Soon enough, you'll notice that i read a lot.
Recently, i read "They like Jesus, but not the church" by Dan Kimball. The title pretty much speaks for itself. Here are the six observations he found as he asked people about church:
1.the church is an organized religion with a political agenda
2.the church is judgemental and negative
3.the church is dominated by males and oppresses females
4.the church is homophobic
5.the church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong
6.the church is full of fundamentalists
Now compare those observations with the answers that Rick Warren got when he asked people about church 20 years ago:
1.church is boring, especially the sermons. the messages don't relate to my life
2.church members are unfriendly to visitors.
3.the church is more interested in my money than in me
4.we worry about the quality of the church's child care
at this point, i don't really care to give my opinion on the matter. it's not a cop-out, i'd just rather let those observations sink in. suffice to say that "They like Jesus, but not the church" was a good, quick read. And one that i'll probably reread a couple times.
3 comments:
Hey Lew,
How do you put those categories on the right side of the blog? I would like to do that, but I have no idea how. I assume the categories update automatically whenever you put a new label/tag on a blog post, right?
To answer, either e-mail me or leave a comment on my blog somewhere.
Thanks,
Ryan
http://www.blog.aimlessmovie.com
Nice blog, Lew. I'll aim to check back regularly.
Since you mentioned you read a lot, I figured I'd mention that I write a lot. I just finished a book of short stories, meditations, etc called The Desert. I think you might like it (or maybe you'll hate it - I don't know). Ever read The Way of the Wolf, by Martin Bell, or anything by Ed Hays? They both had a big influence on The Desert. So did Bonhoeffer, GK Chesterton and Weird Al Yankovic (no kidding).
Anyway, you can read the whole thing for free at Silly Hat Press (www.lulu.com/SillyHat). You can also buy a copy, but don't do that unless you like it.
Mate, I think that is just a profound comparison.
Many years ago I heard a guy say that we often don't realise that what we think is strong statement of the truth actually insulates people from the truth.
We christians surely need to learn to believe strongly but with humility, and express our views with humility and love. Boy, have I had to learn a big lesson about that! And am still learning!
Unless our love for God and for all people regardless comes across, there is generally little point in saying anything. The Bible says we must "speak the truth in love".
Let's do it!
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