No Regrets: Just A Phrase or A Lifestyle?

As I travel from my rural Wisconsin home to the nearest town, I am able to choose to listen to five different Christian radio stations. These stations play the range of Christian music and have excellent teachers, encouraging snippets, and constant reminders of what is good and decent. As I sit at my desk, I can access the internet and pod cast my favorite Bible teachers, check in with several daily devotionals, and find any Bible study book I might be searching for in order to answer any question I might have. As I sit in my study, I have several versions of the Bible from various translations to choose from, as well as a bookshelf of inspirational books, devotional books, and Bible study books.
In many ways, I have, and have had, it all when it comes to opportunities to be strong in the faith, and I am not unique in this position.
Yet, if even a portion of the available research is true, all of this availability has not made a substantial difference in my life or in our nation. Church has become a place where ones attendance can easily be missed, transformed lives are rare, ideas for success and growth are now coming from the Godless instead of the Spirit, and where churches measure their success by buildings, budgets, and bodies.
Many pastors claim that the research out there is exactly that - out there - and does not really apply to them. In their church there is real measurable growth, they say, and they are shocked that the nation is not changing. ...