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Partners In The Mission:
The Blame Game
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| Release Date: 07/08/2008 |
| a message from Dr. Bill Mackey, executive director |
Baptisms are down and many churches are in decline. Much research is being conducted and books are being written as part of the effort to find a solution.
In a ChurchCentral.com article entitled “Eight signs of spiritually dead churches and six signs of resurrection,” adapted with permission from “A Second Resurrection” by Bill Easum, Easum blames denominational and church leaders who are spiritually dead.
“The only solution for a spiritually dead congregation is resurrection,” Easum said, adding that only God can give new life.
Easum, a well known church consultant and former pastor, wrote that the starting point for unfreezing a stuck organizational system is the development of a solid community of faith that includes spiritual leadership, trust, a desire to connect with the unchurched world, and the absence of major conflict.
“True spiritual maturity is approached when people turn their attention to those outside the church and seek ways to spread the good news rather than exercise their entitlements as members,” Easum said.
He believes that the pastor and church leaders must first experience a personal resurrection and then the church will follow.
“Spiritually alive churches, no matter what their form or where they are planted, always grow,” Easum concluded. “That is what the church was put on earth to do – spread the good news.”
During his final address as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Frank Page said, “we have been ignoring God’s call to repentance and failing to be relevant to a culture that sees us as representatives of death, not as representatives of life. … The problem is not somebody else, the problem is me.”
I would like to suggest a couple of things that God has shown me recently. When I stood at the gravesite of a close friend recently, I not only dealt with my grief but the fact that God has left me here to share the good news with fire in my soul.
Secondly, God has shown me that I can deal with temptation by quoting scripture as Jesus did. We must deal with sin that quenches and grieves the Holy Spirit and renders us powerless. Brokenness over our sin and disobedience leads to repentance.
Then we can praise God for His forgiveness through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. It is a privilege to be forgiven and to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. We can tell our story with humility and joy of how God is transforming our lives each day and the Kingdom will grow through His church.
I want to encourage you to respond to God as the Holy Spirit guides you in becoming all that God has called you to be. Blame no one; just claim what God has available for you!
Dr. Mackey's column appears weekly in the Western Recorder. To subscribe to the Western Recorder, call (502) 489-3535. |
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