Sunday, August 30, 2009

Jesus' effect vs. the church's effect

I'm excited to continue reading Prodigal God, by Timothy Keller. I read the intro and the first chapter yesterday, and I'm really looking forward to finding out what other thought-provoking things Keller has to say.

Here's a short passage that I read yesterday that's got me thinking...

"Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing.
If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did."
(pg. 15-16)