In this video, Kevin Turner, President of Strategic World Impact, discusses the issue of watered-down discipleship and lukewarm Christianity in America. He attributes this problem to the desire to increase church numbers by lowering the standards of discipleship. Turner shares a personal experience of realizing his own hypocrisy and the need for genuine repentance. He emphasizes the importance of seeking a true relationship with God and being willing to be a failure for Him rather than seeking personal success. Turner also highlights the contrast between the prosperity and lack of persecution in America, urging Christians to examine their faith and strive for a deeper, more authentic walk with God.

This is Sid Roth saying, I have a vision. Now is the set time to blow the trumpet in Zion. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound it on the mountain. Blow a trumpet in Zion. Shalom, Mishpochah. Shalom, family. Mishpochah, it's a Hebrew word, it means family. And we're the Mishpochah, the family with the Jewish heart. Made up of Jewish and non-Jewish people that are one new man. Messiah Yeshua, Messiah Jesus. Getting ready, Mishpochah, to blow the grandest shofar. Or the grandest trumpet in Zion. We want everyone everywhere to hear the good news. We want everyone everywhere to be red hot for the Messiah. But you know, it's kind of difficult here in 21st century America. Because the gospel has been so watered down. Discipleship has been so watered down. That I recently read Charisma Magazine, and I saw an article in here that piqued my interest. Written by a man I've interviewed previously. The title of the article is, Why Isn't the American Church Growing? The author, Kevin Turner, president of Strategic World Impact. He works in primarily three areas. War zones, disaster areas, and where Christians are being persecuted. Kevin, where am I speaking to you from right now? Well, I'm calling you from Africa, continent of Africa. And I'm right on the border of Sudan, where we've been working now for, well actually here almost ten years, from this area the last five years. Now listen, I have a problem with the watered down discipleship. Seeker sensitive Christianity in America. If I have a problem, I imagine that you have a bigger problem. How did we get from the book to what we have? Well, I think one of the reasons is simply the fact that people thought that by lowering the bar, lowering the bar of discipleship, that we could possibly increase the numbers. And it's indicative of our society because when you talk to a pastor or anybody else, any more church leader, the first thing they want to tell you is how big their church is. And we're not interested in quantity, I'm interested in quality. And what I see all the time is we're just fascinated with the showmanship of everything. And so to do that, we have to have these seeker sensitive churches that literally alienate and destroy the very foundations of the Word of God so that we can have these wannabe disciples who truly have never been born again. But you know what? I think many have been born again, but they stay babies. Well, all I know is there's two things that are indicative of a baby. When that baby comes out of his mother's womb, one, he'll cry, and two, he longs for milk. And Peter said, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word. And I have a hard time believing that we can call people, say they're born again, they have no desire to be in fellowship, they have no desire for the Word of God, they don't cry out to the father or mother. You see what I mean? They're not crying to Father God saying, you know, God touch me, fill me, cleanse me, purify me. And so there's no signs of life other than this. We teach them how to be religious. We teach them how to pray. We bribe them to come to church. We pick them up and bring them there. We take them to lunch afterwards. And really, what we have is flesh born of flesh. It's not spirit born of the spirit. In America, it's an unreal moment in history. There has never been a country where the average person is as prosperous, almost lives, not almost, lives like a king of former generations. We basically don't have any persecution. Yes, we had 9-11, but basically we're like in a bubble. I want you to tell me a bit about what's going on in the rest of the world. Well, first of all, let me address the whole issue of persecution. Scripture plainly states in Timothy that anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And unfortunately, most Americans do nothing with that verse. It's almost as if it were never written. I believe that even in America, you can live your life in such a red hot way, such a passionate way, that you do receive persecution. Now, it may not be the same as in Sudan or in Saudi Arabia or in Eritrea or many of the countries that I've worked in, but there's alienation. I think one of the big things is, see, we don't want to lose our good reputation. We don't want to be thought less of than we think we're worth. And what I see around the world, the contrast to that. I mean, we're baptizing Muslim converts who were fundamentalists. That what baptism means to them is more than being buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk a newness of life through the power of the Holy Spirit. It means the threat of death. It means utter alienation from your family. It means that husbands can have their wives taken away. It means their children can be taken away. It means that Jesus becomes their all in all. Let me read a short paragraph from your article, Why Isn't the American Church Growing? A Chinese Christian recently visited the United States and toured churches here. At the end of the trip, he was asked what he thought about American spirituality. He answered, quote, I'm amazed at how much the church in America can accomplish without the Holy Spirit. End quote. Yeah, unfortunately, that tends to be the case. It reminds me of a top Christian television personality