By REV JOHN HATCHER
Religion Columnist

We need a new word to use for what we need in the church. A little background: comparatively, there is nothing wrong with the United States of America. You can cite all kinds of social perversions that prevail in American society. But they are not the problems. Rampant abortion? Not the problem! Unholy lifestyles? Not the problem! Immoral sex? Not the problem! Drug proliferation? Not the problem.

Now, we are so naive to think that if homosexuality were roundly condemned and banned, America would be the better. In the same way, we naively think that if abortion were aborted as a respectable response to unwanted life and if the flow of drugs were stopped, America would be a far better place. Personally, I don't think so.

Why? Because the problem in America cannot be genuinely found in our cultural and social lifestyle. The problem in America can be found in the church of Jesus Christ. "We have not changed this generation. This generation has changed us," wrote Michael Brown in his most recent book published this year by Renew (Dr. Brown is founder and president of the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry located in Pensacola, Florida).

In 1997 George Barna survey Americans who considered themselves Christians and Americans who considered themselves unchurched. Asking for responses to 152 items, Barna made a tragic, but revelatory discovery: responses from church folks were no different from those of the unchurched non-Christians. Wow! Let me put it another way: there's not a dime's worth of difference between the lifestyle of Christians and non-Christians.

In her attempt to change things in her house, the church calendars weeks of revival throughout the year. Some churches may call the week by some other name, but in substance, it's a week in which an attempt will be made to get church folks off their blessed assurances, repent of their unholy lifestyles, and get out into a lost and dying world with the life-giving message of Jesus Christ.

These traditional weeks of revival are "feel good" weeks. We huddle several nights to hear how bad sin is, how worldly the world is, and how we are going to hell if we don't because Christians. The week finally gets over. Everyone's bushed because they have been deprived of their restful moments before the television for several nights. Basically, though, nothing changes.

That's why we need a new word. The old word has too long been associated with a week and not a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit. The new word put forth by Dr. Brown is Revolution with its insipid call to Holy War.

We need a revolution in the church. We have been so changed by this generation that we simply don't know how unlike we are to the true church of Jesus Christ. Most everything needs changing. And that's the word that anti-revolutionaries do not likechange. Our mother Great Britain did not like it when the colonies wanted their tea a different way. But it took a revolution to start the greatest nation on the face of the earth, past and present.

We need Christian revolutionaries. Not pew warmers. Not Sunday morning Christians. Not country club elite. We need some men and women who are ready to go to war for a heavenly cause. When the church gets full of revolutionaries, the world is fair game. Then, the dirty devil will be shaking in his hot boots.

Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge

Community Church in Fayetteville.

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