The Many Ways of Destroying the Church
The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross and letting other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it–admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but just as effectively over the long haul. Building the church with superficial ‘conversions’ and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifying love will build an assembling of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism–all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: ‘If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple (1 Cor. 3:17). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 83-84.
HT: Timmy Brister
In other news
5 things the Church can learn from the fall of Myspace
Tim Keller on dealing with harsh criticism
Russell Moore—Avatar: Rambo in Reverse
An update on Pastor Matt Chandler’s condition
In case you missed it
Here are a few of this week’s notable posts:
A review of Alexander Strauch’s Leading with Love
Vintage Jesus is Vintage Driscoll—a review of the Vintage Jesus DVD Curriculum
This is War (a Christmas Carol from Dustin Kensrue)
A biographical sketch of Charles Wesley
