Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Evangelism and Church Shopping

I would almost wish to be called an "evangelist" rather than an
"evangelical" because of the pejorative ascription of the latter.
As such, the choice of Christian demonination has lesser
importance than the acts taken to fulfil the Great Commission.
Recent articles in Christianity Today express that:

From Stan Guthrie:

"Evangelism -- calling sinful people to repent and follow
Jesus -- is always a tougher sell than giving a cup of cold
water in Jesus' name.... Does our heightened social
consciousness ... actually drain our evangelistic zeal?
It shouldn't, because we are called to do both.

...Maybe our preference for social activism reveals a more
basic problem: that we don't really believe our neighbor's
deepest need is to be forgiven by and reconciled to God.
We seem to think that if only he or she is fed, or lives in
a society brimming with Christian principles, or sees our
battles against the world's many injustices, then we will
have discharged our responsibility to Christ."

From Richard J. Muow

"Recently I read yet another lament of evangelicalism's
'consumerist approach' to spiritual matters. Such
critiques usually say that evangelicals encourage people
to shop around to find the kind of church that meets
their spiritual 'need.' This need-centered understanding
of the Christian life has fostered a widespread breakdown
of denominational and congregational loyalty, critics say.
Faithfulness to a specific theological or ecclesiastical
tradition has been replaced by 'church shopping.' "

But what if your denomination has betrayed your loyalty
to it. Should you not then seek another?

From "Top Ten (Religious) Stories of 2007

"Anglican Communion fractures over Scripture,
homosexuality: Global South leaders issued an ultimatum
for the U.S. Episcopal Church to return to orthodox
interpretation of Scripture, four U.S. dioceses took steps
to exit the church, and the basis for a conservative new
Anglican province in the U.S. was laid. Besides that,
all was quiet in the Anglican Communion."

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