A few years ago a prominent charismatic evangelist gained a wide following when he said an angel was visiting him regularly during his televised revival meetings. The angel was supposedly dispatched to unleash the next great healing revival in the United States. One big problem: The revival didn’t happen.
If you want to hear about really sick churches, then stick with me on this post. If you are tired about many of us writing about the sordid state of congregations, I understand. Skip this article and I will return with more good news in the near future.
Call it irony. An atheist is going to deliver the invocation in the town of Greece, New York. It’s ironic because it’s the same town that won the U.S. Supreme Court case that preserved its right in a 5-4 ruling to start its meetings with public prayer.
One day Satan asked himself a question: “How can I destroy America? No army can defeat them. Their economy is foolproof. They’re geographically isolated and cannot be invaded. I know what I’ll do. I’ll get them through their children. I’ll erase the commandments, the godly traditions, the family, morality, ethics, truth and decency.”
There is no shortage of pundits who are providing to us the gloomy and dismal state of American congregations, and, indeed, of many churches around the world. For sure, I am among the guilty.
Since I have been serving in full-time church-related ministry since 1980 I have been through various stages of growth and development in ministry and character. Based on self-reflections and observations from years of ministering to and with pastors and leaders in the church, I have written the following article on some of the specific sins and temptations most of us go through, based on our age and level of experience.
