Early in my ministry I worked in sales to help supplement my income. As a sales representative, I learned very quickly that my task was not to sell a product or service; it was to sell the value of my product or service. I needed to establish the need, and then explain why my product would meet that need. Sales associates make a mistake when they spend too much time highlighting the problem, but not enough describing how their product can solve that problem. Once a prospective customer sees the value of the product, closing the sale becomes easy.

As I reflected on this well-known sales principle, it occurred to me that there is an application for the church today. Lately, many prophecy teachers, including me, spend a great deal of time exposing the problems in our country—and for good reason. There can be no doubt America is in dire straits. By virtually every measure, we are declining. Morally, culturally, economically, spiritually… all the metrics say the same thing. Namely, these are not the finest days for our country.

Bible teachers are right to call out the church for its role in aiding and abetting this decline. The church has failed to take a stand against sin. Apostasy is rampant, and only a small remnant of Bible-believing churches and pastors are sounding the alarm. Everywhere we turn, evangelical churches in America are adopting a woke, inclusivist model that welcomes and embraces sin rather than confronting it

The church in America has lost its luster. We no longer resemble the special, unique body of Christ that was turning the world upside down in the first century (Acts 17:6). If anything, the church today is hastening America’s rapid slide into oblivion. By and large, the American church is apostate, artificial, apathetic, and asleep. There is no place for this in true, biblical ecclesiology. A woke church is not a church, at least not in the biblical definition.

Yet, as important as it is to confront the church when it compromises on moral standards and abandons the clear teaching of God’s Word, perhaps we have not done a good job of explaining how the church is supposed to make America better. What is the value of the church? Why does America need the church, now more than ever?

First, America needs the church because the church is a divinely ordained institution. In God’s plan of the ages, He established the church in this present age because we have a job to do. The church has many purposes in the world today.

The church exists to showcase the exceeding riches of God’s amazing grace (Ephesians 2:7) by sharing the clear, accurate, and urgent Gospel. We are here to call attention to Christ’s name (Acts 11:26; 15:14). When the church is fulfilling its divine purpose, we remind Satan that God is eminently wiser than he is (Ephesians 3:10). We also remind unbelieving Israel of the benefits of serving God (Romans 11:11) so that when the Messiah returns, they will receive Him. And never forget the crucial role the church is supposed to play in the spiritual battle raging for control of the earth (Ephesians 6:10-18).

Second, America needs the church because the church makes America great. We are to shine like lights in an otherwise dark, perverse, and crooked world (Philippians 2:15). The presence of the Holy Spirit, working in and through the biblical church today, serves as a restraining influence on the destructive, sinful behavior of the world (2 Thessalonians 2:7). When people see the church, functioning like the church is supposed to function, it brings glory to God (1 Peter 2:11-12; Matthew 5:16).

Third, America needs the church because our government has abandoned its duty. Like the institution of the church, the institution of civil government also has a divinely designed purpose and obligation. Throughout history, when governments fail to perform their God-given purpose, God often brings judgment. Solomon warned, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). In God’s divine design, the government exists to punish evil and bless good (1 Peter 2:14). When the government is asleep at the wheel, the church must stand in the gap and maintain the standard of morality and righteousness.

There is a remedy for our nation’s serious problems, and it does not take much selling to see it. If the church will behave the way the church is supposed to behave, it will make America a much better place as we await the Lord’s return.