The evangelical church in America is not fulfilling the "great commission" of making disciples from Christ followers.

I want to hear what we can do to fix this and start having an impact in a hostile and evil culture.

As music plays the church attendees find their favorite pew and prepare for another enjoyable Sunday service.

After an introduction and welcome the worship team begins a mini concert that is so loud you not only can not hear the person next to you, but you cannot even hear yourself singing.

Next, comes announcements and then the offering basket is passed for tithes.

A person performs a lecture comprising a reading of scripture and then giving their personal hermeneutical take on said scripture. They then offer a few take aways and applications from their lecture based upon their own personal experiences. Personal stories are shared to enhance the lecture. A final prayer is offered and it is time to move out the first service group to make room for the next services group.

How is this making disciples of Christs followers so as to put on the full armor (Ephesians 6) and be fully equipped to go out in the world share the good news and be a strong force in the marketplace of ideas? Are all being equipped to do as Paul di of d with his apologia to those that met in the Areopagus? Are all the saints being edified?
Why is the church in America dead in the affairs of the world? Because we have just become butts in pews and dumbed down by having someone feeding us the Bible.

About 200 years ago the church that founded the seminaries of Harvard and Yale; that prepared our church leaders to lead, teach. train and provide resources for the individual follower to do the ministry began to move away from intellectualism and with with the the first and second great awakening checked our brains with our hats and now it became all about our heart and our feelings.

I want to hear what we can do to fix this and start having an impact in a hostile and evil culture.

Everyone has to ask themself: What can I do to fix this? It's not up to me to tell you what you should do; you need the ask the Lord what He wants you to do.

As music plays the church attendees find their favorite pew and prepare for another enjoyable Sunday service.

After an introduction and welcome the worship team begins a mini concert that is so loud you not only can not hear the person next to you, but you cannot even hear yourself singing.

Next, comes announcements and then the offering basket is passed for tithes.

A person performs a lecture comprising a reading of scripture and then giving their personal hermeneutical take on said scripture. They then offer a few take aways and applications from their lecture based upon their own personal experiences. Personal stories are shared to enhance the lecture. A final prayer is offered and it is time to move out the first service group to make room for the next services group.

How is this making disciples of Christs followers so as to put on the full armor (Ephesians 6) and be fully equipped to go out in the world share the good news and be a strong force in the marketplace of ideas? Are all being equipped to do as Paul di of d with his apologia to those that met in the Areopagus? Are all the saints being edified?
Why is the church in America dead in the affairs of the world? Because we have just become butts in pews and dumbed down by having someone feeding us the Bible.

About 200 years ago the church that founded the seminaries of Harvard and Yale; that prepared our church leaders to lead, teach. train and provide resources for the individual follower to do the ministry began to move away from intellectualism and with with the the first and second great awakening checked our brains with our hats and now it became all about our heart and our feelings.

I want to hear what we can do to fix this and start having an impact in a hostile and evil culture.

The point in this thread is not an isolated case that I am involved in; it is a paradigm that has infected almost all of our evangelical churches in America and has been metastasizing for over two hundred years. Please read the entire thread and you will see that what I and many others feel is the position and status of the modern day church in America has become a "butts in pews" paying dues to the club that provides entertainment and substitutes for the personal involvement into the Word and allowing the Holy Spirit to interpret and provide personal application as opposed to a person doing so in a lecture environment where there is no discussion. The evangelical church in America is dumbed down and impotent to spreading the gospel to the fiery darts from a relativistic post modern society.

Here's how I talk to atheists for example.
I believe in God because:

1. The universe exists
2. The fine-tuning argument exists
3. The supernatural and miracles exist.
4. Jesus Christ was here.

Well, The Church has to evolve with the times in order to reach the new generation and new ideas.
When Paul was in Greece he didn't come to them heavy handed applying concepts they didn't understand.
No, he complimented them and CUSTOMIZED the message of Jesus in order so the Greeks could understand.
So, this is very simple, but people don't want to abandon their (what i call) team sports so they're stuck and isolated from an evolving ever-changing world.

Here's how i talk to atheists for example.
I believe in God because:

1. The universe exists
2. The fine-tuning argument exists
3. The supernatural and miracles exist.
4. Jesus Christ was here.

...and the conversation evolves from there.

If you want to start talking to others using the Bible right away, they're not going to listen to you and ultimately the message of Christ.

With all this being said, there are Christian schools in many parts of the country which educate the young generation with modern ideas and equip them on how to debate non-believers.