TPUSA Pastors Summit Speaker Lucas Miles talks about the difference between a true church and a "troubled" church, and why there are three types of churches in the United States: Treacherous churches, trembling churches, and true churches.
00:00:00.000Hey everybody, my conversation at the TPUSA Pastors Summit in Georgia.
00:00:05.000I talk about what the church needs to do, the different types of churches, and what you as a believer need to do to stand up, to fight for what you believe in, and to fight for truth, and to fight for Christ.
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00:01:46.000Welcome, everybody, to our TPUSA Faith Forward event.
00:01:51.000This is one of our favorite events to do, all about equipping you.
00:01:55.000The pastors of this country to be better prepared to be able to speak about liberty, speak about God's truth, both in your church and in your community.
00:02:06.000And if we look at the American church right now, there are three types of churches.
00:02:11.000You're going to hear from Lucas Miles here in a second.
00:02:23.000Most of you are running true churches right now.
00:02:26.000Here's the test of whether or not you're a true church.
00:02:29.000Did you, after the repeal of Roe versus Wade, host a celebration prayer service afterwards?
00:02:35.000Or did you kind of just say, yeah, a thing happened in the news this last week.
00:02:39.000Anyway, in other events, a true church is one that says, thank you, God, for your providence for helping save this country and give us a reprieve.
00:02:50.000But most importantly, a true church, outside of those, are ones that say, I know I might lose some people and they might have some blessed subtraction during the sermon, but I first and foremost honor the Lord when I deliver my sermon,
00:03:06.000and I don't care if I might lose 5 or 10% of tithes or offerings.
00:03:12.000A true church is one that looks at the Word of God and says, I am going to deliver it.
00:03:17.000I know almost all of you are true churches.
00:03:24.000The second category are the trembling churches.
00:03:28.000They know what is true, but they shake like a leaf whenever they have to say anything too controversial.
00:03:34.000Now, maybe some people here might fall into that category, and that is okay.
00:03:38.000Our hope is that actually through hearing these speakers and hearing the trainings, you'll be motivated to go from a trembling posture to a true posture and speaking out and saying that you're going to speak out on the top cultural and major societal issues of the day.
00:03:55.000The issue for the trembling pastor, and let's be honest, the vast majority of American churches are in the trembling category.
00:05:37.000In fact, I think you have a biblical obligation to see what is happening with the youth of this country.
00:05:42.000They are desiring and hungering and thirsting for leadership spiritually.
00:05:47.000They are rejecting so many of the lies of modernity and looking to get down to fundamental truths, to anchor themselves in things that last and to shed the trappings of the...
00:05:59.000One-liner narratives that their entire world has been built around.
00:06:03.000However, one of the reasons why we started TPSA Faith, and my pastor Rob McCoy, who you'll hear later from in this conference, is we saw a great failure of the American church during COVID.
00:06:14.000We saw the American church remain rather sheepish, kind of fall to biblically illiterate arguments saying that the church must be submissive to the government.
00:06:35.000And as I think we've made a lot of progress at TPSA Faith to try to convict churches to speak out more boldly, to try to get more pastors more equipped and understanding biblical citizenship and understanding the foundational roots of our country that are rooted in Christianity,
00:06:52.000which far too often we forget that we were founded as Christians in a Christian context and a free society will fail to continue to survive.
00:07:01.000If Christianity does not survive, is that I look at what's happening on these college campuses, and there is a revival waiting to happen in your communities, but the church is not ready to receive it.
00:07:12.000And let me tell you that these two things are currently incongruent.
00:07:15.000Now, if you guys are already doing the right thing, then this message will just be...
00:07:19.000Affirmation for what you're already doing.
00:07:21.000It will be me telling you good job and encouraging you.
00:07:24.000But if you right now do not have dozens of young men showing up to your church every Sunday, then you're doing something wrong.
00:07:35.000Young men especially are gravitating towards the church, towards religion, towards conservatism in record numbers that is shocking people that study this stuff for a living.
