1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Voice of Proclamation, not a Sales Agent

Discussion in 'Baptist Theology & Bible Study' started by DocTrinsoGrace, Aug 7, 2014.

  1. DocTrinsoGrace

    DocTrinsoGrace New Member

    Joined:
    Feb 3, 2005
    Messages:
    247
    Likes Received:
    0
    Churches which preserve their cognitive identity and distinction from the culture will flourish: those who lose them in the interests of seeking success will disappear.

    In our churches we may have made a deal with postmodern consumers but the hard reality is that Christianity cannot be bought. Purchase, in the world of consumption, leads to ownership but in the Church this cannot happen. It is never God who is owned. It is we who are owned in Christ. Christianity is not up for sale. Its price has already been fixed and that price is the complete and ongoing surrender to Christ of those who embrace him by faith. It can only be had on his own terms. It can only be had as a whole. It refuses to offer only selections of its teachings. Furthermore, the Church is not its retailing outlet. Its preachers are not its peddlers and those who are Christian are not its consumers. It cannot legitimately be had as a bargain though the marketplace is full of bargain hunters.

    "For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s Word…" II Cor 2:17

    No, let us think instead of the Church as its voice of proclamation, not its sales agent, its practitioner, not its marketing firm. And in that proclamation there is inevitable cultural confrontation. More precisely, there is the confrontation between Christ, in and through the biblical Word, and the rebellion of the human heart. This is confrontation of those whose face is that of a particular culture but whose heart is that of the fallen world. We cannot forget that.

    David F. Wells, Above All Earthly Power’s: Christ in a Postmodern World, pg. 308-309
     
  2. evangelist6589

    evangelist6589 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2010
    Messages:
    10,285
    Likes Received:
    163
    Faith:
    Baptist
    I have his book No Place for Truth. Is it any good? I have not read it.
     
  3. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,286
    Likes Received:
    3,547
    Faith:
    Baptist
    It is excellent (as is "God in the Wasteland").
     
  4. evangelist6589

    evangelist6589 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2010
    Messages:
    10,285
    Likes Received:
    163
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Tell me about it.
     
  5. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,286
    Likes Received:
    3,547
    Faith:
    Baptist
    And here’s God in the Wasteland:

    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22558.God_in_the_Wasteland?from_search=true

    Out of No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Above all Earthy Powers and Courage to be Protestant, my favorite has been God in the Wasteland, which I have read several times. I suppose No Place for Truth, however, has made the most impact in the evangelical world. I had two copies of No Place and God in the Wasteland…but they are “loaned out”…meaning I probably will be buying them again.

    BTW, for a long time I have wondered what the picture is on the cover of Courage to be Protestant. If anyone knows…clue me in.
     
  6. JonC

    JonC Moderator
    Moderator

    Joined:
    Aug 28, 2001
    Messages:
    33,286
    Likes Received:
    3,547
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Christopher Lesch made this assessment:

    “The contemporary climate is therapeutic, not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, let alone for the restoration of an earlier golden age, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.” (The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an age of Diminishing Expectations)

    I think too often churches are content to provide this "momentary illusion" as it is an easier sell than "repent and believe," or "take up your cross."
     
Loading...