Why the Church May Not Be Equipped to Meet Today's Challenge
When Christians came home from Europe and the South Pacific after WWII, they came home with a vision to go back with the gospel of Christ to plant the church. Through them, God launched the greatest evangelistic thrust since the years following the Day of Pentecost of Acts 2. Not only did the church in America send missionaries overseas, but she began a movement to plant churches at home. With the urbanization of America and the new baby-boom, the desire to establish new churches to keep up with the growth rate began. This continued for about twenty or thirty years. By the 1970's, the Churches of Christ were the fastest growing movement in the country; and the gospel had reached into every continent, except Antartica, and almost every country in the world where the Cold War had not closed the door. The Cold War had shut off Eastern Europe, Russia, and Communist Red China where over one billion people lived. Despite that, missionaries managed to smuggle in Bibles and materials to teach the gospel behind the Iron Curtain.
Meanwhile, the church at home began facing changes. America had enjoyed thirty years of unprecedented prosperity. The Baby-Boomers became a spoiled generation. America was also making major cultural and spiritual shifts. Darwinism, Freudian Theory, the culture of free love, humanism, Madalyn O'Hair, the legalization of abortion, and the installment of liberal judges to the Supreme Court quickly affected societal changes. ...read more...