00:07:48.000One of the reasons why, and we don't have to overcomplicate or overthink it, young men are starting to go away from a political movement and a worldview that hates them.
00:08:39.000But I will say this, and I want you guys to reflect on it.
00:08:42.000Is that how many people that are Christian ministries professionally that raise hundreds of millions of dollars can go to campuses and draw 5,000 kids on a five-day notice?
00:10:12.000The battle between good and evil seems to be escalating.
00:10:15.000It is easy to blame politicians, government, or poor leadership, but behind all of that is a spiritual battle.
00:10:22.000Pastor Alan Jackson's new book, Angels, Demons, and You, We do need to be aware and prepared.
00:10:49.000Angels, Demons, and You provides valuable insight, practical tools, and biblical truth to help you recognize the spiritual battle around us and become a difference maker in our generation.
00:11:02.000Get your copy today at alanjackson.com slash angels.
00:11:06.000Hear from people whose faith directly impacts our culture on Pastor Alan's Culture and Christianity podcast.
00:11:13.000Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
00:11:16.000And so if you go to church and it ends up being...
00:11:22.000A TED Talk mixed with a rock concert with above-average coffee and good organized parking, why should a 19-year-old go wake up at 8.30 on a Sunday morning to go to that?
00:11:45.000Instead, you're going to draw them into your churches, and this is the greatest revival, and the church seems uninterested right now to seize it, say, you know what?
00:11:52.000Yes, you need Jesus, but do you know why?
00:11:54.000You see, the reason why it's not yet being translated into revival is that they say, of course, Jesus is your Savior, but we're not connecting the dots.
00:12:02.000How do you know you need a Savior if you don't know what you're saved from?
00:12:07.000And you only know what you're saved from if you talk about sin.
00:12:10.000So we focus everything on the fact that someone's going to save you from drowning, yet we don't tell a generation that they're drowning.
00:12:18.000It's the most suicidal generation in history, the most drug-addicted generation in history, the most porn-addicted generation in history, but objectively the most miserable generation in history.
00:12:30.000And yet we say, you're just perfect the way you are.
00:12:33.000They don't feel perfect the way they are.
00:12:35.000They're telling you that everything is not okay.
00:12:38.000They're telling you that something is wrong.
00:12:40.000And the message that Christianity gives you is, well, he gets you or whatever that commercial is.
00:13:29.000We're seeing a little increase in religiosity.
00:13:32.000Nothing too noticeable, but the decline has thankfully plateaued.
00:13:35.000Praise God that we are not going the way of Europe.
00:13:37.000Praise God we're not going the way of a lot of the secular West, but it's not reason for over-celebration.
00:13:42.000God is giving us a little bit of grace and mercy.
00:13:44.000If you look at, and I study these numbers every year when they come out, the New York Times tracks this stuff, and the New York Times like begrudgingly had to publish.
00:13:52.000America's still kind of religious, and like 80% of people still believe in God.
00:13:58.000Like, okay, 65% of people go to church.
00:14:01.000You read this article, they're like begrudgingly going through the data.
00:14:04.000They still believe in this mystical celestial being.
00:14:31.000It's okay if you tell me I've messed up because you'll be the first person to tell me I've messed up in my life because my parents won't tell me that anymore.
00:14:39.000My professors tell me I'm the greatest person ever.
00:14:42.000In fact, the modern church has been led to believe this secular lie that what this church needs, what the generation needs is a better pump up.
00:14:50.000You know, yeah, you're enough and you can do it because we think since they're depressed, they need to be pumped up more.
00:14:56.000It's, you know, it's kind of obvious, right?
00:14:58.000When in reality, they have Everybody telling them the most narcissistic thing ever.
00:15:05.000Take more pictures of yourself, more selfies, more Snapchats, more TikToks, more, more me, me, me, me, me.
00:15:10.000And all they do is they think about themselves all day long, right?
00:15:13.000And if you have anything wrong with you, you have to go claim mental health issues and go talk to a counselor, some of which are legitimate, some of which are obviously just concocted by the environmental factors around them.
