“Donny, do you believe in climate change?”
I knew that the question was designed to put me on the spot.
Conventional thinking today says that our earth is changing for the worse… and man is the culprit. He’s causing things to warm up. The greenhouse gases that are a byproduct of the conveniences that we all enjoy are slowly but surely killing us. I’m told that many, if not most scientists believe this to be true. If we don’t change the way that we do things our planet will be tough to live on in the near future. I’ve been told that most “intelligent” people accept this to be a fact.
So, the answer to the question is… yes. Yes, I do believe in climate change. I believe that the climate of our world… and our country needs to be changed.
And right now.
The climate in America is one of hopelessness, hatred and division. It needs to be changed. And I know the people who hold the key to this change. They are sitting in pews and standing behind pulpits every Sunday. The local church is our best hope for America. It could be the only hope for this change to occur.
How can the church affect this change? I think it comes down to the church rediscovering was it was designed by her Creator to do. Make disciples. That sounds easy, right? It’s not. Making disciples is hard. It takes commitment. It takes sacrifice. It takes time. It takes investing your life in the lives of other people. It means loving people while they are slipping, falling and struggling to grasp what it means to be a disciple. It will mean giving up our preferences and our familiarity so that people who need Jesus will be able to breakthrough our Christian subculture and find a place to belong. It will mean being uncomfortable and doing things we’ve never done before to reach people for Jesus.
It won’t be easy. There will be obstacles, both inside and outside our ranks. The lure of holding on to past glories and methods by some will try to hold us back. The fear of what “might happen to our church” will stare down many who have a real desire to make a difference. And some will prefer to stay safe in their buildings and safe with their yesterday’s while the people outside are suffocating in our dying culture. Self preservation and self interests are natural instincts and difficult to overcome.
But I believe that there are many local churches, God’s representative of Christ on this earth, that will rise to the occasion. They will listen to the Master’s call to preach the Gospel without compromise, love sinners that others will reject, reach the lost that don’t even know that they need Jesus and disciple people that have found His grace into spiritual maturity. They will choose not to listen to the scoffers. There are churches who understand to Whom they belong. They will not be deterred. They have their marching orders given by The Master. And they will follow His instructions.
And that will change our churches. And our families. And our schools, our politics… and our country. The climate will change. In fact, it will become very warm. So, yes. I believe in climate change. It needs to happen. Right now. And God’s Church is the agent of that change.