Based on that logic, Colson, the founder of Prison Fellowship, sought to identify the root of current church problems during his address on "Preaching and the Public Square" at the 19th Annual National Conference on Preaching.
"Of course we care about the world. Of course we care about everything happening in society, including politics, but we better get our own house in order because what we see in the cultural collapse of America around us today and in the Western world is exactly on our doorstep," argued Colson, who was a top aide to former President Richard Nixon before being jailed for the Watergate scandal.
Colson believes the root of the church's problem is that Christians don't know what they believe in.
"I think that is at the heart of the problem of the church - we replaced truth with therapy," he said.
"Most people are basically ignorant," he said referring to believers' lack of knowledge on their own religion.
To make his case, he recalled occasions when he asked his friends to explain the trinity or a group of "mature" church elders to explain the church doctrines, and found that they all "fumbled" for answers but could not provide a satisfactory response.
Likewise, during a speaking engagement he asked a group of distinguished Christians that included theologians from respected universities to explain what Christianity is.
