Plenty to think about here:
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/64873/?type=blog
How do we reach out to a world like this? Yes, this isn't just limited to America.
From the article...
"There's a surprisingly unified sense between young adults, both inside and outside the faith, that the divisive, judgmental authoritarianism that's dominated Evangelical Christianity for the past 30 years has run its course. Furthermore: the "insiders" (as Barna terms Christians) see the same issues and agree with many of the criticisms as those on the outside -- and are openly talking about taking their theology in some new directions. There's an emerging sense that it's time to let go of the harsh legalism that's defined American Protestantism for the past three decades, and return to something more like the Social Gospel that demanded more of Christians than merely passing judgment on the details of other people's lives."
posted by Taz @ 9:57 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
A few thoughts:
A 'Social Gospel' is definitely needed to reach out to others, but there could be a danger in lessening stances on moral issues to try and appeal to more people.
We have a great example in Jesus. He took a very hard line on moral teaching, while both combating legalism and still associating and ministering to 'sinners'.
How as Christians today can we follow his example?
Good thoughts Michael. I think there's been a general Christian shift towards the 'moralizing' (Pharisaical viewpoint), and we really need to shift back to a Christ-centered view without becoming lax on morality.
I think a great thing to remember is that we are called to preach Christ, not morals (Bill preached an awesome sermon about this on Sunday... it's not about what we DO, it's about what Christ's DONE).
This demands an answer to the question: what do morals have to do with anything in the first place?
The idea of right and wrong is Biblical, but does morality tend to refer to a particular standard of behaviour that is judged in the context of our culture? Is that ok? The Christian stigma attached to, say, beer, is quite large in some circles - inconsistently so - as a bottle of red is not seen as problematic.
Is morality seen on a par with prudishness.
Perhaps Ecclesiastes is a useful place leave this thought. There's a time for everything under the sun... sometimes it is a time to get that stiff upper lip in order or crack the whip.
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