Tuesday, September 04, 2007
The Solution
Jollyblogger has a GREAT post a while back that concluded this way:
But what I really have a problem with is the mainline's are following suit. We see the "success" of the inependent evangelical churches and we ape them. And the bar comes crashing down, in some cases lower than where the independent evangelical congregation would set it. (For example, I don't know too many evangelical churches discussing the ordination of homosexuals.)
Oh, we put lots of names on it - contemporizing, or creating accessibility, speaking today's language - but usually what it is is compromise, it is not repackaging the product, but actually changing it. At some point, will it even be the gospel anymore? Is it now?
What hurts me most is that I am a pretty lousy Christian. My list of problems, weaknesses, and failures would be longer than the total historical output of this blog. And yet so many people around me seem content with even less faith than I have - I have so little and yet they do not know what they are missing.
And those of us that do know what they are missing, don't tell them for fear it will scare them away. We don't even believe the good news that we actually hold is really good news! No wonder the world calls us "hypocrites."
Jesus can change the world, it CAN be fixed. I just wish we'd get out of the way.
I love that - indeed there is an overly simplistic application of the gospel which says that if we will just believe in Jesus, then all will be fine - it's the gospel of Pollyanna. But this gentleman gets it - when the gospel works its way into the fibers of the fabric of our lives, it truly is the solution to every problem because only the gospel is capable of finding, addressing, and rooting out the sin that causes our problems, and only the gospel can provide the satisfaction and hope in Christ that sees us through those problems.David is so right that it makes me want to just come right out and say it -- I call myself an Evangelical, but I do so as a political label, not a religious one. There are a lot of reasons that we so frequently encounter "overly simplistic applications" of the gospel, but Evangelicalism has codified, packaged, promoted, and actively marketed such simplicity. We have made it way too easy to bear the label "Christian."
But what I really have a problem with is the mainline's are following suit. We see the "success" of the inependent evangelical churches and we ape them. And the bar comes crashing down, in some cases lower than where the independent evangelical congregation would set it. (For example, I don't know too many evangelical churches discussing the ordination of homosexuals.)
Oh, we put lots of names on it - contemporizing, or creating accessibility, speaking today's language - but usually what it is is compromise, it is not repackaging the product, but actually changing it. At some point, will it even be the gospel anymore? Is it now?
What hurts me most is that I am a pretty lousy Christian. My list of problems, weaknesses, and failures would be longer than the total historical output of this blog. And yet so many people around me seem content with even less faith than I have - I have so little and yet they do not know what they are missing.
And those of us that do know what they are missing, don't tell them for fear it will scare them away. We don't even believe the good news that we actually hold is really good news! No wonder the world calls us "hypocrites."
Jesus can change the world, it CAN be fixed. I just wish we'd get out of the way.
