David wells raises some important questions in his new book, “The Courage to Be Protestant.” I was seized by his description of the church leader who lives in fear that he is not giving the consumer what he wants and imminent fear that members will take their “business” elsewhere.
I will have to admit, I live in these fears. Is is a constant battle to be guided by truth and conviction and not by the cultural tsnami that has a tendency to sweep the church up in its wake. Leaders, lets challenge our people to unite around the gospel, not styles, personas, that are all defined by the popular culture. Let us sound the call that THE GOSPEL IS THE SOLUTION TO CULTURE.
The issue is that many in evangelicalism have made the culture the solution to the gospel. The gospel is just too plain boring, offensive, and dogon exclusive for the culture to take…so we must put make-up on it, remove the fat and replace it with some hyydrongentaed version of the truth so that it is has a longer shelf-life. What you are left with is a stale, fat free version that has lost its unique flavor because it looks, feels, and sounds like everything you saw last night on Jay Leno sprinkled with a little Dr. Phil and Oprah.
Leaders, lets sound the call to unite once again around the authority of Scripture and Penal Substitution. Let us commit to preach the gospel evey chance we get….making a bee-line for the gospel in every message we preach or lesson we teach. Let us make sure that we charge the gates of hell with the only weapon that works…THE GOSPEL.
