It feels good to have my energy back and be ready to go at it again.  Friday was a busy day.  I had a meeting with a group of Chicago area regular Baptist pastors about the possibility of a church plant in the area.  It was good to see this group involved and helping a young man as he ventures into his first church plant. We now pray for God to lead him to the right area and provide for his support.

This young man has a passion for church planting and told us he wants to plant a church that is pregnant.  My prayer is that he will find be used of God to be successful in that endeavor. I belive that only the Word of God is going to change lives.  I know that sounds trite but something must change soon.

In a recent book I read a poll of the younger generation (21-35) shows a warped sense of right and wrong.  56% believe that it is okay to cohabitate, but only 43% said it was ok to have sex before marriage.  More startling though is only 7% said they felt it was ok to us the "f" word on TV.  By the way this survey was of born again Christians. 

How can 43% believe it is ok to have sex outside of marriage but only 7% believe it's ok to say a bad word?  I believe it is because the church has done a poor job of reaching this generation. We have become lazy in our efforts to stand up for right,  We have allowed the postmodern thinking that allows for situational thinking and no absolutes to become a nromal thing even inside the walls of the church.  So we must do a better job of teaching God's truth.

It starts in the homes.  We must have strong homes that teach the Truth.  We must encourage fathers to take their role seriously and be the spiritual leaders of our homes.  Churches must not be afraid to teach the truth of the Word.  Unfortunately most fundamental churches of the last 50 years became obsessed with man made rules of dress, hair and music styles that they forgot to teach the hard facts of the Bible against fornication, adultery and other very clear commands of God.  We must focus on what matters, convictions based in God's truth and not our personal preferences.

We have lost a generation because we have too many people who want to play church and not be the church.  They are too concerned about what the Pastor and others wear, or the announcements that are missed or about other church business to be concerned with the real church business, dispensing God's Truth and building up the church. The church of the USA has become a group of Christians that view church as a club rather than a hospital for souls. 

This has not been lost on the younger generation.  They have seen the game and they don't want to learn it, they have decided it is too trivial for their time and they are leaving the church in droves.  As an old preacher friend of mine once said, "we must keep the main thing, the main thing."  Reaching the lost,  building up the members of our churches, enabling families to be strong cornerstones of the body and communicating God's awesome Truth in a loving but uncompromising matter, this is what the church must be doing..

So I pray for this young church planter that he will plant a church that will produce other churches that will have a genuine impact on our world.  This will be far more effective than any political campaign.  Because of Him, Pastor