My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!"

11 January 2008

Chaplain to the status quo

Ken Myers, of Mars Hill Audio Journal fame, sends out the best fundraising letters. They're four pages long, with two lines of money requests and two hundred lines of great wisdom:

...there are two conclusions with which I started this project which have been remarkably reinforced. The first is that what is called "modernity" is essentially incompatible with Christian faithfulness, that what makes modern culture distinctively "modern" involves a rejection of important Christian beliefs and practices. The second is that one of the greatest temptations faced by the Church and her leaders is the desire to be approved by the world, that the evangelistic motive can produce a dangerous preoccupation with "getting along," with being "winsome." When the Church gives in to this temptation, the result is a form of cultural captivity in which the Church is simply a chaplain to some cultural status quo, reducing the consequences of faith to personal, "spiritual" matters, but incapable of encouraging a truly counter-cultural stance except at the margins.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Amen! May the church wake from her slumber as chaplain to the cultural status quo and become a mighty warrior like David, who gained peace after warring against and conquering his enemies.