We live in a success oriented society. On the whole, we highly value perfection, excellence, progress and achievement. We’re encouraged to plan and organise our lives at every juncture and in every respect to best place ourselves for this success we value so highly, as well as for efficiency and effectiveness. “Fail to plan, plan [...]
I wrote a post the other day entitled Hating The Sin Whilst Loving The Sinner, and as I had hoped, it opened up some really interesting discussions. Predictably, many readers related back to me their belief that loving someone without taking into consideration, or directing correction toward, any sin which might be apparent in their [...]
Ministry once was about service. Now it’s about running the service. It used to be about making disciples. Now it seems it’s more about helping people solve their personal issues so they can hold down the jobs that pay the tithes. Once, people used to lay down those jobs, and their friendships and their entitlements and go away to strange places to make disciples for Christ, and not even get paid to do it. Once, churches used to support these missionaries because they saw it as their job to use their prosperity to make disciples of people in places where God was trying to get to. Now, the missionaries still go away, but church money rarely follows them to the mission field. Churches instead teach their members that their friendships with unchurched people are special mission work. It’s cheaper and much, much easier to administrate.
