What does it take to rebuild the Church of Jesus Christ in today's world?

Kevin Swanson highlights the urgent need for a dual reformation, both of the church and the Christian family. The breakdown of the church's influence on culture stems from its fragmentation and susceptibility to worldly ideas. Swanson emphasizes that without reforming both the family unit and the church, the salt and light intended for cultural influence will be absent. The church must revisit its foundations, focusing on unity, gospel truth, and nurturing children in the ways of the Lord.

Swanson further argues that the reformation must extend into all areas of church life, including worship and education. He calls for the obliteration of worldliness within the church and insists that fathers must engage in family discipleship, aligning with biblical standards like those in Deuteronomy 6-7 and Proverbs. This battle for the next generation's hearts and minds is crucial, and pastors and parents must engage intentionally to prevent losing them to secular influences.

1 Corinthians 16:13 (NKJV): "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong."

The priority is to rebuild the church. The priority is to rebuild Jerusalem, which is the Church of Jesus Christ. Our concern is the breakdown of the church. Without the reforming of the Christian family and the reforming of the church at the same time, we will have nothing. So there will be no salt, there will be no influence for the culture around us.

Our priority is to rebuild the church, the unity of the church, the worldview foundations, the truth that is taught within the confines of the church, the power of the gospel absolutely must be retained, believed, held to, held up, and preached in the churches. We just need a reformation of the church. We need a reformation of church worship. We need an absolute obliteration of worldliness and worldly ideas from the church. We need to be sure that families are nurturing their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to be sure that fathers are engaged as fathers. We need to obliterate these church programs that make the law of God or the intent of God and family discipleship of no effect. We need to reform the church in terms of the church attendance, the love for the church, the unity of the church. We need to fight like gladiators for the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, as we read in Ephesians 4. The Church is so fragmented, the Church is so weak, the Church gives way to worldly ideas, the Church is so influenced by the worldly media, worldly educational institutions.

The church needs to bring about a strong reformation, the area of education. That I believe is the point at which seminaries have been corrupted, the Christian colleges are corrupted, K-12 schools are corrupting children in Christian churches. It's just a mess. And so we need to restore first and foremost a godly church preaching the standards of God's word, calling God's people to repentance, to faith, to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to be sure that the educational standards by which we educate our children are in line with Deuteronomy 6-7, the book of Proverbs, Proverbs 1-7, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge.

If that's not the absolute foundation of all education provided for our children in the K-12 years, then the pastors have an obligation to bring those parents under church discipline. We need to remember that we are in a battle. We are fighting for the hearts and minds and souls of our children, and the devil has almost full access to them through the educational institutions, through the peers, through popular media. And if we're not engaging the battle hard as pastors and parents, we're gonna lose the next generation. So it's a generational battle, it's a reformation of church, family, it's a reformation of education, all that needs to happen in order to somehow revive the church and to find a viable church in by the year say 2055.

So yeah, we've got our agenda cut out for us. I think at the bottom line, we need to just cry out to God that he would revive the hearts and minds and souls of his people within the church. That they can't see the need for revival, they can't see the need for reformation, the church is dead as a doornail. And so I think the first thing to do is bring the church together in prayer that he would open our eyes for the deep, deep spiritual need for a reviving work of the Holy Spirit of God. So much of our churches, our Ichabod Community Church, the glory is departed, the spirit is departed, and we just need to see a spiritual life return to the Church of Jesus Christ in every community in this country.