00:15:22.000And they get in this endless spiral loop, when in reality, we have to do less affirmation, and especially with young men, more challenging of them, more saying, you know what?
00:15:31.000Honestly, I'm not going to talk down to you.
00:15:36.000Come to church, and I'll tell you what it means to become a man, because we have the greatest story ever told of what it means to be a biblical man.
00:15:43.000We can tell you exactly what that means, and we're not going to sugarcoat it or sanitize it, because properly understood, The Bible is not a playtime book.
00:15:53.000The Bible is one, as of course all of you guys know, is one that teaches us at every moment of our life in the chapter that we are in with the struggle that we are currently encountering.
00:16:03.000And yet the predominant zeitgeist, if you go to most seminaries...
00:16:10.000If you go to most some of these Christian conferences, all of these supposed experts are like, well, you know, Gen Z tends to be very pro-LGBT.
00:16:45.000As evidenced by what we have seen over the last couple of months.
00:16:48.000What we've seen the last couple of months, again, this is just a political example, but I do want to say it's an amazing move of God.
00:16:54.000The impossible was done where President Donald Trump did 13 points better with younger voters in a way that no one ever thought was possible.
00:17:02.000Kamala Harris did worse with baby boomers.
00:17:05.000I understand, you know, it might not be some of you guys don't want to applaud for that.
00:17:10.000But it is a phenomenal movement when you see young people go in that direction in a way that you could never have expected.
00:17:19.000And so the modern myth is this, or the modern context, is that the worst thing ever is that someone will send you a nasty email saying that you offended them.
00:19:03.000However, you are more than welcome to keep on showing up and receiving the word and listening to the worship music, all of that.
00:19:11.000And that's the difficulty, is that the American church has largely been a victim of its own success.
00:19:20.000If you want to make sense of the change and the chaos happening around us, you're going to need God's help.
00:19:25.000That's why Alan Jackson Ministries, a friend of mine, created the Culture and Christianity podcast, the Culture and Christianity conference, and their weeknight news show, Alan Jackson Now.
00:19:37.000Millions of people also listen to Pastor Alan Jackson's powerful sermons each week, I do, on radio, television, satellite, and online.
00:19:44.000In today's world, there's desperate need for truth, and Alan Jackson Ministries feels a sense of urgency to deliver God's truth and a biblical perspective to anyone who will listen.
00:19:59.000Their mission is to help people become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ, which is the most important thing, giving your life to the Lord, including here on The Charlie Kirk Show.
00:20:53.000As the church grew so popular and Christianity was the predominant and still is, thankfully, but it's slipping as we know.
00:21:00.000View of the West is that we needed so many churches and we need so much infrastructure.
00:21:05.000So many people went into the ministry.
00:21:06.000And as so many people went into the ministry, far too many people went into the ministry that, quite honestly, were not ready for what happens when you have to say controversial stuff.
00:21:17.000And when you have to, by the way, definitionally, you cannot coexist.
00:21:23.000You cannot be a pastor and avoid controversial things.
00:22:33.000It's a generalization, and it's generalization for a reason because it's generally true.
00:22:36.000The American church and the people that went into ministry the last 40 years tend to be people that were agreeable when it came to conflict resolution.
00:22:45.000These are people that are phenomenal at the one-on-one type counseling and ministry.
00:22:50.000They are very good at helping heal a broken marriage.
00:22:54.000They'll spend the four hours till 1 a.m. of the guy that's dealing with substance abuse.
00:22:58.000And by all objective measurements and metrics, they're checking all the boxes of what it means to be a good pastor.
00:23:05.000However, when that agreeable person has to get up and do a sermon about, hey, we're going to go fight back against the Alpharetta City Council because they deemed our church non-essential.
00:23:19.000For the agreeable pastor, that is a very difficult thing to do.
00:23:24.000It is a temperament issue, meaning that it's just not really in their DNA to stand up to that kind of tyranny.
