Warning: Offensive post to Sunday-only Christians ahead. Proceed with caution.

This past Wednesday night, the men of our fellowship began a study of Biblical leadership in the home. Out of this discussion invariably comes many questions about this idea of Biblical gender roles and responsibilities, general doctrine issues, and the role of the church. These things challenge us because they seem so . . . different! They challenge us because for a few generations, we in the church have not been taught these fundamental basics of Christianity. We can easily be discouraged at times, for this sort of thing is foreign in the church today, the churches we all grew up in did not teach these things, and we are all having to re-evaluate some very basic presuppositions of what Christianity is and how it works itself out in our lives. As I have said before, this sort of personal and family revival is not the result of the family integrated church model or reformed theology or home schooling, or all those things that seem to be part of our church and churches like ours. No, this is a heart revolution on a foundational level, and it is personal revival - Biblical revival - that generates a deep and abiding faith and love for the Lord and thus a desire to live differently than before. It is not a fad, and doesn't build a fellow up like a pep-rally for a few weeks of being "on fire for the Lord", only to have his heart turn cold shortly after. This is a thing that often leaves us feeling like outcasts even in the churches of the day, out there in the wilderness with few to stand beside us, is not some fad or method to feel more godly or holy. It is genuine revival, some of us have even said it is genuine salvation that we had though was ours all along. This is a work of God alone, for what man would choose to become so odd and mocked and ridiculed by fellow "Christians"? Yet it is so rewarding and fulfilling.

We struggle with discussing the issue of sound Biblical doctrine, multi-generational vision, family worship, Biblical gender roles and the like because we know it easily offends those who also claim Christ but for some reason or another do not hold to these teachings in scripture. We struggle with how to discuss these things without being perceived as prideful or "holier than thou", or haughty. But in all honesty, we can't cease speaking what the Bible says just so we don't offend. Truth offends, it cuts, it bruises. If we speak the truth in love, we still offend, and that's hard to endure. There IS a problem in the church today, it is a big, giant, trumpeting elephant in the room that everyone sees, but no one will discuss, because it will rock the boat. There ARE a vast group of people who come to church every Sunday but sit there stone faced and un-saved. There ARE preachers who do not preach the Word of God in all its convicting and edifying strength, because they want to attract unbelievers to their churches and fill new plush theater seats and build stage shows. There ARE youth pastors who honestly believe that they are more qualified to train your children in righteousness than you are, and there ARE people who love it this way. When we hear stats and results that decades of the modern church have produced, we pat ourselves on the back even though it is obvious and clear that the church looks no different than the world from which it is supposed to be distinct. We console ourselves with excuses like "Oh well, that's the way kids are, they have to sow their wild oats, but they were raised in the church and they will come back". Where is that in scripture? What about the good fruit / bad fruit thing? "We need to be relevant to a lost and seeking world". The world doesn't seek God, it hates him, but we can't say these things today. We can't even discuss basic doctrine without offending. Why? Or how about this one: "Oh, its so sad ol' Joe here was killed in a drug raid, but he's with the Lord now because he was saved in Sunday school when he was 12, I saw it written in his Bible". What!? How does one have a new nature yet live according to an old nature because some Sunday school teacher Popishly proclaimed a kid to be saved because he was coerced into saying a cute little prayer? Did ol' Joe ever read the tests of salvation in 1 John? Was his drug house on the narrow path or was it in the broad way? These are the things we cannot discuss among "Christians", because "Christians" can't handle God's truth.

Why not? Because most of what is called the church, isn't. There. I said it. By the Bible's own words: "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord!'", thus identifying themselves as Christians, yet they are not. Jesus says to those, "I never knew you". Yet in most churches, you will be met with "You can't judge a man's heart, only God can." That's true, but the Bible says you can see the fruit, and if the good fruit is not there, the heart is wicked. This idea that we can be 'saved but carnal', 'redeemed but back-slidden', is nowhere found in the scriptures, but is a holy doctrine of man that cannot be touched, because to do so might actually offend an unbeliever.

So it is difficult to relate to fellow church goers who look at me with a vacuous stare when I mention what the Lord has done in our lives. It is difficult to share in the joy of being God's child and to be under his care and correction when others just want God to be a buddy in the sky or the fairy-tale object of a pep-talk on Sunday. It is difficult, but not without great hope. When we understand the times and look at the bigger picture, we can see in both scripture and history that such genuine revival in the heart of a Christian has a purpose much greater than one man's walk with the Lord or even the ministry of the local big-box church.

Paul Washer discussed this very thing in response to a question at a college conference. He and Dr. Voddie Baucham were fielding questions from the students at the conference which sought to call young believers to such genuine Christianity. One fellow asked about all of this Biblical family stuff and how it relates to the church. Mr. Washer's answer gives the big picture (I have transcribed a spoken and non-scripted dialog, so it may be a little awkward at times. All emphasis is mine.):

Here's the problem. In order to say something is a church today, we really have to lower the bar on the definition. The church has turned into a Six Flags over Jesus. It is not acting like a church. Church is very, very, very important, but church and family I think there are very important lines and they get mixed really bad.

For example, Sunday school was started in order to reach children in the streets who would never go to church, of un-churched parents, kids and beggars and such in Chicago and other places. Now, Sunday school has taken the responsibility away from the father. And the father loves it, you see. One of the reasons God isn't blessing our churches, I feel like, is we're in the continuous process of doing Plan B. For example, Southern Baptists - how much money do you think was spent last year on Sunday school literature? How many conferences were there? We're talking millions and multi-millions of dollars. All that money was spent, and all that effort, to carry out a plan that God never ordained. How much money was spent last year teaching fathers to disciple their own children? Probably zero.

And so, a lot of this... what you're seeing everywhere... I travel around the country, a lot of people are coming up to me and saying "But I don't have a church, I don't have a place I can go". What you've got to realize is this, especially you young men - The church isn't going to be involved in this or promote it at first, at least a lot of churches. But don't you see what's going on? You are living in a time that prophets and scribes longed to see and did not see. There's a genuine reformation going on. There's a reformation going on theologically in this country. Now it's grass roots, the popular media who listen to Joel's Self Esteem, they know nothing about all this stuff, but there is a real thing going on in which the truths of God are coming back in place, the ideas of family are coming back in place, all of it is. But here's what you men need to do. You need to start preparing, you women, you need to say "OK, I'm wrong, and even if I have to start all over, and even if I have to do it by myself.", but the next generation that comes up is going to be something. Its going to be something.

And I can tell you this also, you need to keep this in mind. Never in history is there a reformation and revival of this magnitude, unless it preceded national catastrophe or the persecution of the church. I think that God is getting a people ready, the next several generations, to go through some stuff, but also to triumph. To triumph. You young men sitting here right now, and you young women, have a greater possibility now than ever in the history of the world, but you need to realize that you are wrong in almost everything that you are thinking and start all over again. And you need to submit to church and submit to leaders, but you have to realize that you are going to walk in and tell some of this stuff to pastors and they're not even going to understand. Not only are they not going to have an answer, they're not even going to know what the question is. So just keep going. Be respectful, but keep going.