I would not go to a church that would be represented by the following list. This list is probably not uncommon. So if you are attending or thinking about attending such a church I would suggest looking for a different one. So here is the list which I have seen first hand.
The pastor does not engage in culture; just preaches the word – Gary Hamrick, Jack Hibbs, and Allen Jackson, for example, do preach the word but they also address culture.
The pastor did not mention Charlie Kirk as a great example of using dialogue rather than boring monologues to engage with real people to help them understand many important cultural truths as well as truths about God.
No response to an opportunity to show the 1916 Project.
The response to offering to have youth memorize scripture and engage in conversation – “this is not the direction that I believe the Lord would have us to go.”
The pastor pompously thinks his way is the only way “I do believe it is the only way to do church at our church”
The pastor thinks long boring monologues are the Biblical model for doing church – “There are many churches out there that do short messages, discussion groups, and other various activities, but here we prioritize the preaching and teaching of God’s Word as instructed and modeled by Jesus and all the NT writers.” On the contrary, Jesus and the disciples modeled dialogue and addressed the issues of the day.
Response to an opportunity to show/use Truth Rising – “I have not heard about this documentary, but at this time I do not believe that this is the direction the Lord has for the ministry at our church.”
No interest in the men’s Every Man a Warrior discipleship even after knowing of its huge influence on prisoners in Africa.
Has never handed out values voter guides or even mentioned upcoming elections.
Little or no mention of many valuable ministries and resources to equip parents concerning schools and Godly instruction for their children.
Does not encourage people toward any valuable parachurch organizations.
Has not hosted any significant live presentations that could have been done online at little to no cost and hasn’t mentioned any conference outside their own closed group.
Does not have any interesting guest speakers, just the same pastor every Sunday.
The pastor would not have been courageous enough to have been one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Maybe the greatest single trademark of Charlie’s greatness was his memorial. His memorial led to the greatest single proclamation of the gospel in all of human history. We watched the secretary of state of this country give an altar call. We saw the son of the president of the United States tell people more about the first martyr, St. Steven, than 95% of churches have taught in the last 50 years.
Just a few weeks prior, my wife and I sat down with Charlie for an hour privately discussing futures. Little did my wife know that would be the last time she ever talked to Charlie or saw him. The freedom night in America that the two of us had done together at his home church was done 3 months prior and so a lot of media thought that this was just done the night before his death. My phone was ringing off the hook so I contacted my dear friend Sloan Adams here at TPUSA and I said, “Hey, what’s the right protocol? What do I do here? And he said, “What you need to do is exactly what Charlie told you before you went onto the stage that night at his freedom night in America.” What did he whisper in your ear? And right before we went on stage in a packed house, Charlie bent down in my ear cuz he was like 6 in taller than me. And he said two words right before he went on to introduce me. GO HARD.
I’m 20 years Charlie’s elder and in terms of modeling what a life lived well looks like and finishing your race looks like, he put me and too many in my generation and the generation above me to shame.
I want to talk to the older men about what GO HARD means because for too long we have been too soft. Too soft.
I did a conference call last night with Moms for Liberty, a phenomenal organization. But let me just tell you right now, it is to the shame of our men that this organization even has to exist because there were not enough Dads for Liberty for too long.
If it wasn’t for the family he leaves behind, you could not script a better death than Charlie’s. He died instantly in the arena painlessly, fighting for his Lord, fighting for the grace and redemption of his own enemies, standing tall in the arena. That is the dream. We’re all going out. I checked the death rate, folks. It’s still 100%. It’s still 100%. You could not script a better death than Charlie’s.
To you older men, and I include myself as well, it will be to our shame if that sacrifice was in vain. Just as Christ died for us when we were his enemies, Charlie did the same for his.
Here’s what you and I must do. We must finish well. We must go hard to the finish line.
I’m going to finish well with my Lord. I’m going to go hard to the end so that when my kids put me in the ground they can stand up at my funeral and say he kept the faith and he finished the race.
There are approximately 130 million households in the US.
According to the Barna Group only about 6 percent of the country actually hold a Christian worldview which would be about 8 million (130 x .06).
If those with a real Christian worldview would be willing to give to Christ (the least of these) during the Christmas season rather than all the family members who really don’t need anything in comparison, what could be given to Christ?
The BGEA (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association) expenses for 2024 were about $160 million. Operation Christmas Child (a part of Samaritan’s Purse) expenses for 2024 were about $460 million. So the total expenses for both ministries (BGEA and Op Christmas Child) was about $620 million (160 + 460).
If that same group of households gave only $80 per household ($620 million/8 million = about $80), then all of those two ministries’ expenses would be paid.
$30 is the suggested donation to create an online shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.
The average Christmas gift spending per household is supposedly around $1,000.
If that same group gave $1000 per household to Operation Christmas Child, instead of all those family members who comparatively don’t need anything, they could provide 267 million (8 million x $1000 / $30) online shoeboxes, which would be enough to give a box to all of the grade school age children in Europe and Latin America combined!
The cost to build a 1500 square foot home for someone who could really use it, i.e. a single mom, is somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000.
If those same real/worldview Christians wanted to instead build homes for single moms in need, they could build a little over 26,000 (8 million x 1000/300,000) homes, instead of again giving it to all the unneedy family members!
If you want to give to your kids, great. That’s what their birthday is for.
Oh, and by the way, there are probably a lot of people who want to have nothing to do with Christianity who would be willing to give like that. Will it get them into heaven? No, but it might actually put a smile on God’s face.
