“The problem these men face is the sting of marginalization as the church becomes a larger object and target of scorn and ridicule with each passing day. They believe that someone must do something about it, and what we see Moore and Horton and other SJW proponents doing more and more is acting less and less out of faith.”
(Ed Dingess – Reformation Charlotte) Russell Moore recently spoke at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) chapel on the issue of the “integrity of the church.” While standing in front of a group of students, with a straight face Moore said, “the Church’s compromises in pursuit of power or influence will threaten its mission in future generations.” I agree 100%. Moore is absolutely right. The Church only remains relevant when it stays on mission. We cannot afford to take our eye off our mission. …
The Church takes its eye off her mission when she adopts a view of the gospel that is less than, well, what the gospel actually is. “And what is that?” you might ask, “what is the gospel about?” Simple: the gospel is about the sovereign God of the all that is rescuing helpless and hopeless sinners who do not think they need nor do they desire to be rescued.
You see, when we believe that God is dependent on us, a not so funny thing happens. We begin to take on more responsibility than God has assigned to us. We begin to think that we have to reshape the message in those individual encounters so that we can keep the relationship healthy enough to keep working the gospel message until the person freely chooses to accept the claims of Christ and join the club.
At the leadership level, we think that the culture’s perception of the Church is critical to the church’s mission. The idea is that we cannot carry out our mission as well as we should be able to unless we make certain adjustments to accommodate the culture and present ourselves more favorable and less hostile. And Russell Moore, along with others, believe it is their job to help the rest of us understand that — that the culture has to respect us enough to allow us to remain at the table. The message, they believe, is useless unless it is delivered by a respectable entity. So, if the church is perceived by the world to have no integrity or credibility, then they will shut down the conversation before it even begins, and if that happens, the Church shrinks and shrinks until her very existence is threatened.
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