Wednesday
Aug272008
Learning From Another....About Learning From Each Other
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 5:03AM Dr. Ed Stetzer over at Lifeway.com has written a great post on his blog concerning balance. It is titled "Learning from Each Other-- Theologically Preoccupied and Evangelistically Fixated". The blog is a partial excerpt of an article written for Outreach Magazine. In it he proposes that instead of haranguing each other over our differences, churches and bloggers learn from each other's strengths. We all need to be theologically accurate and evangelistically active, not either-or. The recurrent sniping at one another breeds no benefit and wreaks havoc to our mission of reaching souls for Christ and making disciples.
I agree with Dr. Stetzer that we shouold be students of Scripture AND methodology. Scripture is always the same; methods can and should change to reach a changing culture. As long as our methods do not contradict Scripture, lets do what works! We are too quick to take verbal shots at a large church for being innovative; but we are just as quick to be critical of a smaller church for not being a larger church. There are sooo many factors that contribute to growing a church; how can we saddle and ride just one or two? Who is to say that the pastor of a smaller church is not as innovative, evangelistic, and faithful as a Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, or Tom McCoy? To grow some churches is the work of a lifetime, as one deals with people, the church's history, the community, and the changing American cultural landscape. It may take the contributions of several pastors over a generation to overcome barriers and grow a body of people to the glory of God. Should we not seek to be encouraging and prayerful to all who are doing God's work faithfully?
I close this post with a quote from Dr. Stetzer's post:
I agree with Dr. Stetzer that we shouold be students of Scripture AND methodology. Scripture is always the same; methods can and should change to reach a changing culture. As long as our methods do not contradict Scripture, lets do what works! We are too quick to take verbal shots at a large church for being innovative; but we are just as quick to be critical of a smaller church for not being a larger church. There are sooo many factors that contribute to growing a church; how can we saddle and ride just one or two? Who is to say that the pastor of a smaller church is not as innovative, evangelistic, and faithful as a Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, or Tom McCoy? To grow some churches is the work of a lifetime, as one deals with people, the church's history, the community, and the changing American cultural landscape. It may take the contributions of several pastors over a generation to overcome barriers and grow a body of people to the glory of God. Should we not seek to be encouraging and prayerful to all who are doing God's work faithfully?
I close this post with a quote from Dr. Stetzer's post:
"I have been saying it for years, and I don't mind saying it again; we need to be both biblically faithful in doctrine and practice, and missiologically sound in our approach to people and cultures. I believe many of us are in need of repenting of our willful weaknesses in one of those areas. Along the way, we would do well to listen to one another in those areas where we do excel."
Reader Comments (1)
i agree with you!