Thursday, June 12, 2008

Modern

The modern person does not believe in heaven, they do not believe in hell, nor sin or consequences of sin. Some may have an awareness of these, but practically and day to day, these concepts have no impact on their day to day life. So an offer by Christianity to "save from sins" or "deliver from hell" or "eternal life" has no real impact on the modern man. What the modern man wants, what Christ, Christianity, Christians and more importantly, the modern church, must provide in order to be relevant and effective; is to meet the modern mans felt needs. What people are looking for is: to be able to pay their bills, get out of credit card debt, have their cancer or AIDs removed, their astigmatisms healed, pay for gas. They want to have their business succeed, to be loved and to experience love. They want to have custody of their kid and to have child care taken care of and be able to send them to college. Real practical day to day needs must be met. In order for the church to be relevant in today's world, in fact to maintain the right to thrive in today's world, Christ's church must be able to meet these needs. Only then and after has the church earned the right to talk to people about concepts such as "salvation". If a church spends its time in internal social events, singing praise and worship, speaking sermons mealy about salvation and does not meet or pay for the communities energy issues, heal the sick, solve relationship and professional issues, than it is not serving Gods purpose, and should move on. Jesus said "the same things I have done and greater, shall you do." Jesus healed peoples practical needs, that's why people flocked to Him, that's why he could speak into peoples' lives and that's why he changed the earth.

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