Well, if you didn't hear all about it in the news, then you missed out. This week, there was an article about Greg Boyd who is the pastor at Woodland Hills in St. Paul. The NY Times article (link below) described the reaction of his church when he delivered a series of sermons called The Cross and the Sword.To stay away from blabbering my own opinions, I would be interested in what you all think. The link is below, so check it out, and comment about your opinion concerning the things he said on my page. (if you comment, then I will respond in the comments section :-)).
The NY Times' story
Blessings!
5 comments:
I think this is really good for the church today. We must remember what the role is, "to preach the gospel to all people." We can equate actions that politcal parties or leaders as spreading or doing the "will of God". We must remember that America is not a "christian nation." If we were then how do you explain, slavery, the mistreatment of the Native American, the Missouri comprimise (slaves considered 3/5ths of a person). The fact is that whenever the the church is in power, horrible things happen. When you fight in the world you are using power over, as opposed to serving others. The christian left is as guily as the christian right.
I will stop for now...I will talk more later.
Thanks Pentz for your comment...
You had some good points. I do agree that the beauty of the power of the gospel and of Christ's example is the whole "power under" idea. I don't know if that was coined by Boyd, but it is so true. When we work to be more powerful than others, we are acting like the world, but when we serve others and love them (power under), their defenses drop and the Lord is glorified. I have seen this work tons of times...maybe hundreds...
thanks again!
Pentz, what a great line.. "the christian left is as guilty as the christian right". Shouldn't we be walking STRAIGHT ahead (straight and narrow path) instead of joining the left and right clubs anyway? Doesn't that just prove that we are getting off-track? Instead we should be concerned with unashamedly showing love and correcting the past wrongs of the "american church".
Still, I think it's sad that the emerging church does nothing but complain about stuff and how other churches do everything wrong. Jesus wasn't a complainer, he was a teacher! Let's teach the world by our actions!
To respond directly to Pastor Boyd's article... I thought the NYTimes was very fair in it's portrayal and it's good to let people know that not everyone they know that calls themselves a "christian" is the typical right-winged-nut they have imagined in their thoughts. My only comment to Boyd, great... but MAKE SURE YOU PREACH ABOUT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ON THESE HOT-TOPICS like abortion and homosexuality. I agree that it's not our personal or collective job to "save" marriage or even abortion (all those babies will be in eternity anyway) HOWEVER, the bible is EXTREMELY CLEAR on the sanctity of life and marriage of man and a woman. I just think we shouldn't use any polictian or party to educate or enforce our beliefs on it. Let's do it ourselves! Why trust a polictian with that job?
Well said Rob (that's my bro :-))...
In response to that, I would recommend listening to the whole series if you have the time...maybe on your iPod while driving or working out or whatever. You will hear more of Greg's heart in that he is against those sins, but he doesn't believe that we should be pharisaical about it and be the judges of everyone...And, he just says some awesome points to make you think...
Thanks again, love ya bro!
Sorry, I forgot to include the link:
http://www.whchurch.org/content/page_274.htm
Start with 4/18/2004 - Taking America Back for God, and I think the series is the next 6 weeks or so...!
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