Those who deliberately avoid engaging, confronting, or shaping culture on contentious moral, ethical, or spiritual issues—are not fully holding to Jesus’ teaching in the John 8:31 which says “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”.
Jesus’ own example was never culturally silent
He publicly rebuked religious leaders, drove money-changers out of the temple, spoke directly into the sexual ethics of His day, confronted Roman political power and was never silent when God’s truth was at stake in the public square.
The New Testament pattern for leaders is public courage, not silence
John the Baptist lost his head for publicly calling out Herod, Paul reasoned in the marketplace daily and virtually every epistle contains public moral instruction meant to be read aloud in the churches, confronting the surrounding Greco-Roman culture.
Silence in the face of evil is itself condemned
Conclusion
A pastor’s sustained posture of silence on abortion, sexual ethics, religious liberty, racism, injustice, or any area where Scripture speaks clearly is not “holding to Jesus’ teaching.” It is functionally denying it by works (Titus 1:16). Faithful disciples, especially those called to shepherd and teach, are required to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), to contend for the faith (Jude 3), and to expose darkness (Eph 5:11)—even, and especially, when the culture hates the light.
So no, chronic cultural silence from the pulpit is not obedience to “If you hold to my teaching.”
Is there were a better way to do Christmas in America?
If so, what might that look like?
When we go to a birthday party, who receives the gifts?
To whom do we give the gifts?
Christmas is supposedly Jesus’ birthday, so why not give our gifts to him?
So, how might we give gifts to Jesus on Christmas?
In Matthew 25:40 it says, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
So, if something were given to “the least of these”, it would be given to Jesus.
Here’s a Christmas suggestion:
During the year or on Christmas, have your group/family donate to a special account. An easy way to do this might be to use the Zelle app on your phone. No one would know who has donated or how much any individual donated. Then on Christmas day, you would all see the account balance and as a group you could decide where to give to “the least of these”.
Are silent pastors holding to Jesus’ teaching when they don’t engage culture?
The answer has to be No.
Those who deliberately avoid engaging, confronting, or shaping culture on contentious moral, ethical, or spiritual issues—are not fully holding to Jesus’ teaching in the John 8:31 which says “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples”.
Jesus’ own example was never culturally silent
He publicly rebuked religious leaders, drove money-changers out of the temple, spoke directly into the sexual ethics of His day, confronted Roman political power and was never silent when God’s truth was at stake in the public square.
The New Testament pattern for leaders is public courage, not silence
John the Baptist lost his head for publicly calling out Herod, Paul reasoned in the marketplace daily and virtually every epistle contains public moral instruction meant to be read aloud in the churches, confronting the surrounding Greco-Roman culture.
Silence in the face of evil is itself condemned
Conclusion
A pastor’s sustained posture of silence on abortion, sexual ethics, religious liberty, racism, injustice, or any area where Scripture speaks clearly is not “holding to Jesus’ teaching.” It is functionally denying it by works (Titus 1:16). Faithful disciples, especially those called to shepherd and teach, are required to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), to contend for the faith (Jude 3), and to expose darkness (Eph 5:11)—even, and especially, when the culture hates the light.
So no, chronic cultural silence from the pulpit is not obedience to “If you hold to my teaching.”
Charlie Kirk said, “My Call is to fight Evil and Proclaim Truth”
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Charlie definitely DID do something!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself.”
Charlie was not silent as was Bonhoeffer not silent which cost them both their lives.
“If” by Rudyard Kipling as mentioned on the Charlie Kirk Show actually described Charlie
If you can keep your head when all about you, Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise.
If you can dream — and not make dreams your master, If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, And treat those two impostors just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings, And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings, And never breathe a word about your loss.
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew, To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you, Except the will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute, With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!
Charlie Kirk said, “My Call is to fight Evil and Proclaim Truth” I feel the same way and created a website in 2020 for that reason.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Eric Metaxas says in the “Letter to the American Church” that the American church has been complicit in the rise of harmful ideologies like Marxist atheism, abortion, and transgenderism by remaining silent, much like the German church was silent during the rise of Nazism. Many in church leadership insist on silence so as to not offend many ignorant people sitting in the pews who adhere to ungodly principles such as supporting candidates who adhere to the Democratic platform which has become so evil that you could say it was directly influenced by the devil. The first thing Jesus said was repent, so such church leaderships should repent of their silence. Many in church leadership seem more concerned about the comfort of those sitting in the pews than they are about confronting evil and sharing truth. Heb 13:7 says, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Why should we want to imitate cowards? 2Ti 4:3 – For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
If or when God answers any of our prayers we should be eternally grateful because the truth is that none of us qualify to ever deserve any answers.
Who of us could pompously claim that when we pray we know God’s will, and our motives are pure, and we aren’t holding on to any bad/sinful habits and we have no unconfessed sin. All of those just mentioned are Biblical conditions for answered prayer.
If God doesn’t hear the prayer, how can He answer?
1 John 5:14 – This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
Psalm 66:18 – If I had cherished sin in my heart the Lord would not have listened.
Isaiah 59:2 – But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
If we have wrong motives God won’t answer.
James 4:3 – When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
If our prayer is detestable to God I don’t think He would answer that either.
Proverbs 28:9 – If anyone turns a deaf ear to the law even his prayers are detestable.
I’m not saying don’t pray, I’m just saying we need to understand the reality of how God really operates not how we wish He operates.
