Christian Decline

I think my wife bought this book for me at Christmas or on my birthday. She must have been listening to me complain about the condition of the modern church (which I do way too much) and thought I would appreciate knowing that I was not alone. She was right.

Dickerson presents “6 factors that will crash the American church” and, thankfully, 6 tips on “how to prepare”. In the introduction he says, “Research can open our eyes to the true state of the church, but God alone through the Scriptures can inform our hearts as to how we must correct course”.

Before getting into each of the 6 factors I think it is neat to learn that Dickerson was writing as a successful local church pastor. He warns the church as someone who loves the church and, ironically, his church was doing quite well in 2013 when he wrote the book.

At a glance, the book is divided into 12 chapters with 6 problems identified in the first 6 chapters and 6 corresponding solutions in 7-12.

6 Trends of Decline	6 Solutions for Recovery
1.      Inflated	7.      Re-valuing
2.      Hated	8.      Good
3.      Dividing	9.      Uniting
4.      Bankrupt	10.   Solvent
5.      Bleeding	11.   Healing
6.      Sputtering	12.   Re-igniting

 

Taken one at a time I hope to deal with each of these chapters devotionally. I love the church and want to do my part so that the Kingdom of God may come “on earth as it is in heaven”.