October 2007 Archives
David Hansen's book The Art of Pastoring has a chapter on temptations, based on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. There's some really good stuff in there.
This paragraph nails it:
The soul of the church is being lost to a pandering pastorate. The church needs pastors who lead the church in repentance with love. The church needs pastoral leadership that refuses to take the shortcuts and has the courage to allow the church to suffer so that the whole church can be a parable of Jesus. That is what is lost when pastors deliver shortcuts. When the pastor takes the church off the Way of the Cross, the church stops being the parable of Jesus, the body of Christ.
More quotes here.
This is striking, not because of what it says, but because it was written in 1947 by Carl Henry in his book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism:
The day has now come for evangelicalism to rethink its whole building program. By tremendous outlay of funds, most church communities provide a worship structure which usually stands idle except for two Sunday services and a midweek prayer meeting, if the latter. No secular steward could long be happy about such a minimal use of facilities representing so disproportionate an investment. Out of the modern crisis may come a better stewardship.
From an interview with megachurch pastor Dr. Ted Traylor:
I sense that in the past 10-15 years we have moved to an out-of-balance emphasis on leadership in training and equipping church leaders to the detriment of spiritual formation in the man of God. "Everything rises and falls on leadership" is the phrase I hear over and over. And while I am appreciative of this teaching and have gained great help from many who stress leadership training, it seems to me the church rises and falls on Christ in me the Hope of Glory.
A prophetic call from the late Edmund Clowney, at the end of an essay called "The Politics of the Kingdom" (PDF):
The politics of the kingdom demand that Christians take seriously the structure of the church as the form of the people of God on earth. Today the church stands not so much as an institution as a ruin. Preachers of another gospel are not only tolerated; they control the church. The church is in Babylonian captivity to secular goals and values. While radical theologians serve the political left, there is no lack of conservative preachers to proclaim a fascist nationalism in the name of Christ. No longer does the church’s ministry of mercy bear witness to the compassion of Christ’s gospel. Instead, Christians spend on extravagant luxuries the funds Christ has entrusted to them for the relief of the poor and needy.
The deep fellowship of love that joins the Lord’s people finds little expression in churches that meet for one brief hour of formal boredom every Sunday morning. Evangelism has been shifted by default to para-ecclesiastical organizations, many presenting a truncated gospel, and most by their very specialization detaching the gospel from the life of a serving and loving community.
It is time for judgment to begin in the house of God. Let the church break with the deadening customs that have stifled its living service of the Lord. Let it put in practice the politics of the kingdom, and a reformed church will show the world the meaning of true life in community. It will also find an open door that no man can shut in proclaiming Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the Lord of history and salvation.
From Christianity Today on evangelism as marketing:
Should it surprise us that in this era, pastors increasingly think of themselves as 'managers,' 'leaders,' and 'CEOs' of 'dynamic and growing congregations,' rather than as shepherds, teachers, and servants of people who need to know God? And that preaching has become less an exposition of the gospel of Jesus' death and resurrection and more often practical lessons that offer a lot of 'take-away value,' presented in an efficient, friendly manner, as if we were selling cheeseburgers, fries, and a shake?...
Today churches large and small (the small imitating the large) have unthinkingly adopted a marketing mentality that, it turns out, subverts rather than promotes the gospel. We inadvertently imply that the church benefits as much from the spiritual transaction as does the recipient. Marketing, by its very nature, contradicts the essence of the gospel lifestyle of Jesus, who came not to be served, but to expend his life for others—no exchange implied or expected.
How can we possibly communicate the radical, self-giving love of God to our culture if we continue to use a method that by its very nature replaces the notions of sacrificial service for an exchange of goods and services?
