I think my brother-in-Christ,
Matt Chandler, is spot on in the following quote.
“We live in a day and age when, from pre-seminary all the way
through seminary, prospective pastors are fed the pabulum of church growth.
Then once they hit the playing field of ministry they are fed it more and more.
From books to classes to seminars to conferences, the church is absolutely consumed
with growing at all costs. Forget whether the members of our churches have any
real depth or substance to them; we just want to be able to measure and count
the three Bs: buildings, budgets, and butts in the seat. The Bible does say a
few things about churches growing in those ways, but today this has become the
prevailing mind-set of ministry in evangelicalism, and it is a biblically
perverted, missionally distorted mind-set.
“This avoidance of the difficult things in Scripture – of sinfulness
and hell and God’s notable severity – is idolatrous and cowardly. If a man or
woman who teaches the Scriptures is afraid to explain to you the severity of
God, they have betrayed you, and they love their ego more than they love you.
In the same way that it is not loving or kind not to coach your children on the
dangers of the street and the dangers of the swimming pool, so it is not loving
not to warn men and women about the severity of God.
“When you couple this avoidance with some of the modernist theology
that has Jesus floating around like a mystical Ghandi, never angry at anybody,
a dispenser of bumper-sticker platitudes and discount fortune cookies, you’ve
got the perfect storm of those who have no awe, no respect, and no real worship
for the God of the universe.” – Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel (41)
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