So, where is radical faith today, especially in light of the call of Jesus to live counter to culture with unrelenting care for poor, the left out, the left behind and the marginalized? Does the church reflect more of the popular culture of media, society and consumerism than it does a vision of the "out there" notion of the kingdom of God? Check this out from Marcus Carlson's blog.
The church today resembles culture more and more, and unfortunately, instead of changing the world, the church has been changed by the world. This is backwards, and while we must minister to the culture we live in, the church is losing its identity.
Here are five of the ways I believe the church has been changed by the world:
The church has become overly corporate.
The church has become too corporate. In fact, most churches in the United States today look and act a lot more like a business than they do the body of Christ. Certainly the corporate world can teach the church much about systems, processes, policies and how to handle finances; however, the church has not used discernment as to which corporate values should be applied to the life of the church and how those values should be applied. We treat our ministries and programs as products, look at our congregation and community members as customers, and seek to please rather than to lead.
To read the entire essay click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment