Maybe Christianity is declining because of our obsession with BIG

Wanting to be big, wanting to look cool, wanting to be accepted, if not popular with the community at large are the bane of true Biblical Christianity. Christians need to pay attention to what the Bible says about the world’s opinion of us, and accept that as the necessary cost of following Christ. Human efforts to change the inevitable only make the world’s opinion more scornful, and make Christianity less effective.

Best I can understand the phrase “youthful lusts”, one of the four areas in which to “flee” is the biblical and only right response, means something akin to desires peculiarly characteristic of children. We’ve downgraded its emphasis by generally associating it with sexual desires, of which there is little contextual evidence that that is what is being referenced.

Anyone who has ever worked with children know their definitive penchant for being the center of attention, considered successful at every level, the leader (ask a group of kindergartners who wants to be “it” in a game of follow the leader and you’ll have a room full of leader wannabe’s).

Observationally speaking, it is this same desire for perceived success, leadership and influence, etc., that has largely been driving the evangelical movement, especially in the mega/contemporary genre. It has not been to the benefit many individuals nor the church of Christ as a whole IMHO.

The Scripture uses “flee” about things that are potentially devastating. We should heed the warning.