Okay… I have been reading Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna. Read this quote from the authors. The quote’s context is the author’s objections to D. L Moody’s primary focus of bring people to Christ:
We believe that by viewing redemption as God’s ultimate purpose, [Moody] failed to communicate the scope of God’s complete plan.
No evangelist or apostle in the New Testament brought souls to Christ simply to save them from hell. Such a thought was unknown to the early Christians. The early Christians won people to the Lord to bring them into God’s community, the church.
In the first century, people were saved with the idea of adding them to the ekklesia. Conversion and community were not separate; they were inextricably intertwined (I agree…). In the words of Gilbert Bilezikian: “Christ did not die just to save us from sins, but to bring us together into community.
So God sent His only Son not only so we can have eternal life, but also so that we can come together and have a sweet time? Wow. Community is a benefit, not the purpose of Christ’s death.
It is these kinds of statements that further confirms my thinking that just because a book has been published and marketed well, does not mean that it is truth. Maybe just “truthy” (thank you Stephen Colbert)
Pagan Christianity, Frank Viola and George Barna, 2008. The title of this book caught my eye. I have always been interested in the roots of current church methodology. As a pastor I have had people tell me that everything is pagan, from Christmas trees and facial hair to rock music. They attempt to reveal that many of our current Christian practices (from choirs to service times) have pagan roots and that we should be aware why we do what we do. I applaud the authors’ attempts to shed historical evidence on why the church does what it does. However, I disagree with some of their conclusions. I was also disappointed when they their sources for their use of Greek words did not come from Greek dictionaries (i.e., D. A. Carson’s Exegetical Fallacies)
IT, Craig Groeschel, 2008. While some may be uncomfortable about his use of the word it to define God’s movement in a church, Groeschel explains the principle quite well. He addresses the often unmentioned question of churches: why do some churches have it going on in every area and others do not. The author does an effective job of relating to pastors who will never pastor a church like LifeChurch.TV. My only concern is that some young pastors may read this book (and it is not the author’s fault) and think that the it can be automatically attained through excellence rather than surrender to God. We all need to realize it is both.
Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. This is the bomb-diggity! Can’t wait to meet him. By the way, I was on a train in London last year and met a lady who had been under the leadership of Morgan, Jones, and Kendall at Westminster Chapel. Pretty cool.