Fear raises money. Fear drives hasty decisions. Fear brings deep divide. Fear is the currency of American politics. And American politics is our new national religion.

Don’t think so? Try this on:

“If _____________ is elected you will lose your _______________________.”

It works to the “right” and the “left.” You can fill in the blanks and you know it’s a campaign slogan you’ve heard somewhere along the line… every election cycle. Why? Because it brings in money and gets people out to vote. PERIOD.

While we may be tempted to say, “And Christians are the worst,” it’s just not true. As a nation, culturally, we’ve allowed fear to divide us and drive our decisions.

I began with a question a few posts back (after a quote from Tim Alberta’s book, The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory). The quote:

‘Within ten years, Christians will be a minority in America,’ the professor announced. The numbers were straightforward: American’s share of self-identified Christians was shrinking at roughly the same rate as Australia’s. In 2007, 78 percent of Americans identified with Christianity; by 2021, it was down to 63 percent.”

The question: How does that statement feel to you as a believer in Jesus Christ in America?

For Christian Nationalists it is fuel for the fire.

For me, it’s a huge sigh of relief. If we can just get to that point with some poll number, we may actually begin to deal with the true reality of the situation. As long as some poll puts the Christians in the “majority,” (and let’s be honest, it is interpreted as white Christians), we are fine. We still have fear that drives us to do crazy things in our voting, but we think everyone is still good because America is still a “Christian nation.”

We need to face the reality of America not being a Christian nation and as believers we finally get down to Kingdom business. This is why the quote from Tim Alberta doesn’t bother me.

It didn’t bother me 8 years ago when I preached on “Living in Babylon” to my church. I wanted people prepared. I wanted them hopeful. What everyone chose, instead, was to live in fear and try to hold on to a myth of “Christian” America. I was preaching about being prepared and how to live with hope so we are clinging to Christ. Let’s give “Christendom” a good funeral and move on to where the Spirit was truly leading. It just didn’t go through quite the way I had it pictured in my mind.

And we’re 8 years down the road, with white Christians still going kicking and screaming into a new reality they refuse to see.

If there is a tinge of fear (or a grip of fear) when you see stats that say America won’t be a majority Christian nation in 10 years, it’s possible you’re leaning in the wrong direction when it comes to spiritual formation in your life.

The American church is fracturing in real time and for one reason: fear.

And all along, we think we’re following Jesus, who constantly told his disciples, Fear not.

We’re busy “fighting back” when we need to understand the leading of the Spirit and move to a position of “losing.” We need to carry ourselves in ways that reflect the hope, confidence, and love found in the gospel.

The symbol of the cross of Jesus Christ is the symbol of “losing.” We don’t want the cross anymore, as white American Christians. We want the sword. We want to “win.” We are going around picking fights that aren’t real fights. We’re being bullies and the reality of Jesus is getting lost in our flurry of useless activity.

As white conservative Christians, we’ve feel “loss” at many levels. The influence of Christendom as an ethos has faded. Instead of looking to Christ to show us the way, we’ve decided to go kicking and screaming into a new era instead of asking the Spirit to lead us.

Our problem is a spiritual formation problem. We’re not allowing our life in the Church or our life in Christ to truly form us. We are allowing political parties and our “trusted” sources for “news” to feed our opinions. We’ve let the bullies on the playground be our spiritual directors.

If we go to a church these days, we want one that makes sure to put out “voting guides” so we know how to “vote correctly” for God’s people. We want the pastor to preach more of a political agenda. There are rallies held in churches in the past few years where political hacks are telling the crowd, “Go to a church where the pastor will preach from the Constitution!”

We don’t trust the “liberal news media” so we trust “other sources.”

Spiritual formation isn’t the hour you put in on Sunday. But if we pick “Bible study” groups these days, we end up picking ones that bend more to our political views than not.

The need of the hour is to return to the ancient rhythms of the Church. A formation of worship found in the earliest of records when it comes to how Christians gathered. Formation found in how the worship service is conducted, yes, but also the reality of groups that met on a constant basis as they prayed together and dug into the Word together and served the community and its needs together. Centered on Christ and his character rather than fear being ginned up by people who in power who just simply want to stay in power.

Spiritual formation in the life of the believer is not contingent on what kind of political system is in place. You don’t need democracy or a republic or a socialist structure to thrive well in Christ. The Church thrives under dictatorships or republics or socialist systems or capitalistic systems. The Church was born under the thumb of an Empire. An Empire that is long gone from this earth.

The largest church in the world will be in China around 2035. Without the benefit of capitalism or the Republican Party. Without the benefit of Bernie Sanders or socialism.

It’s not the “system” that matters and that is the lesson American Christians are refusing to learn. It is Jesus.

American Christianity is in crisis because we are angry and bitter and causing division.

Generations following us want to know if we love Jesus first. Do we love him more than money, more than social status, more than some political movement, and more than a country?

We are not showing that very well in this current environment. We lack true spiritual formation and it is painfully apparent in these times.

We need to get back to radiating God’s beauty to those around us. The gospel is beautiful. Jesus is beautiful.

But too much of his church is being ugly.

What is forming you?

WHO is forming you?

When you think you are hearing “good preaching” is it leading you to fear and anxiety?

Find the ancient path again. It doesn’t have to mean Roman Catholic Churches or Anglican churches or Orthodox churches. It means the way the Church has gone for centuries to stay rich in Christ and empowered to show the beauty of Christ in any environment. This is why China will be the largest Christian church in 2035. That church shows Jesus to be beautiful in the worst of environments.

Would to God we would find those ancient paths again.

Lead us home, Holy Spirit.