00:23:31.000It's, I thought I got into the ministry to love on people and to heal the sick and to have compassion.
00:23:38.000And that's why I think we need to meet a lot of these pastors in the middle.
00:23:41.000And maybe some of you, I hope this is resonating with you, that...
00:23:45.000The time right now for American Christianity, and the reason why we're seeing this refiner's fire, is that we are no longer in a peacetime Christianity.
00:23:53.000And I know that is a difficult message to hear, but I was raised in a peacetime Christianity.
00:23:59.000And the peacetime Christianity lended itself to a type of pastor that was more agreeable.
00:24:06.000And more about the expansion of the non-controversial gospel.
00:24:09.000But when you enter into a wartime Christianity, all of a sudden the people are desiring and hungering a metaphorical general like Jensen Franklin that is willing to, of course, help the people that are in broken circumstances, but also call out orders for the Christian flock to be able to go forth and...
00:24:30.000Spread the gospel and spread truth in their community, in their home.
00:25:20.000And I say this as lovingly as I possibly can, that those of you that are cut out for the wartime.
00:25:25.000Boy, it is time for you to step up even more because you are needed more than ever.
00:25:30.000And I say this in the least judgmental way that I possibly can.
00:25:35.000I don't mean this in a judgmental way.
00:25:37.000Not everyone is cut out for the wartime stuff.
00:25:39.000Some people are sunshine soldiers and some are patriots.
00:25:45.000That's what the revolutionaries used to call the folks that used to go fight in the July and August.
00:25:50.000Yeah, the British are terrible, but in January, all of a sudden, the army shrunk by half.
00:25:55.000When smallpox was spread and you had to go march with no shoes in Pennsylvania on January 25th, all of a sudden you realize what a revolutionary force is cut out of.
00:26:06.000And those sunshine patriots and those summer soldiers went home to their farms like, yeah, beat the British.
00:26:26.000You guys know it's a spiritual battle I'm talking about here.
00:26:29.000I have to clarify for all of our wonderfully accurate friends at CNN that always quote me right on edge, right?
00:26:37.000And so here's my final call to action.
00:26:40.000The final thing I'll say is this, and then I'm going to welcome up my great friend, Lucas Miles.
00:26:44.000I've been doing this now, speaking at churches, and learning for the last five years.
00:26:50.000And the biggest issue that I have finally seen is the question of what is the church and what should the church be?
00:26:58.000And a peacetime pastor will view the church as a place strictly and solely for food pantries and for marriage ministries and worship music.
00:27:36.000In Ekklesia, to be in the public square, to be involved in the motion, to be involved in the laws and the customs and the community around you.
00:27:49.000That when Christ said, on this rock, build my ecclesia, it could have used synagogue, it could have used temple, but it actually used a secular term where otherwise a religious term would have been perfectly sufficient.
00:28:03.000So you think about it, that Christ said, on this rock, build my church.
00:28:07.000We only know this thanks to William Tyndale, who translated the Bible back from the original Greek into...
00:28:17.000And that word ecclesia, it's a game changer because it wasn't a religious term because Christ, and this is not just, this is not exegetical.
00:28:25.000It is a fact of his repeated commandments to us is that Christ did not want us to have a comfortable Christianity where we just kind of stay within our walls and we're very sanctimonious and prideful and saying we have the truth and if you want,
00:28:46.000He wanted us to be in every single domain.
00:28:49.000And you guys know this, is that if we want America to flourish and to prosper, the only way that will happen is if the church wakes up.
00:28:57.000If we make that conversion from a peacetime to the wartime, if we wake up the sleeping giant in this country, because our founding fathers warned us that the Constitution...
00:29:09.000is only adequate for a moral and religious people.
00:29:13.000It is wholly inadequate for the people of any other.
00:29:16.000I can win over as many possible kids on college campuses as possible.
00:29:20.000We can make a lot of videos go viral, but it's all for nothing if the church remains a weak, feeble institution.
00:29:28.000I hope you guys will rise up and speak the truth.