best, the bought into a false version of the true Gospel. \u00a0The Gospel is a death to self, an abandoning of self, and following Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Many of these individuals may have probably been baptized. \u00a0But they likely did not get saved, they just got wet. \u00a0The challenge now for pastors is they are going to have get these people lost, before they can see them truly saved.<\/p>\n<h2>An Inconvenient Solution<\/h2>\n<p>So what is going to take to reverse the latest Barna statistics? \u00a0Here are some options:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>At the very least, a significantly more robust discipleship process.<\/li>\n<li>More Biblical Preaching – The seeker sensitive movement has resulted in a generation of Biblically illiterate people. \u00a0Nothing changes a human life like effective preaching. \u00a0Pastors need to return to fundamental Bible teaching.<\/li>\n<li>Pastors are not communicators who give talks. \u00a0Pastors are preachers who give a message from the Ancient of Days to His people to address the issues in their lives at this specific moment and time in human history.<\/li>\n<li>Pastors must once-again become the prophetic voice in their communities. \u00a0This will result in pastors confronting culture rather than snuggling up to it. \u00a0And when this happens, these courageous pastors will face…<\/li>\n<li>Persecution<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And that is the inconvenient solution.<\/p>\n<p>To reverse the 17 Barna statistics listed above, pastors are going to have to deliver difficult biblical truths. \u00a0But it is the difficult biblical truths which truly set people free. \u00a0But even if you deliver the message with love, these difficult biblical truths will birth persecution.<\/p>\n<p>How many American pastors and church leaders are willing to go through persecution? \u00a0We will soon find out.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em><sup class=\"versenum\">“<\/sup>If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”<\/em> – 2 Chronicles 7:14<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastors and church leaders are\u00a0currently\u00a0asking AND answering all the wrong questions. Racial tension. \u00a0How much emphasis do you put on digital vs online audiences? \u00a0Biden or Trump. \u00a0Masks or No Masks. \u00a0Hand sanitizer. \u00a0Disinfectant machines. \u00a0Opening vs closings. \u00a0Trying to be part of the solution and not the problem by cooperating with the government. \u00a0What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","iawp_total_views":77,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[120,346],"class_list":["post-28133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-leadership","tag-culture","tag-pastors"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pexels-photo-medium.jpeg?fit=524%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28133"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28141,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28133\/revisions\/28141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briandoddonleadership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}