Observation: After the more formal and structured greeting, this is what Paul first says to the Christians in Rome ... that he thanks God for them all the time, over and over, every time he hears about their lives of faith. Roman Christians are living in the epicenter of the world, under the nose of the most powerful ruler ever seen, who expects total honor and respect and even worship from his plebian subjects. It is likely the most difficult place in the known world to be a Christian. Yet there are the Christians in Rome, believing in Jesus, honoring God, and Paul know it and celebrates them for it.
Application: There are VERY hard places to be a Christian in the world today, with 'hard' being defined as likely deadly if caught (Iran, Myanmar jump to mind). However, in the United States, the "greater Puget Sound" area is brutally difficult. Outsiders are SO ignorant of this fact. A radio station conducted a survey in 2015, and the results of the survey were published under the title "Don't Believe in God? Move to Seattle." This area of approximately 4 million people self-declares to be 52 percent Christian, but really isn't. Less than 4 percent of the population attends Christian church at least twice per month, and 64 percent say they NEVER attend any kind of religious service. In this survey, most who called themselves "Christian" did so because they were raised going to church, and the survey didn't have a 'none' choice. In other (better and more comprehensive) surveys of the area, the actual plurality in the region is agnostic/atheist/'none', and Christians as measured by actual belief come in at closer to 19 percent.
The BEST-case numbers from the above make Seattle the least-churched region in the entire country. The LIKELY accurate numbers make Seattle similar to the nations in the "10/40 window".
Okay ... so now, let's ask the hard questions today!
Why is it that Christians in the "bible-belt", or in any other part of the U.S., don't think about us Christians in the Puget Sound area and thank God for us? Why don't they pray for us? Why aren't they hearing stories about our perseverance and strength and faith and worship and lifting us to the Lord for strength and encouragement? Why aren't they writing letters to us to fortify our courage? Why aren't they sending missionaries to aid our evangelism and augment our preaching?
There are two hard answers.
First, those Christians are so self-absorbed and ignorant that they are casting us aside for their own comfort, their own pet projects. They would rather pat themselves on the back by sending money to missionaries in North Africa, or taking a trip to hand out tooth brushes in remote villages of India, than come to Seattle and have to stand face-to-face with a software millionaire wearing a rainbow tee-shirt, standing before a thousand like-minded people, lecturing about the spectrum of transgender practices, openly declaring that any 'religion' that disagrees is a hate organization, while elected officials actually pass laws making common church activities illegal ... and have to think to themselves 'I would like to demonstrate the love of Jesus toward these people'.
Second, we Christians here aren't being faithful enough. We love our high-paying jobs at the software companies too much to raise a fuss. We aren't so active in showing the love in Jesus during these same anger-filled events that it becomes news that spreads to other Christians. We aren't visible. We have mostly gone into hiding, and worse yet we have begun fleeing the call as PNW Christians have simply given up and are moving away. In addition, we haven't made know the issue and urgency, the fact that this region is simultaneously one of the least-Christian places in the world, AND the epicenter of the technology information boom that is influencing the thinking of the entire world ... and thus made Christian leaders aware of both the opportunity and risk.
We are failing our Lord. We are failing Jesus. And we don't care as much as Paul did.
Prayer: Lord, in both personal and communal humility, I confess to you today that we are failing you in the mission you have given. We are not effectively baptizing and teaching in the name of Jesus, here in the Seattle area. Just measuring our church against another and saying "we're better" isn't good enough. We aren't in an internal competition, but rather this is a spiritual war, and we aren't arming ourselves and showing up well enough. We need both hard answers addressed. We need to bear down and answer the call in this time and in this place where you have put us, and we need help and reinforcements from others. Please. Amen.
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