Not much has changed since '99. Sally Morgenthaler's now-classic work still hits a nerve!
"Our failure to reach lost people for Christ in this country is not so much because of their brokenness, but because of ours. And our failure to impact contemporary culture is not because we have not been relevant enough, but because we have not been real enough. Real faith witnesses. It genuinely cares for people and offers a genuine relationship with a genuine God. We may be able to parrot the phrase "Lost people matter to God," but in many of our churches, lost people do not matter nearly as much as we matter. And the believer's worship we so often prescribe to ensure our own well-being poisons from the inside out. It fosters exclusive attitudes, diametrically opposed to the very evangelism and discipleship it is supposed to empower. The truth is, worship that is supposed to promote spiritual health cannot do so if it has become diseased by separatism, whether stated or functional."
The subtitle is "inviting unbelievers into the presence of God." That's a worthy goal indeed. As my church is currently praying and fasting about God's vision for us, I hope this message finds some receptive hearts. The world is watching!
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2 comments:
Is this the cause of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's remark: ' the church has lost the ability to speak about God in a way people can understand' ?
Thanks for writing! Yes, that's right in line, I think. Perhaps in our effort to be more understandable, we have lost the authenticity of our witness. Either that, or the separatism that we have succumbed to has changed what we believe so much that the "power of the gospel" has been lost.
I have given up on restorationism and the pattern theology it leads to, but I ache for the simple gospel of the coming of the Kingdom!
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