"The culture wars, the growth of family, the success of missions, the prosperity of our great nation--the future rests on millennial evangelicals' worldview. And that is cause for concern, because something has gone wrong with young evangelicals' theology. The millennial generation's susceptibility to "feel-good" doctrine is playing a big part in America's moral decline. Millennials' religious practices depend largely on how the actions make us and others feel, whether the activities are biblical or not. For example, we only attend churches that leave us feeling good about our lifestyle choices, even if those choices conflict with God's clear commandments. We dismiss old hymns that focus on God's transforming salvation, love and mercy and opt for "Jesus is your boyfriend" songs." -- Chelsen Vicari
The disconnect is becoming frightening. The thing that has gone wrong with millennial's theology is the theology they have been taught by the very churches Vicari supports. When Carl Lentz, pastor of Hillsong NY, was asked on national television about hot button cultural issues he said that his church has a position on love and everything else is a conversation. The top producers of Jesus is my boyfriend music are Bethel, IHOP and Hillsong. Vicari continues to foster the notion of some liberal boogeyman that is luring our once proud Christian kids into moral decline instead of admitting that we taught it to them through our rejection of the Gospel and refusal to discuss sin.
"In his book The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer wrote: "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." Right now, cheap grace theology is proliferating around evangelical Bible colleges, seminaries and Christian ministries." -- Chelsen Vicari
This is the crucial point for understanding beloved. She is correct that cheap grace has infiltrated the church but the solution offered up is to conquer the mountain of government, pass laws enforcing Christianity, and essentially embrace NAR theology when it is that theology that is the culprit. If you want to see cheap grace expunged from the church then the church needs to repent -- not the world. The church needs to disavow purpose driven theology and throw out any book, study, or teaching from Rick Warren. The church needs to stop implementing seeker friendly paradigms of church growth and get back to preaching the uncompromised Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church needs to be an alternative to culture -- not the enemy of it or in bed with it.
young evangelicals had been listening to their Sunday school teachers and their parents, but they had also been listening to their public school teachers, TV celebrities and rock stars. Youth ministers, volunteer leaders and pastors also have to start preparing these kids to deal with the very real hostility that faces young evangelicals." -- Chelsen Vicari
This is once again the culture warrior NAR mindset. That the very people who need the Gospel the most are our sworn enemies. What a scheme of Satan. The problem all goes back to abandoning the Gospel. Christian youth today is nothing but an endless array of pizza parties and six flags trips with some Christianese peppered in. If you asked most young Christian adults they would admit to losing their virginity to a member from their youth group. That is because while the Chelsen Vicari's of the world want to teach them to focus of the sins of the world no one bothered to make them focus on their own sins. The bible is not described as a blunt instrument for us to smack over the heads of the lost beloved. It is a two edged sword that is meant to cut back at us. At our own sins. It is not our job to convict the world of their sins. That is the job of Holy Spirit.
"If we never talk about abortion in church, how can we expect the rising evangelical girl to calmly explain the option of adoption to her frightened best friend who just admitted she is pregnant? If America's evangelicals disengage from the public square and fail to engage the rising generation of Christian leaders, then we risk losing our public voice, then our religious liberty, then liberty altogether." -- Chelsen Vicari
Vicari, like most church leaders today simply have no faith in the Gospel. The truly saved evangelical girl does not need a political primer in the history of abortion. America's evangelicals being involved in the public square is the problem not the solution. Christianity is not a forced concept. We tried that in the Crusades. If we lose our public voice so be it as long as our church voice stays true to the Gospel. If we lose our religious liberty then I guess what was prophesied in the bible about Christian persecution will finally come to pass. If we lose our liberty for the sake of the Gospel then we will have fulfilled the scripture beloved. Vicari and the church value the wrong life. Everything is about saving Sodom and nothing about promoting heaven.
