Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday June 14, 2011

I remarked to several friends as they sipped (I gulped) coffee that in my opinion much of our ministry for the last 30 years, especially to youth has been devoid of one essential element in developing enduring faith.

Each person at the table had an idea and the ideas were good, mostly revolving around finding a way to build stronger homes, love our wife more, and of course make the boys get the hair off their ears and put longer skirts on the girls. The boys hair thing seemd odd to me as I now have more hair on my ears than my head...

In 2007 David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group wrote a book titled, "Unchristian" which is well received in the Christian community though it thoroughly castigates said community for the pathetic shallowness of our message for the last generation. On page 81 of the book, Kinnaman states:

“We are learning that one of the primary reasons that ministry to teenagers fails to produce a lasting faith is because they are not being taught to think. This gets to the core of the get-saved perception: young people experience a one-size-fits-all message that fails to connect with their unique sensibilities, personality, or intellectual capabilities. Young people desperately need to be taught to process the rich complexities of life, to probe and test and stretch their faith from the perspective of a Christ follower."

I gather from this statement that David does not buy the "check your brain and listen to what I say" form of indoctrination currently the vogue in secular and religious organizations. No sensible person does.

Certainly Mr. Kinnaman acknowledges the need for salvation, for a growing knowledgeable experiential faith, but he also recognizes the desperate need for thinking, thinking beyond mere warm and fuzzy perceptions of modern perversions of Christ and His followers.

The other day I read a notice on a church sign stating, "The Home of Fun Faith." Somehow I doubt the attendees are being prepared for the coming rigors the faithful will be called upon to face in life. I assure you I deeply crave a "fun filled life of service" but for the last 49 years such a romp has avoided my grasp. Why, on a few occasions I have actually shed a tear.

Thankfully many of the "feel good" ministries have acknowledged the failure of their paradigm and have/are making adjustments. The "give them cakes and circus" ideas in "warm and fuzzy" as well as "more fundamental" groups is not cutting it and in this cataclysmic time we must at any and all cost return to a true biblical paradigm of a well thought out pattern of biblical practice.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit.

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