Not too sure about this. The churches whose undershepherds preach as "a dying man to dying men" are very few and small. Churches that stress entertainment and cater to "felt needs" are growing, and I would submit are part of the problem by presenting a man-centered rather than God-centered Gospel. Small-God = culturally-irrelevant Chrisitianity. If church is merely a matter of entertainment, why not stay home and watch television? I've heard from two separate reliable sources (Dr. Joel Beeke and Dr. Beougher, here), that a sizable chunk of the populace believes that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. 50% of people believe Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife, and 12% believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Sounds like it's time to turn off the boob tube and hit the books...
In spite of what has been widely reported, it has been documented the in truth and in fact, Christianity is growing faster than Islam or any other religion. This documentation has been laid out by authors such as Philip Jenkins in his book "The Next Chistendom: The Coming of Global Christianity" and by David Aikman in his book "Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power." This is due to contributions of Christian materials and media (SW radio & satellite TV) from the United States.
Some discernment is in order here. Which gospel is it that is growing? Until there's evidence that it's a God-centered, rather than man-centered, Gospel, the Gospel of free grace to unworthy sinners, I'm skeptical about its cultural-transforming efficacy.
I agree with all Author has written, but I wonder about just how bad or evil we, as a nation, have become as a whole? Divided yes, but primarily evil and wicked with only a minority (or slight remnant) left following after the Lord endeavoring to keep His commands?
Yes, we are wicked, all of us. "The heart is deceitful above all things and desparately wicked. Who can know it?" Jer. 17:9.
We are in an historic battle of good versus evil and perhaps all evidence points to this being the "last days" as described in the Bible.
We've been in the Last Days since Christ's ascension, and the next eschatological event we can expect is His return. At least, that's what the majority of churches - Catholic and Protestant alike - taught until Darby invented Dispensationalism in the 1800's, which has since become the dominant eschatoligcal hermeneutic of our age.
What is needed is Spirit-wrought revival, the likes of that experienced by the colonies in the 1700's through men like Freylinghuysen, Edwards, and Tenent. The best practical suggestion I saw was on the the last thread about picking a day to fast and pray. We need far more than gimicks, this is deadly-serious spiritual warfar, and Satan is indeed alive and active in the world, and man, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, is Satan's pawn in the earth.
Arthor's posting is concerning "God has One Foot Out the Door." And my response was to ask the question, from my listing, are we, as a nation, on the verge of destruction? or at the point of Sodom & Gomorrah? And my point was that though we are divided as a nation, I don't think that we are completely apostate.
Besides, I can give you a long list of very large churches that are not "entertainment chrches".
The gospel that is growing around the world, I believe is God-centered. People who have become Christians in countries like China, Sudan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia and elsewhere are willing to suffer die for their faith, rather that deny their faith in Christ or switch to Islam. Doesn't sound like "man-centered" gospel to me. But, of course, you probably know better about all that. I'm uneducated and not a seminary trained theologian.