Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look, and an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

I have good news and bad news, I've remembered Chuck Colson saying many years ago.

The good news is there are more Christians than ever before.

The bad news is it doesn't seem to be making any difference.

The same could be said today.

Churches remain active.

Christian language still fills public discourse.

Millions continue to identify with the faith.

And yet, the moral and spiritual influence of Christianity continues to diminish.

Why is that?

Well, perhaps the most important reason is that so many Christians are

content with a version of faith that is sincere, but also thin, maybe orthodox in confession,

but quite shallow in discipleship. Many Christians affirm basic biblical truths, but are shaped more

by the assumptions of the surrounding culture than by the gospel. Whenever Christianity

functions more as a label of private identity than a comprehensive way of life, the faith that

should define us is reduced down to an addition to our lives, instead of the lens through which we

understand all of life. The confusion that results helps explain why the church's public witness

is often so weak. A faith reduced to private spirituality cannot sustain a public vision.

A gospel confined to personal salvation has little to say about how we should live in the world

now. A church that does not intentionally form people,

will see them instead formed by the ambient pressures of our secular culture. At root,

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