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We all agree that our society is in a state of crisis. What we do not agree on involves two questions. Why we are in such awful state? How do we change things? Perhaps the scriptures can be helpful with answers to both questions. When ancient Israel and Judah were asking the same two questions, the prophets offered the following message. Israel is in an awful state because the people of God are in a spiritual crisis. The national crisis will be over only when the people of God repent.
Maybe we need a prophetic voice for the church of this generation. Maybe we need Russell Moore. He is a conservative theologian and an ordained minister. Known for his ability to thoughtfully articulate his views, he served for many years in the upper levels of the nation’s second largest Christian denomination. Moore has been in the middle of the conservative, evangelical culture for decades. In his latest book, Losing Our Religion- An Altar Call for Evangelical America (Sentinel), Moore has a message for a community in spiritual crisis, and it’s the same message offered by the ancient Hebrew prophets and of Jesus Christ. It’s time for the people of God to repent.
Losing Our Religion offers a way forward for a church in deep crisis. His old-fashioned altar call is not to the unbelieving world outside the church, but to the church itself. We are the ones who need to change, who need to feel contrition, turn around, and start our walk with Christ afresh. We have lost our way, but God is calling us to come home. Our sins are deep, but God’s mercy and transforming power are greater still. There is hope for the evangelical church, but it is a hope based on, as he asserts, “letting go of the distorted, politicized Christianity that got us here and throwing ourselves on the mercy of God. Only when we see how lost we are can we find our way again. Only when we lose the kind of religion we’ve known for so long can we be amazed by grace again.” Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling his church, just as we are and without one plea, to raise our hand, walk down the aisle, and be washed afresh in God’s amazing grace. Will we come home? The choice belongs to us.
-Darrel Holcombe, Owner
Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts
Colonial Promenade, Alabaster
www.sanctuarychristianbooksandgifts.com
205-663-2370
