Date: July 20, 2017
Host: Jim Schneider
Guest: Sam Rohrer
Listen: MP3 | Order
Sam Rohrer is the president of the American Pastors Network and the Pennsylvania Pastors Network. This network has been identifying, equipping, educating and networking pastors and church members to stand in the gap for truth.
Sam began by describing the state of the church today as weak with silent pulpits. It’s marked far more by apostasy and a leaving of the truth as opposed to a return to it. In other words, we are living in perilous days.
It’s his sense that from a trajectory perspective, we are not peaking. There are remnant pastors and churches but the remnant is a minority. The great percentage of those in the pews and the pulpits today are not primarily concerned about obedience to the Word of God, preaching the truth and living it. It’s more like ‘going along to get along’ and ‘tickling ears’.
When Sam talks about a biblical worldview he uses 4 terms. First of all it’s the understanding and belief that (1) there is God (not a god). (2) There was a creation. (3) There was a fall, precipitated by the devil, where sin entered the world. (4) There is redemption secured by Jesus Christ. Sam believes these are the four basic tenets of a biblical worldview.
The shocking news from George Barna looks like this: Only 4% of Millennials hold to the worldview that Sam described above. Sam believes God would describe our nation as having departed from the truth. When God looks down at that nation, like he did at Israel; when he’d given them everything and they walked away from God saying they didn’t need God anymore, that’s a nation in crisis. That’s where we are.
We’re also reminded of this in the history of our own nation. The founders said that our nation, based upon self-government, would not survive if people did not submit themselves to the 10 Commandments of God. So when we throw out God’s law, prayer and our dependence upon God, our founders knew we could not continue. They knew that no one circumvents God’s judgment and standard.
The proof comes by noticing how God dealt with Israel. When God blesses us and we live in security and we start to think we’ve done that by ourselves, at that point God will reject us like he rejected the inhabitants of the land he drove out before the Israelites.
Sam noted that when God turns a nation over, there’s a steady decline into the depths of depravity and sin. This is often lead and marked by sexual immorality. This is where we are in America. We had knowledge of God, we’ve rejected it and God is saying that if we think we have a better way, we have to figure out how to make a go of it.
So why aren’t shepherds speaking out and saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord!’? Sam believes it’s because of controversy and the concern that if they speak the truth, some will be offended. In that case they withhold the truth, the only thing that has the ability to change and heal lives.
In the midst of all this, Sam described how God still preserves his remnant. He sees God quickening that remnant. It’s in the form of a common attitude between the older faithful and the younger faithful. They have a commitment to honoring God first, a great seriousness about fulfilling their duty as an ordained authority and they are wanting to assist each other. The older pastors aren’t physically connecting with younger pastors because they don’t operate in those circles but in their heads they have a concern. In their heart they see the need in that younger generation.
On the other side of the ledger are the younger pastors that Sam feels don’t see themselves as needing the advice of older pastors. Yet a number of millennial pastors long and hunger for mentoring involvement by an older pastor who they can call to determine what to do in certain circumstances. This is biblical and God’s model.
To solve this issue, the American Pastors Network has begun an initiative called, ‘Bridging the Gap’. It’s covers two primary areas: Generational and Racial. Get the details when you review this Crosstalk broadcast.
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