Evangelicals’ dichotomy
Out of Ur has a recent article entitled The “We’re In, You’re Out” Mentality which I came across earlier and was brought up again by James today. It gives you a glimpse of the shortcomings in the evangelistic approach of Evangelicals, and what the Emerging Church movement is trying to respond with.
In particular, I agree wholeheartedly with James’ reflection on that little piece when he wrote:
…It is no accident that John Wesley started schools for the miners’ kids. It is no accident that Christians were on the front lines in the abolitionist movement. It is no accident that William and Catherine Booth worked in the inner city. But, somewhere along the line evangelicals lost that cutting edge and became comfortable with the status quo.
I suspect that one reason we don’t see real revival is because Christians don’t want to repent and change. Revival always starts with the house of God; if we won’t repent and turn from our wicked ways, how can we expect the world to turn from its wicked ways? And, the truth be told, far too frequently the wicked ways of the Christians are more wicked than the wicked ways of the world. That is a travesty!
Indeed! When we become comfortable with the status quo, we will focus on putting all our energy to maintain this status quo. Pastors and Leaders became Janitors, Churches turned Supermarkets. Congregations reduced to Consumers.
And in some strange way, it echoes Andres Tang’s article on the Gospel Herald HK [HT: Hilda].
Update (Oct 05): The second of the Out of Ur article is out, entitled “Me, Myself, and Jesus“.