Piper called it "techniquology" in the "Fighting for joy" conference talk I iPoded yesterday - the idol of modern American Christianity - and maybe, increasingly, Australian too. A useful tool but a bad master?? And certainly not "necessary": God's Word and his Spirit are all that's needful to bring people to Christ.
I don't want to go down the ineffective dumbness of the whole Church Growth movement. On the other hand, I kinda feel that those Christians who say they don't have an evangelistic strategy are a bit like those Christians who say they don't have a hermeneutic. In both cases they do, they just haven't recognised and articulated it.
Methinks thou treadest on a few sacred cows here, my friend Gordo. ;)
I think there are different kinds of people in this world: strategists and non-strategists. I'm the first kind, and I'm married to one of the second kind. And his gospel ministry is every bit as faithful and productive as that of the dreamers and visionaries. With the added advantage that he frees up those he trains to do things in their own way, as long as they stay faithful to the Bible and the gospel in everything they do and say. I am still every bit a dreamer and strategist, but because of him I sit lightly to my dreams and strategies!
Just let us never worship our strategies, so that we imply they are indispensible to growth, teach them in addition to the Bible, or impose them forcefully on others! I have seen far too much of this tendency amongst evangelicals during many years of ministry.
6 comments:
Piper called it "techniquology" in the "Fighting for joy" conference talk I iPoded yesterday - the idol of modern American Christianity - and maybe, increasingly, Australian too. A useful tool but a bad master?? And certainly not "necessary": God's Word and his Spirit are all that's needful to bring people to Christ.
Perhaps a better way to put it is:
"Strategy: we all have one whether we like it or not, se we better make sure it's a good one if we want to reach people"
"Strategy: we all have one whether we like it or not, so we better make sure it's a good one if we want to reach people"
No.
No, no, no, no!
No.
Nein.
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."
No.
No, no, no, no!
No.
Nein.
What are you trying to say, Gordo? ;-)
I don't want to go down the ineffective dumbness of the whole Church Growth movement. On the other hand, I kinda feel that those Christians who say they don't have an evangelistic strategy are a bit like those Christians who say they don't have a hermeneutic. In both cases they do, they just haven't recognised and articulated it.
Methinks thou treadest on a few sacred cows here, my friend Gordo. ;)
I think there are different kinds of people in this world: strategists and non-strategists. I'm the first kind, and I'm married to one of the second kind. And his gospel ministry is every bit as faithful and productive as that of the dreamers and visionaries. With the added advantage that he frees up those he trains to do things in their own way, as long as they stay faithful to the Bible and the gospel in everything they do and say. I am still every bit a dreamer and strategist, but because of him I sit lightly to my dreams and strategies!
Just let us never worship our strategies, so that we imply they are indispensible to growth, teach them in addition to the Bible, or impose them forcefully on others! I have seen far too much of this tendency amongst evangelicals during many years of ministry.
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