Posted on 10/24/2009 6:53:08 AM PDT by Hawk720
Concerned evangelicals gathered last week to search the soul of their movement and find a new way forward.
Among evangelicals, who account for a quarter of the U.S. population, the idea that they must focus their attention on shaping authentic disciples of Jesus has always had broad support. But how to do that in a consumerist society with little appetite for self-denial is fueling internal debate.
About 500 people attended a conference at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary on "renewing the evangelical mission." Leading thinkers called fellow believers to repent for a host of sins, from reducing the Gospel to a right-wing political agenda to rendering God as a lenient father who merely wants "cuddle time with his kids."
"We are seeing the very serious weakening of American faith, even among people who profess to be believers," said Os Guinness, senior fellow of the EastWest Institute in New York and author of "The Case for Civility." "Yet an awful lot of people haven't really faced up to the true challenge and still think they can turn it around with things like political action."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I hate the term “evangelicals”. They use it as almost a derogatory connotation like Bible thumpers and the likes.
Why not call the people CHRISTIANS??? That’s what they are.
Renew: Dump “Emergent churchery”.
Dump “The Shack”.
Dump Joel Osteen.
Pick up your Bible. Read the Word. Obey the Word. Pray the Word. Live the Word.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
The word is critical - as passed down verbally through Apostolic succession and as passed on through the Bible.
Why not call the people CHRISTIANS??? That’s what they are.
American evangelicals are not (thank goodness) the totality of Christians in America.
“Evangelical” obviously comes from “evangel” or Gospel, and “evangelistic.”
The term has been used prolifically since 1830, and for 80 to 100 years actually indicated the Christian fundamentalist, Bible-believing core of Christians when things got confused by the introduction of German Rationalism and other anti-bibliscist movements.
The Evangelical Union in the 1930s and 40s saw a great period of revival in their churches. Most Bible-believing Baptists didn’t join in the efforts of the Evangelical Union, but most of them did not try to bad-mouth their efforts either-—they just went their own course, and also had revival movements operating.
What Evangelicals were in the beginning then was seen as the characteristic of the “Fundamentalist” movement. WWII saw a great liberalizing of the Evangelical movement, and later the term neo-evangelical was coined by Dr. Harold Okenga of Biola College; it was a compromising and liberalizing expression.
Where we labor on the mission field, most people we meet who call themselves Christians are actually “CINO”s (Christian in name only).
Although we would that Christians just call themselves Christians, we recognize that not all Christians are Christians in reality. Thus there is a need for the distinctions. Sad, sad, sad . . . but true, tru, true.
From the sermon titles "Ministry in an Age of Itching Ears." (Full transcript and MP3 download available at the link.)
Abusrd to claim a group of 500 Leftist political activists pretending to be Christians speaks for the Evangelicals in this country.
Dear Leftist frauds,
Please tell me where in the Bible it says "take from those who produce, at the point of a sword so self rightious Leftist politicans can hand it those who do nothing in exchange for their votes."
It would seem your recommendation is rather naive in light of the perceived need for this meeting.
If Christianity could be reduced to a book, why did Christ give us a Church instead of a manuscript.
The problem with many ‘evangelical’ churches is that they ignore the Bible, and preach to tickle sinful ears!
The problem isn’t that they stick to the Word of God, but that they don’t know the Word of God exists!
You won’t find the scriptures teaching that God wants to make us wealthy, or give us happiness (instead of joy). You won’t find easy grace in the scripture.
These folks HAVE ‘church’. It is God’s Word that they need.
Do you think evangelicals will also eventually come to Rome?
“John Jefferson Davis, a Gordon-Conwell theologian, said today’s Christians “need a high-intensity experience of God” and should seek it through meditative readings of Scripture. Still, he conceded, even Bible-based worship will need to be “more attractive and more enjoyable than a trip to the shopping mall.””
That is the problem - preachers who are worried about entertainment. We aren’t called to entertain the world, but to preach the gospel. Preachers who worry about increasing their salaries by increasing the congregation need to repent...and then tell their bloated with tares congregations to do likewise!
Why? So they could learn MORE doctrines of men?
Uhhh...He did give us a manuscript. I read it every morning of my life and Christ is on every page.
I would add: quit worshiping at the behest of Rick Warren...the supposed need to copy his church and follow his writings have cause strife. Plus Rick Warren calls Hussein a "friend". How quaint.
They can’t bring themselves to say anything that includes the word Christ.
