Latest project: A Call to Resurgence: Will Christianity Have a Funeral or a Future? (9781414389486, $19.99, Tyndale House Publishers).

You write of Christendom, civil religion and Christianity. What are the differences between them? Christendom is a cultural religion that borrows much of the narrative, moral framework and vocabulary of Christianity. … Civil religion is the institutionalized version of Christendom [in which] the government appropriates ethics to enforce quasi-Christian behavior. Everyone assumes everyone else is a Christian without ever learning what Christianity is all about. The result, as [Søren] Kierkegaard observed, is that “Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it.” … True Christianity is a faith that must be professed, practiced and possessed: To profess faith means to confess Jesus Christ as Lord and proclaim this faith to others in hopes that they, too, will turn from sin and trust in Jesus alone for salvation. To practice faith means to live a new life of worship patterned after Jesus and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to continually repent of sin, obey Scripture, fellowship with other believers, serve in love and partake in the sacraments such as Communion and baptism. To possess faith means that God has implanted the life of Jesus in you.

What leads you to believe that Christendom in America is dead? The nail in the coffin for Christendom in America was President Obama’s second inaugural ceremony, which included representatives from numerous faith traditions to witness the event, with one glaring omission. The evangelical Christian, pastor Louie Giglio, was dumped without apology. When evangelicals can’t even land a token appearance at an event orchestrated to reflect the various facets of American society, it’s clear that Christian clout has reached its expiration date and been pulled off the shelf. I’m not exactly mourning the loss of Christendom ... but Christian faith is not just losing its market share. Christendom and civil religion have confused the substance of Christian faith to the point where it is losing its salvation message. I don’t care about preserving Christendom. My concern is the gospel of Jesus Christ, humanity’s one and only hope.

What are you urging believers to do? Stand firm and stay on mission. When sins become civil rights, there is a temptation for Christians to keep our mouths shut and turn what is supposed to be a public faith into a private faith, but we are commanded to not be ashamed of the gospel. We may feel social pressure to accept the new norms, or at least approach sensitive issues in a way that attempts to make the truth palatable and socially acceptable. But the world has enough politicians; it needs more prophets. We can’t expect that we’ll be more palatable and socially acceptable than Jesus was. He was the only sinless human being who ever lived. He did nothing wrong and everything right. He articulated the gospel perfectly, obeyed God flawlessly, loved people completely and yet still died bloody. Jesus’ opponents compared him to the devil and then killed him. With all of our shortcomings and failures, we can’t expect to fare much better. … For Christians, this is our opportunity! Not our tragedy but our opportunity. Not an end but a beginning. Not the worst thing that could have happened, but the biggest opportunity we’ve been given. For what? To bear witness. We have a message of help, healing and hope: Jesus Christ is alive. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus makes life, death, suffering and persecution meaningful. … Christendom may have died, but in that death there is a real opportunity for a resurgence of biblically faithful, personally humble, evangelistically fruitful, missional Christianity. I am calling Christians to stand firm and stay on mission with Jesus: evangelize, give, serve and enjoy new life filled with the power, hope and love we have through the Holy Spirit.

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