Over the next 20-30 years evangelical Christianity will become increasingly opposed and ultimately persecuted by our culture in the United States. Many who are "on the fence" will leave. Many of the ministries and churches who are depending on human strength and ideas will wither and die. Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches are seeing "converts" from evangelical churches that have become too self-focused and therapeutic.
We must work to strengthen the bonds between us so that we won't be shaken when the rejection and persecution becomes more profound. We must strengthen our families and especially our men. We must be trained and prepared to hold one another up spiritually and in practical economic ways. House churches will become more and more important. We have looked at Paul's epistles in the past as being for each of us individually, but they are aimed at equipping and strengthening the Body of Christ as a whole, not so much at individuals.
The economic dislocations that inevitably are coming may accelerate this rejection of evangelical Christianity. But I am not discouraged. Even as I see all of the impending problems, I also see a remnant being raised up. I see a small but growing group of young men and women more committed to Christ and to one another than I ever saw as a teenager or young adult. The Body of Christ in the US will be smaller in numbers, but I believe that the resurrection power will be much more in evidence in the pruned church that is coming than it currently is in many of the self-indulgent churches of today.
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