***”If Christianity could be reduced to a book, why did Christ give us a Church instead of a manuscript.”
Uhhh...He did give us a manuscript. I read it every morning of my life and Christ is on every page.***
Prove your claim. Where does it say that Christ gave us a manuscript?
Amen.
I’m guessing you are Roman Catholic. I grew up Catholic and have been a born again believer in Jesus for about 25 years.
If it requires effort, how is it "grace?"
“You won’t find easy grace in the scripture.”
Grace is not easy.
It cost Jesus a death on the cross.
But grace IS free.
A religion of cliches...
This part, I just do not get, though:
Still, he conceded, even Bible-based worship will need to be "more attractive and more enjoyable than a trip to the shopping mall." "Unless we can experience God in a way that is as real and as appealing as what we see on a 60-inch, high-definition plasma home theater screen," Davis said, "we are in trouble."
I don't enjoy trips to the shopping mall. I go to one occasionally, when I want to try on something at the J.C. Penney clearance sale, but it's a drag. I don't have, or want, a 60" HD plasma home theater ... but if I did have one, what I watched on it would NOT be real. Mr. Davis may not even have realized what he said, but imagining that anything on television is "real" is a serious error that absolutely pervades our society.
Anyway, I'd rather be at Mass, or choir practice, or even a festival committee meeting (ghastly as those can be) than at most of the other options. Maybe a Del McCoury concert would be better, but we have some excellent bluegrass musicians at our church, too.
Grace is given to those who repent. It is grace because all of us deserve nothing but condemnation.
Grace is ‘free’, but it isn’t given unconditionally.
“Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” - John 3
Belief is not mere assent that something is true.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” - John 1
“28Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?...35Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6
I like that, that is to be called a Christian. There is a Calvary Baptist nearby in which a friend of mind attends; once I joked about him being a Baptist, he replied; “Here they are Christians first, then Baptists.” I love that.
The word “Christian” is only given 3 times in the Bible:
First in Acts 11:26b, “And the discibles were called Christians first in Antioch.”
Then in Acts 26:28: “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
And last: “Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” (1 Peter 4:16)
There is a great message in this, called a Christian by others (there was enough evidence that they could see that they were followers of Christ). And we see you can be almost persuaded to be a Christian, yet never be one. And we can suffer (not all be prosperous and safe) as a Christian.
May we all, that claim the name of Christ, never be ashamed of Him, nor a shame to Him; and above all rejoice in that we are found worthy to suffer shame for Him.(Acta 5:41)
What a coincidence; I was a "born again believer" for about twenty years before I realized Christ talked MUCH more about eating his flesh and drinking his blood than he did about being born again.
Of course i recognized many more inconsistancies than this once I quit making excuses for the total inability of bible christianity to deal with sin.
Any fool can tell a fat guy not to eat.
So where does your disdain for “easy” grace come from?
I agree. I laugh when certain people refer to themselves as "evangelicals" rather than say "christian".
Jesus deals with my sin, not my adherence to a particular denominational slant.
.... which is not to say that you are not devoted to Christ. At least, it seems to me that you probably are.
May God bless you.
Define “easy” grace.
I define it to mean those who say, “I believe in Jesus” and then prove by their lives that they do NOT. You cannot be born again and continue unrepentant in sin - the Holy Spirit will not permit it. That doesn’t mean you behave perfectly, but that your sins are followed by repentance...and in many cases, we repent again and again and again.
From the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith:
15.3 Saving repentance is a gospel grace [1] by which we are made aware of the many evils of our sin by the Holy Spirit. [2] By faith in Christ [3] we humble ourselves over our sin with godly sorrow, hatred of it, and self-loathing. We pray for pardon and strength of grace, [4] and determine and endeavour, by [the power] supplied by the Spirit, to walk before God and to please him in all things. [5]
1. Acts 5:31 Acts 11:18 2 Timothy 2:25
2. Psalms 51:1-6 Psalms 130:1-3 Luke 15:17-20 Acts 2:37-38
3. Psalms 130:4 Matthew 27:3-5 Mark 1:15
4. Ezekiel 16:60-63 Ezekiel 36:31-32 Zechariah 12:10 Matthew 21:29 Acts 15:19 Acts 20:21 Acts 26:20 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 1 Thessalonians 1:9
5. Proverbs 28:13 Ezekiel 36:25 Ezekiel 18:30-31 Psalms 119:59,104,128 Matthew 3:8 Luke 3:8 Acts 26:20 1 Thessalonians 1:9
Easy grace separates Jesus as Lord from Jesus as Savior, and says you can accept Jesus as the latter without acknowledging Him as the former.
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