HOW TO RESTORE OUR COURAGE
The main purpose for this book is to expose the root causes of the failure of COURAGE in American Evangelical men and their PASTORS. The purpose is not to beat our men over the head, but to expose HOW WE GOT INTO THIS MESS. Because our pastors did not courageously deal with tough cultural issues with our youth over the last 70 years, 29% of church youth have become PRODIGALS. Outside of the church many youths are suicidal and hopeless. The psychology profession is WARNING about the upcoming crisis of mental health.
The lack of courage by our pastors and church men has led to a failure to successfully share the gospel to our hopeless Gen Z generation. Many are planning their own suicides. However, youth depression and hopelessness will be much worse by the time we get to 2026 and 2027 as A.I. starts taking many jobs from Millennials and Gen Zs. The Evangelical church must repent, or we will not be ready for the Marxist chaos that is coming, when mental health issues explode among our youth.
However, since Donald Trump won the Presidency and House and Senate, there is some hope for a better future. Only time will tell, since the radicals in our society will FIGHT Donald Trump at every turn. The next four years will be WAR between good and evil.
The great British Christian apologist of one hundred years ago, G.K. Chesterton, describes courage this way,
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to LIVE taking the form of a readiness to DIE.” “The Paradoxes of Christianity.” Orthodoxy, www.chesterton.org . [My CAPS]
It is a willingness to take risk in order to really have a meaningful life. Courage would be like early adventurers [Lewis and Clark] taking great risk to travel to unknown places to have an exciting life of adventure. Most pastors do not want an adventure unless they are a missionary. Most want a SAFE existence, and therefore they have no courage. The Christian life could be an exciting ADVENTURE, if we only had faith and courage to follow the life God wants for us. Most of us take the BORING path of little faith and little courage. Then we wonder why the church is so weak.
A brand-new book has just been published by Kirk Cameron.
"Born to be Brave: How to be a part of America’s Spiritual Comeback,"
In this book he says that God is moving in America, and we must not give up hope about the future. Pastor Jack Hibbs reviews the book in the Foreword, and says the following,
"Born to be Brave challenges us to be warriors but also reminds us of our call to bear the truth in love, be filled with compassion, and be unsurprised when the world hates or persecutes us.
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Kirk challenges us by explaining where we get the courage we need.
“If you think God has given us a pass to represent his values in our time, that’s dishonoring to Him. If you don’t believe there is an opportunity here – a set up for a comeback – I want to suggest it is time to open your eyes of faith.” [Ch. 1]
“If we struggle with cowardice, that is a leftover of our old selves, it is not a part of our new creation God has made of us through his grace…. Courage is less about our natural grit, than about God’s supernatural gift. Through the new birth, he’s already placed the capacity for tremendous courage within us, and we just need to access it and live it out.” [Ch 1] [My bold]
In other words, we need to step out in faith and trust God to release his courage in our lives that he has already given to us by his Holy Spirit when we were born again. It is a supernatural gift that God will give to those who trust Him.
Our Millennials and now our Gen Zs have been under attack for over 30 years, and we did not help them properly while they were under attack. They are in bad emotional and spiritual condition and badly need the church’s help.
It is time for courage in our difficult days. As President Ronald Reagan said,
