Updated

By Bill ShulerPastor, Capital Life Church

Newsweek magazine's sensationalist cover story, headlined, "The Decline and Fall of Christian America," was, in my view, the result of an underlying agenda that caused the article to draw the wrong conclusion.

The article did, however, prompt me to consider the fact that Christians must never be complacent about their faith. We must continue to nurture , and, of course, share it. Posted here are some thoughts on how we could lose a standard of faith--how American christianity could possibly decline and fall. Such a decline and fall would start with the individual. Here are some examples of what each of us could do to make America "post-Christian":

1. Reduce your prayer life to blessing your meals.

2. Embrace a form of religion over Jesus.

3. Win arguments but lose people.

4. Choose which parts of the Bible you want to believe -- and discard the rest.

5. Don't share your faith so as not to offend.

6. Dilute the message to gain a wider audience.

7. Embrace success and forget the poor.

8. Get uncomfortable around the unchurched.

9. Keep the Bible on the shelf.

10. Keep Jesus in stained glass.

Through the generations Jesus' followers have established schools, hospitals and orphanages. They have reminded the world that man is not an end unto himself.

The call now goes out to a new generation. The Scriptures declare, "You are the salt of the earth...the light of the world...Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven."