Substitutes for God's Power
Substitutes for God's power in the evangelical community typically take some or all of the following forms:
1) emphasis on personality and charisma in leadership and preaching
2) utilization of political means to achieve spiritual/moral results
3) media savvy
Because success is measured in numbers of adherents rather than moral effect on society the evangelical community assumes its methods are working and therefore ordained of God and legitimate. Achievement, therefore, becomes a materialistic rather than moral enterprise. Society may be impressed by the sheer size of super churches but not transformed by the message. Individual lives may be positively affected but society as a whole goes on about its business, seeing in the evangelical movement only positive re-enforcement for its own materialistic emphasis and dependence.
posted by bill rosser @ 2:59 AM
3 Comments:
i'm real interested in this one. could you explain the last sentence? Are you saying the traits of success in church and in society are the same; performance, numbers, etc? when is your next blog coming?!
your youngest son
IN agreement i still find the need to acknowledge that to some christs message is a sweet aroma while to others it is a stench (2 corinthians) and also that God hardens and softens the hearts of those whom he pleases to do so. In this light it is difficult if not wrong to generalise that a church can only be spiritualy alive if the non christian constituency are affected beyond midiochre acceptance. In fact the book of Acts provides a number of examples where not even apostles where succesfull or effective in their ministry!
Precisely. My argument is with the American evangelicals who use size and grandeur to prove success.
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