that fell and ended up in prison. And I went to visit him in prison and I talked about some of the large media ministries in the United States. And I said, you know, they've got to be from God because look how big they are. Look, look how they're growing so much. And he looked at me, he smiled, and then he almost laughed. And he said, listen, when you've got the gifting from God, you can build any size organization you want to, and God doesn't even have to be in it. That's correct. Unfortunately, you just hit a heartstring of mine, because I believe that many of the ministers of America in my own heart, believe me, this thing lurks, where we literally have the potential to prostitute the graces of God. In other words, God touches us. His gifts and call are without repentance. He desires through love to touch us that we might be used for His glory. But what happens in the end, we're building our own kingdoms, we're prostituting His graces, and in the end, we're lifted up in pride, we come under the same condemnation as the devil, and we're pushed from His presence. And I believe that part of the key to why America isn't experiencing revival, one of the reasons, is simply that God can't trust us with His Holy Spirit. I remember one time I was praying, in fact, I was asking the Lord about healing for certain people. And I'm in the shower, taking a shower and getting all cleaned, and really, basically, what I'm doing is, I'm trying to convince the Lord to use me to heal some people. And I remember He spoke to me so gently, and it cut me like a knife. He said, Kevin, would you want those people to be healed if nobody knew you were involved? Immediately. That nails you. My heart was broken. I thought, God, you know, what's the sense of glory if you don't get any of it, right? And this is the thing that can affect my heart, that can affect your heart. The battle that I face as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, isn't failure. The battle I face is success. I remember one time we were shipping supplies into Serbia. They were under sanctions under Resolution 724 with the UN, and I had special clearance to ship in medical supplies and various things, and I was billed as the Wonder Boy. Boy, if anybody could get it in, Kevin could. And I remember my containers were sitting in Piraeus, Greece, one of the largest shipping ports in the world, and I'm supposed to get these things up to Serbia. I had two weeks, and I was going to travel through their flat at Budapest. Well, nothing was moving. I'm staying at this old Bible school up in the top floor, and again and again, nothing moved. Day after day, I spent over $24,000. I was personally in debt, and literally each day, here's what I noticed. My prayers at the end of the day got shorter and shorter. And finally, I came down, crawled up those stairs, fell down on that creaky wooden floor, just me and Jesus, and I prayed one of the truest prayers I've ever prayed in my life. All I said was this, Why? And the Lord spoke to me as clear as a bell. He said, Kevin, you don't want those containers in there for those people. You want those containers in there so you look good. This is what the Lord taught me, and I pray to God I never forget. He said, You know what, Kevin? Everybody wants to be my personal success story, but nobody's interested in being a failure for me. And there on that floor, all alone in Greece, I had a good old-fashioned death, burial, and resurrection. And before Jesus with a broken heart, I saw my arrogance and my vanity and my pride, and I cried out. I said, From this day forward, I resign myself to be content to be your personal failure. And what I mean by that, it's not that God destroys everything around you. It's that you're content not to look good. It's that you're content just to be faithful, whether the world applauds you or not. So success is the biggest danger that I have ever seen in my personal life. And unfortunately, this corporate world mentality has consumed the average pastor, because he sees a couple megachurches on TV, and they laud themselves as the new approach. And the next thing you know, everybody's lining up, and you're making these gospel puppet preachers who have no unction, no anointing of the Holy Spirit, because they haven't sought God. They've just looked at a program or a method. But the Bible says, God calls a man. And this is what I see in my own heart and in the nation. This is the thing I see, and it breaks my heart. Mishpochah, I'm speaking to Kevin Turner, president of Strategic World Impact. He works in war zones, disaster areas, areas where Christians are being persecuted. Knowing how he lays his life on the line, his family's life on the line, because they're with him on the field. And hearing how broken he is, and how repentant he is. I mean, woe is me. When Isaiah stood before the throne, he says, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm an unclean hand amongst an unclean people. I've seen the king. Mishpochah, Kevin's done an audio cassette that we want to make available for a donation of $10 or more. Call or write today. Ask for Kevin's teaching cassette. If you are lukewarm, if you know someone that's lukewarm, there's no more time for that. Kevin's cassette, donation of $10 or more. If you would like to receive a complimentary copy of our bi-monthly teaching newsletter, materials catalog, or information about becoming Mishpochah or Halatzin, write to me, Sid Roth, Post Office Box 1918, Brunswick, Georgia, 31521. Or call our order only line, 1-800-548-1918. To place a credit card order, call anytime, 1-800-548-1918. For all other calls, the number is 912-265-2500. That's 912-265-2500. For a cassette tape of this week's broadcast, send a donation of $10 or more to Sid Roth, that's S-I-D-R-O-T-H, Post Office Box 1918, Brunswick, Georgia, 31521. To see our television show, It's Supernatural, and to listen to past radio programs, look us up on the web at www.sidroth.org. That's www.sidroth.org.