The American church has lots its saltiness. My former church in particular is completely without savor.

I used to go downtown and witness to the bar crowd on Friday or Saturday night. We did Way-of-the-Master style witnessing and we had a seven foot tall wooden cross we carried. People would come up and ask us why we’re standing on the sidewalk with a cross. That was a great way to start a conversation.

I tried over and over for a long time to get people from my church to go with me and the one other guy that was coming. I taught an evangelism class and about 10-15 people attended. I was only able to get three or four different people to come, one time each. One guy was called some dirty name (I can’t remember what it was) and that seemed to really hurt him or make him think it was dangerous. One guy who came thought we were doing it wrong but he wasn’t willing to show us the right way either. The assistant pastor said we were doing it wrong. He said we should offer people free coffee, and the cups could have a Bible message, but we shouldn’t preach.

Occasionally, there would be heavy metal concerts on a Friday night at the Eagles club and mostly teenagers attended. I thought it was really good, because the kids were somewhat hostile to start out, but a lot of them asked really deep questions and we had a lot of good conversations. One of the guys in the band didn’t like that the kids would leave the concert and go outside to talk to us. His dad was a pastor, and he asked my pastor to get us to stop witnessing at the concerts. My pastor told him to contact us. We ended up meeting him and had a long conversation where he told us we were evangelizing all wrong. His arguments were the typical weak arguments, and easy to answer. I was surprised at the time that a pastor openly opposed the preaching of the gospel.

For the first several weeks we were going downtown, we were harassed by the cops until an experienced officer threatened to arrest us. The lady who had called the cops said she didn’t want to press charges, so we didn’t get arrested. We got a lawyer from Liberty Counsel to write a letter to the Police, city council and city attorney, and the chief of police wrote a memo telling them not to mess with us if there was no report of an actual crime. The cops had no idea what basic constitutional rights were. Apparently not many Christians are into free speech.

One bar was particularly confrontational with us. They were having a wet t-shirt contest and they sarcastically invited us. I told the pastor and asked for help. I thought it was important that there be a Christian presence, but of course, no one would come. I ended up going alone as my usual gospel partner couldn’t come until later in the evening. An older guy walked up to me, and said, “You’re moving or I’m going to move you.” I said something like, “This is a public sidewalk. I’m not moving.” I really should have seen it coming, but I guess I didn’t take his threat seriously. He hit me near my eye with his cane. I ended up with a black eye.

I say all that to point out that the church in America has lost its saltiness. They have no gumption to stand up for what’s right. They clearly don’t believe in the power of the gospel or the effectiveness of God’s Word to confront the culture. America is rotting because the church cowers in fear and the vast majority believes things will only get worse and we will eventually be defeated before Christ’s return.

I was a premillennialist for most of the time this was happening, but I was being schizophrenic. I believed the Bible passages that say the gospel is powerful enough to change lives at least and change the culture if Christians could step up and spread the good news. Unfortunately, most Christians are consistent with their premillennialism and think they’re going to be defeated so they shrink back into the four walls of the church.

I’m now a postmillennialist who believes that the gospel will spread and more and more people will be saved. God’s Word will be applied more and more consistently to every area of life and culture and God will bless our obedience. God’s kingdom will grow like a mustard seed into a great tree.

The pastor at my former church was the only one who never really openly opposed us. But he never did much of anything to help either. His sermons are 55 minutes long every week, and even the members of the congregation who attend weekly are shockingly immature and unable to apply Scripture to life. Ongoing attempts I’ve made to help them apply Scripture to various topics has been vehemently opposed. I was kicked out of the church Facebook group. One lady’s only comeback to my arguments was that I have beady eyes. Others have accused me of being provocative and argumentative. I’ll concede to those, but I deny that I’ve done anything sinful. They certainly haven’t come up with any persuasive responses to my arguments.

Whatever sin or cultural battles that are to come, I predict that that church and the vast majority of other churches in this country will sit out entirely. They haven’t done squat. They’ve accomplished nearly nothing for the kingdom of God. They have only been defeated and they will continue to become less and less relevant. They are salt that’s lost its saltiness and are worthy of nothing more than to be thrown out and trampled.

I have no doubt that I could do many things better. I would love to be shown what I can do better. I would love to look up to men who have won great battles and have advanced the kingdom of God. I know of some, but very few, and none personally. Most of the men I know personally are losers who plan to go on losing. They expect to be locked up in a ghetto and they’re just fine with their ghetto. They’ll go on a retreat, even though they’ve never been on the advance. They’ll have a pot luck and their wives will put up the decorations for the ghetto Christmas party.

No thanks.