I re-read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” today and it deeply moved me. The context from the 1960’s to today is not the exact same – praise God that much has changed. But you can’t help but see that many similarities and present day applications still exist. I challenge you to take the time today to read it (or re-read it) for yourself.
“So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are. But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”