Yesterday, I preached a second sermon of a 10 sermon series through the book of Philippians entitled “Advancing The Gospel.” As I was preparing the sermon last week, I came across an interesting article by a man I highly respect, Ed Stetzer from Lifeway. You can click HERE to view the article. The article was one of conviction in a way that makes total sense. Society seems to be trending the church in the order it should go, but it shouldn’t be that way. The church will be able to maintain the barrage of changes that come with trend setting. The church can take months, even years to determine what color of carpet, tile, or paint to place in a particular space. What would make us even think we could keep up with the trends society dumps on us?
So, the real nuts and bolts of the article are really a decision every church in America will have to make to be the answers to a hurting society. We will either be Gospel centered or trend centered. We might be able to do trend setting for a while if you have a fat church budget, but in the end, what will really become of the people God has entrusted to us? If we chose now to become the convicted church (you can understand this term more in depth by reading the article) we will be the answer society will be looking for in the next 15-20 years. Being a Christian will begin to cost us and we will become the enemy to the opposers.
Let us live our lives by advancing the Gospel to a world that is in desperate need.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain, Philippians 1:21
Stay in the Light, 1 John 1:7
Pastor Larry
In The Light, 1 John 1:7 